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Objectives Previous research suggests that self-continuity is higher in older ages, especially for more distant intervals. This study extends prior work by examining age and temporal patterns of self-continuity in 2 adult life-span samples from Germany and the United States. Methods German data (n = 1,656, aged 18–93) were drawn from the German Socioeconomic Panel. U.S. data (n = 230, aged 18–87) were collected through a survey research firm. Preregistered multilevel analyses examined the roles of age, temporal direction (past/future), and temporal distance (1/5/10 years), and explored the role of demographic covariates. Results In both data sets, self-continuity was higher in older ages and decreased with distance from the present, especially for the past. Interaction effects among age, temporal distance, and temporal directions were complex and varied across samples. Self-continuity was higher among married and more educated German participants and more affluent U.S. participants, but age differences remained robust when including demographic covariates. Discussion Findings replicate prior evidence for age-related increments in self-continuity but suggest that patterns vary by temporal distance and direction and may be sensitive to contextual factors.

Physical activity is a behavior that promotes physical and mental health; yet physical activity has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. To promote health during times of challenge, it is important to identify potential barriers to this key health behavior, such as loneliness. This brief report extends previous research on physical activity and loneliness that mainly focused on between-person differences to examine their time-varying associations at the within-person level using repeated daily life assessments. From April 2020 to August 2020, data were collected from a sample of 139 community-dwelling Canadian adults (Mage = 40.65 years, SD = 18.37; range = 18–83 years). Each evening for 10 consecutive days, participants reported their loneliness, number of steps, and minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Results revealed that, in line with our hypotheses, on days when participants reported more loneliness they also engaged in less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than on less lonely days (estimate = −0.24, p = 0.007); there was a significant negative association between loneliness and daily number of steps (estimate = −18.42, p = 0.041). In contrast, at the between-person level, overall loneliness was not associated with overall physical activity engagement after accounting for within-person differences and control variables (age, sex, day in study). From an intervention perspective, our findings suggest that it is promising to tackle loneliness on a day-to-day basis to increase physical activity one day at a time. This may be especially relevant during times mandating social-distancing, but also at other times when individuals experience greater feelings of loneliness.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-psp-10.1177_01461672231180450 for In it Together: Relationship Transitions and Couple Concordance in Health and Well-Being by Theresa Pauly, Elisa Weber, Christiane A. Hoppmann, Denis Gerstorf and Urte Scholz in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976231164553 for Younger Than Ever? Subjective Age Is Becoming Younger and Remains More Stable in Middle-Age and Older Adults Today by Markus Wettstein, Hans-Werner Wahl, Johanna Drewelies, Susanne Wurm, Oliver Huxhold, Nilam Ram and Denis Gerstorf in Psychological Science

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976231164553 for Younger Than Ever? Subjective Age Is Becoming Younger and Remains More Stable in Middle-Age and Older Adults Today by Markus Wettstein, Hans-Werner Wahl, Johanna Drewelies, Susanne Wurm, Oliver Huxhold, Nilam Ram and Denis Gerstorf in Psychological Science

