Chronic illness and loneliness in older adulthood: The role of self-protective control strategies

This study examined whether levels of chronic illness predict enhanced feelings of loneliness in older adulthood. In addition, it investigated whether engagement in health-related self-protection (e.g., positive reappraisals), but not in health engagement control strategies (e.g., investment of time and effort), would buffer the adverse effect of chronic illness on older adults' feelings of loneliness. Loneliness was examined repeatedly in 2-year intervals over 8 years in a longitudinal study of 121 community-dwelling older adults (Time 1 age = 64 to 83 years). In addition, levels of chronic illness, health-related control strategies, and sociodemographic variables were assessed at baseline. Growth-curve models showed that loneliness linearly increased over time and that this effect was observed only among participants who reported high, but not low, baseline levels of chronic illness. In addition, health-related self-protection, but not health engagement control strategies, buffered the adverse effect of chronic illness on increases in loneliness. Loneliness increases in older adulthood as a function of chronic illness. Older adults who engage in self-protective strategies to cope with their health threats might be protected from experiencing this adverse effect..

Medienart:

Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2015

Erschienen:

2015

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:34

Enthalten in:

Health psychology - 34(2015), 8, Seite 870-879

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Barlow, Meaghan A [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Sarah Y [Sonstige Person]
Wrosch, Carsten [Sonstige Person]

Links:

Volltext
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
search.proquest.com

BKL:

77.00

Themen:

Adulthood (18 yrs & older)
Aged (65 yrs & older)
Article
Canada
Chronic diseases
Chronic illness
Daily Questionnaires
Empirical Study
Evaluation
Female
Forecasts and trends
Health behavior
Human
Loneliness
Longitudinal Study
Male
Middle Age (40-64 yrs)
Older adulthood
Psychological aspects
Quantitative Study
Self-Esteem Measure
Self-protection
Self-regulation
Very Old (85 yrs & older)

RVK:

RVK Klassifikation

doi:

10.1037/hea0000182

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

OLC1956562753