Project 4: Resources and Adaptation in Centenarians
Abstract:
The primary objective of this research is to assess predictors that differentiate centenarians who are independent, healthy, and experience a sense of wellbeing from those who are dependent, unhealthy (frail), and do not experience a sense of wellbeing. The study will advance a model of centenarian adaptation that builds upon and extends traditional stress-and-coping paradigms, emphasizing proximal resources (e.g., personality traits, social support, economic assets), as well as distal experiences (e.g., early life events and past achievements). These proximal resources and distal experiences are hypothesized to influence five differing levels of adaptation in centenarians: functional capacity, cognitive impairment, mental health, economic dependency and psychological well-being.
Centenarians and their primary caregivers (“proxies”) will be recruited for this research. They will participate in structured interviews that will assess the functional capacity and basic physical health, level of cognitive impairment, mental health, economic costs and burden, psychological well-being, individual, social, and economic resources, distal and proximal life events and individual achievements, and the behavioral coping skills of each participant.
The overall design includes three separate but interrelated levels. First, a configural frequency design and subsequent analyses are conceptualized to test for specific types and anti-types of adaptation in centenarians. Second, ANOVA and logistic regression designs are conceived to test for group differences in high and low functioning centenarian groups and to assess differences between centenarians and their proxies. Finally, the direct and indirect effects of proximal and distal resources on the five adaptational outcomes will be tested with LISREL analyses.
Project 4 Investigators
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Peter Martin, Ph.D. Project Leader Iowa State University |
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Maurice MacDonald Project Co-Leader University of Heidelberg |
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Christopher Rott Co-Investigator University of Heidelberg |
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Ilene C. Siegler, Ph.D., MPH Co-Investigator Duke University |