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-psp-10.1177_01461672221143783 for Let’s Enjoy an Evening on the Couch? A Daily Life Investigation of Shared Problematic Behaviors in Three Couple Studies by Theresa Pauly, Janina Lüscher, Corina Berli, Christiane A. Hoppmann, Rachel A. Murphy, Maureen C. Ashe, Wolfgang Linden, Kenneth M. Madden, Denis Gerstorf and Urte Scholz in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Whether and how personality characteristics change across the adult life span has been debated for decades (Costa et al., 2018; Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000; Roberts et al., 2006). Evidence has now accumulated that inter-individual differences in the way people act, think, and feel (Roberts, 2009)—mainly conceptualized as the Big Five (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness)—consists of both stable and malleable parts (Anusic & Schimmack, 2016; Wagner et al., 2019). Given the relevance of personality for important life outcomes (Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006; Roberts et al., 2007; Soto, 2019), researchers are striving to better understand how between-person differences in personality are changing with age or time. Extant research has distinguished between two types of stability and change: rank-ordering and mean levels. The relative ordering of people appears to be characterized by an inverted U-shape with a high point (though not at perfect stability) reached in midlife (Anusic & Schimmack, 2016; Ferguson, 2010; Milojev & Sibley, 2017; Wagner et al., 2019). At the same time, mean-levels of undesirable personality characteristics are known to decrease as people move from young adulthood to mid-adulthood (e.g., neuroticism), whereas mean levels of productive parts tend to increase (e.g., agreeableness, conscientiousness), thereby suggesting an age-related change towards greater maturity. Later in life, mean levels of several traits begin to decrease (e.g., conscientiousness, openness), others increase again (e.g., neuroticism; Graham et al., 2020). Besides the existing evidence on the very broad Big Five domains, less is known about change patterns on the more diversified facet level. Knowledge about facet-level change trajectories is, however, highly desired as it provides more detailed information on changes in the specific content of personality. For example, when people show increases in how conscientious they are, do people become both more orderly and more achievement-orientated or are trait-level increases primarily driven by increases in just one of the facets of the broader trait construct? Findings from the very few previous longitudinal studies on facet-level stability and change point to comparable rank-order stabilities of facets that are to those observed for the broader traits, at least among college samples (Klimstra et al., 2018) but to differential change mean-level trends of facets (Brandes et al., 2020; Roberts et al., 2006; Terracciano et al., 2005). Most of these studies, however, face methodological challenges that prevent clear interpretation and inference. For instance, the majority of studies used inventories designed for a time-efficient assessment of personality at the trait-level and thereby often assess facets with a single item only or simply do not assess some facets. Furthermore, age differences were always evaluated using artificially built age groups rather than examining age as a continuous variable. Further, because the implementation of the theory-based personality scales in a well-fitting confirmatory measurement model is hard to achieve, only a few of the previous studies of personality facets in adulthood have actually made use of latent variable measurement models that accounted for measurement error. With the current study, we seek to extend the existing knowledge on facet-level personality change by combining item sampling and person sampling procedures (Olaru et al., 2019; Hildebrandt et al., 2016) that allow for sound inferences about the relative ordering of people and mean-level changes in personality facets. In doing so, we use the NEO-PI-R, assessed in the Seattle Longitudinal Study, a large cohort-sequential study where 1,6667 people born between 1902 thru 1976 were followed for over 11 years. To accommodate previous methodological challenges, we will use ant-colony optimization (Leite et al., 2008; Gabriel Olaru et al., 2019) as a pre-analytical step and subsequently apply local structural equation modeling (LSEM; Hildebrandt et al., 2009, 2016) within second-order growth curve models (Collins & Sayer, 2001) to investigate personality stability and change along a continuously modeled age variable. Previous Knowledge on Stability and Change of Personality Facets Personality characteristics are subject to change across the whole life span both in terms of rank-orders and mean-levels (Anusic & Schimmack, 2016; Graham et al., 2020; Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000; Roberts et al., 2006; Wagner et al., 2019). Reasons for stability and change have been traced back to a multitude of different sources that can be roughly divided into genetic/personal and environmental/situational sources and their interplay (for an overview see Wagner et al., 2020). Knowledge on how and why personality change is highly desirable as it offers opportunities for intervention (Bleidorn et al., 2019). At the same time, different facets might be differently sensitive to interventions (Kennair et al., 2020) rendering it important to identify the specific change pattern of personality facets. Because of the paramount role personality characteristics and their changes play for a multitude of important life outcomes such as occupational success, health, or well-being (Brandt et al., 2021; Roberts et al., 2007; Soto, 2019), understanding personality stability and change can help to identify people at risk for detrimental life conditions. Particularly on facet level, differential change can pave the way for a better understanding of antecedents, drivers, and consequences of change, as they provide more detailed behavioral and motivational information about which particular aspect of personality has changed. Facet-level analyses are, however, quite demanding in terms of the longitudinal data. Specifically, such analyses require a psychometrically sound and comprehensive personality inventory. Given that most longitudinal studies on personality stability and change are based on short inventories, previous opportunities to estimate facet-level change are limited. In the following, we summarize existing evidence for personality stability and change on the facet level. Rank-Order Stabilities in Facets Findings from the Big Five trait level showed that the relative ordering of people appears to be characterized by an inverted U-shape becoming increasingly stable until about midlife without ever reaching perfect stability (Anusic & Schimmack, 2016; Ferguson, 2010; Milojev & Sibley, 2017; Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000, Wagner et al., 2019). This findings is interpreted as support for the cumulative continuity of personality development (Roberts & Caspi, 2003; Roberts & Nickel, 2017). On the facet level, no existing longitudinal study has investigated rank-order stabilities across larger age ranges of the adult life span. However, two studies from childhood and adolescence, one study using college students, and two studies in early adulthood might allow to specify first hypotheses: The two studies focusing on rank-order stabilities in children and adolescents used child-specific personality inventories that were rated by the children’s mothers (Brandes et al., 2020; de Haan et al., 2017). Looking at 1-year stability from age 9 to age 13, Brandes and colleagues (2020) found different amounts of stabilities for facets of extraversion with sociability (r = .72) being more stable than positive emotions (r = .62) and being considerate (r = .61). Looking across a time interval of 1.5 years in young children (2-4.5 years) and adolescents (6-17 years), De Haan et al. (2017) found comparable rank-order stabilities for facets and traits (r = >.50 -.87) with partly lower stabilities in irritability and egocentrism (agreeableness). Looking at 3- and 4-year stability in American and Belgian college students, Klimstra and colleagues (2018) also found comparable rank-order stabilities of traits and facets using the NEO-FFI. Roughly the same pattern was observed in young adulthood, with comparable rank-order stabilities of traits and facets (Deventer et al., 2018; Mund & Neyer, 2014). One exception was found for negative affect, with slightly lower stabilities (r = .41) across 15 years than neuroticism (r = .56). Given that there is no study examining rank-order stability of facets beyond young adult samples, this study will add substantially to the current literature. Mean-Level Changes in Facets In terms of mean-level changes, patterns were found to differ across different phases of the adult life span (Roberts et al., 2006). A recent study, synthesizing 16 longitudinal studies, showed particularly strong changes in mean levels of personality traits from young to middle adulthood that roughly points to greater maturity (Graham et al., 2020). Mean-levels of undesirable personality characteristics decrease (e.g., neuroticism) in early adulthood and productive parts tend to increase (e.g., conscientiousness, agreeableness). Later in life, the maturation pattern seems to reverse with mean-level of conscientiousness showing decreases and neuroticism showing increases again (Graham et al., 2020). Whereas mean-level of extraversion showed steady decreases across the life span, openness was found to be relatively stable in middle adulthood but decreased in later adulthood. Findings for agreeableness were more mixed across studies with mean-level increases in some studies but no mean-level change in others. So far, only two longitudinal studies examined mean-level changes in facets covering large age ranges across the adult lifespan. Using a facet-sensitive inventory—the NEO PI-R—Terracciano et al., (2005) analyzed mean-level changes across 11 waves from 1989 to 2004 in an age-diverse American adulthood sample, whereas most participants were older than 60 years. They applied multi-level modeling using manifest personality sum scores and found a heterogeneous pattern across the different facets of the Big Five traits. Interestingly, all six facets of neuroticism (anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-conscientiousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability) showed the same mean-level change patterns as the overall neuroticism trait. For all other traits, mean-levels changes at the facet level in part substantially differed in size and direction from the mean-level change observed for the broader trait. For conscientiousness facets, for example, deliberation showed the strongest mean-level increases and, similar to all other facets (competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline) declined in late adulthood (after age 60-70 years). For extraversion facets, activity showed most rapid mean-level declines in older ages, whereas excitement seeking declined most strongly in early adulthood. The other facets of extraversion (warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, positive emotions) showed curvilinear gradients with peaks in mean level around the age of 60. In terms of openness facets, mean-level of openness for values declined relatively evenly across the adult lifespan whereas mean-level of openness to feelings and actions showed accelerated declines only in old age. Mean-levels of the other openness facets (aesthetics, ideas, fantasy) were highly stable. Finally, regarding the facets of agreeableness, both compliance and straightforwardness showed strongest and most consistent mean-level increases across adulthood, whereas trust evinced steady increases only until the age of 60. Mean-levels of the three other agreeableness facets (altruism, modesty, tender-mindedness) were again rather stable. Besides this first detailed longitudinal facet-level study, Soto and John (2012) investigated mean-level changes in facets across five assessment points in a sample of 125 women aged 21 to 61 using 16 facets of the CPI-Big Five. Potentially due to the differences in sample structures and used inventories, results between the two studies were quite inconsistent. Soto and John (2012) found age-related decreases in mean-level only for depression (neuroticism) and age-related increases in mean-level of self-discipline, but no changes in orderliness (conscientiousness). Furthermore, mean-level of gregariousness decreased whereas assertiveness (both extraversion) increased. In terms of agreeableness, compassion and humility increased. Openness and its facets showed no longitudinal trends in mean-level at all in contrast to findings from Terracciano et al. (2005). Two other longitudinal studies with a different study focus also provide information on mean-level changes in personality facets in young adulthood using three repeated personality assessments across a study interval of 15 years (Mund & Neyer, 2014) and 4 years (Deventer et al., 2019). The authors found changes in all traits and facets (except for activity; extraversion) that point to mostly the same direction of change in traits and facets (Deventer et al., 2019; Mund & Neyer, 2014). Only some exceptions were found for positive affect (extraversion), goal striving (conscientiousness), and unconventionality (openness) that evinced opposite mean-level change patterns as compared with the trait domain. Findings from cross-sectional studies also highlight that the size of age-related differences is not necessarily consistent across facets and domains (Jackson et al., 2009; Mõttus & Rozgonjuk, 2019; Soto et al., 2011). More longitudinal research is needed tackling the differential change patterns of facets using comprehensive personality assessments across broad age ranges in a life span sample. Methodological Challenges When Studying Stability and Change of Facets Although first studies hint at differential changes of facets and their related domains, evidence hinges on specific characteristics of the original studies that limit clear interpretations of observed trends. Besides the different age ranges covered across studies which most obviously influence the observed pattern of change, we identified at least five other reasons that challenge the opportunities to detect facet-level changes. First, although there is relative consensus between researchers regarding the higher-order structure of personality characteristics on domain level (mostly five or six factors), less agreement exists regarding the lower-order structure of facets. Researchers proposed different numbers and names of facets (John et al., 2008) and also the fathers of the five-factor model state that “the facets of the NEO Inventories thus constitute one possible and useful way to specify narrow traits within the five domains, but they are clearly not the only way” (Costa & McCrae, 2017, p.12). The different operationalizations of facets is of course reflected in the different inventories used in the previous work that all draw on different facet structures (John et al., 2008). Due to the many ways that facets can be characterized and described, interpretations of facet-level change strongly depend on their operationalization. The only study so far (Terracciano et al., 2005) to have investigated stability and change in personality facets using the NEO-PI-R, calling for replication of findings. Second, as longitudinal studies require substantial investments of time and money, researchers often use the opportunity to obtain repeated measurements of many different constructs and, thus, often need to use shorter personality inventories primarily designed to assess the global domain level and not the facets. So far, it remains unclear how valid conclusions are about facet-level changes that were derived from short domain-level inventories that are not able to capture the whole breadth of facets. More longitudinal research is needed based on inventories designed to assess personality facets. Third, when comparing personality scores across time or age, the items used need to reflect the underlying construct equally well (Borsboom, 2006). It is a well-known phenomenon in personality research, however, that the implementation of the theory-based personality scales in a well-fitting confirmatory measurement model that is able to test these assumptions is difficult to achieve (Brandt et al., 2020; Hopwood & Donnellan, 2010; Olaru et al., 2019; Vassend & Skrondal, 1997). Different strategies have been applied to overcome this problem. For instance, manifest scale scores were used instead of latent measurement models (e.g., Soto & John, 2012; Terracciano et al., 2005) that correct for measurement error. Particularly when studying psychological constructs which can hardly be observed directly, the probabilistic nature of associations between measured items and latent psychological constructs calls for the consideration of measurement error (Borsboom, 2008). Furthermore, strong assumptions of simple structure within the independent cluster model of confirmatory factor approaches were relaxed by allowing for cross-loadings (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2009; Marsh et al., 2010) or by using item parceling (Deventer et al., 2019; Mund & Neyer, 2014) in order to increase internal consistency of indicator variables. New item sampling procedures such as ant colony optimization (ACO; Leite et al., 2008; Olaru et al., 2019) offer opportunities to overcome these problems by selecting items sets that match scale-based predefined criteria, for instance, in terms of model fit and scale-based reliabilities. Fourth, in the application of longitudinal models, measurement invariance is considered a precondition to make sure that differences across age and time can be ascribed to actual personality changes and not to changing psychometric properties of the measured constructs (Guenole & Brown, 2014; Schmitt et al., 2011). Although testing for measurement invariance across distinct categories such as groups or assessment points is straightforward, testing for measurement invariance along a continuous variable such as age is much more complicated. At the same time, continuous age analyses would provide a more precise and realistic view of differences in measurement properties between people of different ages. New modeling procedures have been proposed that allow for a continuous treatment of variables in measurement invariance testing (Hildebrandt et al., 2009, 2016). Fifth, previous research mainly contrasted stability and change in personality by grouping people in artificial age brackets (e.g., Brandes et al., 2020; de Haan et al., 2017). Recently introduced person sampling procedures, however, open up promising avenues to study how differences or changes in age are related to differences or changes in rank-order stabilities and mean-levels (Hildebrandt et al., 2009, 2016; see also Olaru et al., 2019; Wagner et al., 2019).

Hintergrund: Patient:innen haben in unterschiedlichen Lebensphasen, mit unterschiedlichen Krankheitskonstellationen und Lebenssituationen unterschiedlichen Bedarf an medizinischer Versorgung. Das Bridges to Health Modell ist ein Ansatz unterschiedlichen Bedarfsgruppen auf Bevölkerungsebene gerecht [zum vollständigen Text gelangen Sie über die oben angegebene URL]

The current project examines adaptive effects of healthy neuroticism on momentary support in the everyday life of older couples. For this purpose, daily diary data from two independent samples will be used.

Although experimental studies of the last two decades highlight the state-like, fluctuating feature of self-esteem, little is known about specific patterns and possible conditions of self-esteem reactivity in people’s daily social life. Both theoretical assumptions of sociometer theory and previous empirical studies highlight the role of social interactions as one key situational factor of self-esteem reactivity. Furthermore, individual differences in self-esteem reactivity have been related to people’s personality traits with particularly pressing evidence regarding the moderating role of neuroticism. Extending existing research, this study has two aims: First, it will be examined whether the degree to which state self-esteem is predicted by the pleasantness of social interactions (i.e., self-esteem reactivity) is moderated by the interaction partner. Second, it will be examined whether the actor’s neuroticism additionally moderates the effect of the interaction partner on self-esteem reactivity. To address these research questions, multilevel analyses will be conducted using experience sampling data.

This study explores the effects of political conversations and interpersonal interactions on feelings of closeness, connectedness, and perceived cohesion in dyads and the mediating role of nonverbal and verbal cues. Participants are recruited via Respondi, an online panel provider in Germany, and after filling out a pre-test survey, they are invited to participate in an online discussion. By analyzing audiovisual recordings of the discussions, participants’ behavior and verbal and nonverbal expressions, such as emotional facial expressions and linguistic cues, are examined. After the discussion, participants report their perceptions of the interaction and their interaction partner, for example indicating how close they felt to their interaction partners. We hypothesize that the perception of congruent – versus heterogeneous or even divergent – political attitudes among participants leads to higher reports of closeness. We further predict that mirroring behavior, such as emotional mimicry, increases the reported feelings of closeness and connectedness. We also predict that the types of emotional expressions during the discussion moderate the impact of political attitudes on reported feelings of closeness; affiliative emotions and mimicry of affiliative emotions are expected to mitigate the effect of divergent political views, whereas antagonist emotions and mimicry of antagonist emotions may heighten their impact. This study can shed light on the dynamics of interpersonal interactions and facilitate identifying factors that could potentially bridge the divide between citizens with polarized political attitudes.

This study aims to investigate self-esteem reactivity and its moderating factors in late life. Specifically, research aims are threefold: First we examine to what extent momentary self-esteem is associated with the pleasantness of social interactions, and thus, shows reactivity. Second, we explore to what extent self-esteem reactivity in daily life is related to characteristics of the social situation, namely the type of interaction partner. Finally, we test to what extent self-esteem reactivity in daily social interactions is moderated by personal resources both on the momentary level, looking at momentary perceptions of control, as well as on trait level, looking at Neuroticism.

This project investigates the dynamic co-development of life goals and the Big Five personality traits in a large, diverse sample. The study uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) covering a 13-year period.

Society and developmental theory generally assume that there are wide generational differences in personality. Yet evidence showing historical change in the levels of adult Big Five traits is scarce and particularly so for developmental change. We tracked adult trajectories of personality in 4,732 participants (age: M = 52.93 years, SD = 16.69; 53% female) from the Seattle Longitudinal Study (born 1883–1976) across 50 years. Multilevel models revealed evidence for historical change in personality: At age 56, later-born cohorts exhibited lower levels of maturity-related traits (agreeableness and neuroticism) and higher levels of agency-related traits (extraversion and openness) than earlier-born cohorts. Historical changes in agreeableness and neuroticism were more pronounced among young adults, but changes in openness were less pronounced. Cohort differences in change were rare and were observed only for agreeableness; within-person increases were more pronounced among later-born cohorts. Our results yield the first evidence for historical change in the Big Five across adulthood and point to the roles of delayed social-investment and maturity effects. national institute of child health and human development https://doi.org/10.13039/100000071 national institute on aging https://doi.org/10.13039/100000049

Prior research has suggested three explanations why levels of voluntary engagement rise and fall over time within societies. A social structural explanation considers individual resources crucial for engagement and argues that a redistribution of those resources may bring about changes in engagement. A cohort-based explanation considers socialisation and experiences in formative years as crucial for the uptake of engagement. Finally, a period-based explanation considers extraordinary events, external shocks, and crises to be crucial for engagement. So far, these explanations have mainly been tested separately and little is known about the relative strength of each of the proposed factors. Using data from a large German household panel survey that assessed engagement almost annually across four decades, we found that most social structural factors (e.g., education, employment, income) maintained their predictive effects for engagement, irrespective of cohort or period. The only notable exception was that the gender gap observed has narrowed substantially across periods and cohorts. Moreover, cohort effects were rendered almost negligible once we factored in periods. Taken together, our results suggest that individual characteristics and extraordinary events are the main factors influencing voluntary engagement rather than shared societal experiences of cohorts.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976211037971 for Acting Like a Baby Boomer? Birth-Cohort Differences in Adults��� Personality Trajectories During the Last Half a Century by Naemi D. Brandt, Johanna Drewelies, Sherry L. Willis, K. Warner Schaie, Nilam Ram, Denis Gerstorf and Jenny Wagner in Psychological Science

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Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976211037971 for Acting Like a Baby Boomer? Birth-Cohort Differences in Adults��� Personality Trajectories During the Last Half a Century by Naemi D. Brandt, Johanna Drewelies, Sherry L. Willis, K. Warner Schaie, Nilam Ram, Denis Gerstorf and Jenny Wagner in Psychological Science

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976221118541 for Today’s Older Adults Are Cognitively Fitter Than Older Adults Were 20 Years Ago, but When and How They Decline Is No Different Than in the Past by Denis Gerstorf, Nilam Ram, Johanna Drewelies, Sandra Duezel, Peter Eibich, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Stefan Liebig, Jan Goebel, Ilja Demuth, Arno Villringer, Gert G. Wagner, Ulman Lindenberger and Paolo Ghisletta in Psychological Science

The funding note in the original publication of this article was missing. The original article has been corrected.

Old age is a developmental phase in which physical vulnerability increases and discrete affective states are uniquely important. The current project combines data from four studies (total N = 476 participants) to investigate within-person fluctuations in salivary cortisol (a marker of physiological arousal), seven discrete affective states, and the moderating role of self-rated health. Each participant provided affect reports and collected salivary cortisol 5-7 times a day for a 7-day period, and rated their health status. Multi-level models showed that cortisol levels were decreased in moments when participants felt happier, more relaxed, and more interested than usual and increased in moments when participants felt angrier, more nervous, more overwhelmed, and sadder than usual. Associations of happy, nervous, overwhelmed, and sad with cortisol were more pronounced in participants of better as compared to those of worse self-rated health. Findings suggest that higher HPA reactivity may indicate preserved health in older adults.

We examined short-term fluctuations of subjective age with data obtained from 123 young-old (Mage = 67.19 years) and 47 old-old adults (Mage = 86.59 years) who reported their momentary subjective age six times a day over seven consecutive days as they were going about their everyday lives. Participants felt younger on a large majority of occasions, and 25% of the total variability in subjective age could be attributed to within-person variation. Those with younger trait subjective ages exhibited larger moment-to-moment variation, while chronological age did not impact variability. Furthermore, we investigated relationships between within-day fluctuations of subjective age and daily cortisol fluctuations. Our findings extend the literature on subjective age by showing that how old people feel can vary on a momentary basis, that state and trait components of subjective age are related, and that fluctuations in subjective age are related to biomarkers of stress.

In addition to biological sex, gender, defined as the sociocultural dimension of being a woman or a man, plays a central role in health. However, there are so far few approaches to quantify gender in a retrospective manner in existing study datasets. We therefore aimed to develop a methodology that can be retrospectively applied to assess gender in existing cohorts. We used baseline data from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II), obtained in 2009–2014 from 1869 participants aged 60 years and older. We identified 13 gender-related variables and used them to construct a gender score by using primary component and logistic regression analyses. Of these, nine variables contributed to a gender score: chronic stress, marital status, risk-taking behaviour, personality attributes: agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion, loneliness, conscientiousness, and level of education. Females and males differed significantly in the distribution of the gender score, but a significant overlap was also found. Thus, we were able to develop a gender score in a retrospective manner from already collected data that characterized participants in addition to biological sex. This approach will allow researchers to introduce the notion of gender retrospectively into a large number of studies.

Engaging in regular moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) is crucial to reduce future health risk for individuals living with the effects of a stroke and their partners. Although numerous studies point to the importance of social factors in physical activity engagement, little is known about with whom individuals after stroke and their partners engage in physical activity with and whether different physical activity companions are uniquely associated with MVPA. Eighty-nine community-dwelling individuals after stroke (Mage = 68.64, SD = 10.44; 74% male) and 83 partners (Mage = 66.04, SD = 9.91; 24% male) completed 14 consecutive days of daily life assessments that included wearing physical activity monitors (accelerometers) and self-reporting physical activity companions (n = 1,961 days). Results show that average levels of MVPA were correlated between partners (r = 0.38), as were day-to-day MVPA fluctuations (r = 0.34). Importantly, for individuals after stroke, being active with their partner, but not with any other physical activity companion, was linked with elevated daily MVPA. In contrast, for partners of individuals after stroke, engaging in physical activity with a variety of different companions (partner, other family member, friend, colleague) was each associated with higher MVPA in daily life. For both individuals after stroke and their partners being active by oneself (without a companion) on a given day was not associated with elevated MVPA. Findings suggest that interventions that promote physical activity engagement should consider the role of meaningful others, with the partner being particularly key for individuals living with chronic health conditions.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. ROC analysis with 1089 participants for gender score and sex variable. Table S1. Correlation between gender variables in PCA. Table S2. Gender scores in the different tertiles of our cohort.

Objectives: We explored associations between co-habiting partners for sedentary behavior (type and time, via accelerometry and self-report), gender, and a surrogate health measure (inflammatory biomarker: C-reactive protein, CRP). Methods: Participants completed activity questionnaires and the Timed Up and Go (mobility), wore an accelerometer for 7 days, and provided samples for high-sensitivity (hs) CRP. We used multilevel modeling (partners within couples) to investigate associations between independent variables and (a) sedentary behavior and (b) hsCRP. Results: 112 couples (50% women) provided sedentary data and hsCRP. Sedentary behavior was significantly correlated (r = .440, p < .001) between women and men, but there were significant differences in sedentary time (women < men) and light activity (women > men). Gender, moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and mobility estimated 37% of the modeled variance in sedentary time, while body mass index (BMI) and MVPA estimated 10% of the modeled variance in hsCRP. Discussion: Despite differences in how activity was accumulated, there were no significant differences between women’s and men’s health biomarker. Canadian Institutes of Health Research https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000024 michael smith foundation for health research https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000245 social sciences and humanities research council of canada https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000155 university of british columbia https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005247

Supporting info item, per2198-sup-0001-Open_Practices_Disclosure_Form for Happy Like a Fish in Water? The Role of Personality–Situation Fit for Momentary Happiness in Social Interactions across the Adult Lifespan by Mueller Swantje, Ram Nilam, Conroy David E., Pincus Aaron L., Gerstorf Denis, Wagner Jenny and Wrzus Cornelia in European Journal of Personality

Data S1. Supporting Information, per2259-sup-0001-Data_S1 for Trajectories of Big Five Personality Traits: A Coordinated Analysis of 16 Longitudinal Samples by Graham Eileen K., Weston Sara J., Gerstorf Denis, Yoneda Tomiko B., Booth Tom, Beam Christopher R., Petkus Andrew J., Drewelies Johanna, Hall Andrew N., Bastarache Emily D., Estabrook Ryne, Katz Mindy J., Turiano Nicholas A., Lindenberger Ulman, Smith Jacqui, Wagner Gert G., Pedersen Nancy L., Allemand Mathias, Spiro AvronIII, Deeg Dorly J.H., Johansson Boo, Piccinin Andrea M., Lipton Richard B., Schaie K. Warner, Willis Sherry, Reynolds Chandra A., Deary Ian J., Hofer Scott M. and Mroczek Daniel K. in European Journal of Personality

Previous research has indicated that physical activity (PA) is a health-promoting behavior that is closely linked in couples. However, few studies have examined how PA is intertwined among couples in their everyday lives. For example, relation-inferred efficacy (RIE) is an individual perception that captures whether a close other believes in one’s own abilities to perform specific behaviours; it originates from the sports literature on coach-athlete dyads and has been shown to shape athlete performance. Applying a repeated daily life assessment design, the current study targets self-efficacy (SE) and relation-inferred efficacy (RIE) as predictors of PA in older adult couples, as well as potential moderators when obstacles occur. We hypothesized that: (a.) There is a main effect of SE and RIE on PA. (b.) PA is lower on days when people anticipate barriers (c.) SE and RIE moderate the time-varying relationship between PA and barriers. Heterosexual couples (N=108 couples, Mage=70.5 years, SD=6.70) rated their SE and REI, completed daily electronic questionnaires asking about barriers and wore an accelerometer to capture indices of PA across seven days. In line with past work, SE (r(2438)=.13, p=

Lifespan theories and lab-based research both suggest that the ability to downregulate negative emotions is often well preserved into old age, but becomes increasingly fragile in very old age. However, little is known about factors that may alleviate such age differences. Here, we ask whether exposure to daily stressors helps very old adults to maintain effective emotion regulation skills. We used data from 130 young-old (65-69 years, 48% women) and 59 very-old adults (83-89 years, 58% women) who watched negative emotion evoking film clips in the lab under emotion regulation instructions and also reported stress situations they experienced in everyday life (42 occasions across seven days). Initial results indicate that very-old adults were indeed less successful in regulating sadness than young-old adults, but those very-old adults who reported many daily stressful situations were as capable of emotion regulation as young-old adults. We discuss possible factors contributing to our age-differential findings.

Overcommitted individuals cannot withdraw from work obligations. We examine whether work goal engagement attenuates the negative effects of overcommitment on work and health outcomes. For overcommitted professionals it should matter whether they dedicate time and energy to work goals they feel bound to or to goals they do not feel attached to (unengaged overcommitment). In a longitudinal study of 752 employees, we examined the interaction between overcommitment (T1) and work goal engagement (T2) in contributing to job and sleep satisfaction (T1 and T3). Results indicated that higher overcommitment and lower work goal engagement were associated with lower job and sleep satisfaction at T3, controlling for T1 job and sleep satisfaction. Overcommitment was only related to lower job satisfaction when work goal engagement was low. No interactive effect was found for sleep satisfaction. These findings support the essential role of goal engagement for well-being and adaptive development in the work domain.

Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material_19.3.2019_1 for Linked Lives: Exploring Gender and Sedentary Behaviors in Older Adult Couples by Maureen C. Ashe, Victoria I. Michalowski, Anna M. Chudyk, Denis Gerstorf, Kenneth M. Madden and Christiane A. Hoppmann in Journal of Applied Gerontology

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease associated with reduced physical fitness, higher disease burden, and impaired cognitive functions. Little is known about the operation of these risk factors in older adults when considered comprehensively without relying on the cut-off values of the single MetS components. The three main aims of the current study were to: (i) establish a latent metabolic load factor (MetL), using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and representing a continuous measure of MetL, defined by indicators that are commonly used to separate MetS groups from healthy individuals; (ii) examine the associations of this MetL factor with objective health, and cognitive function in men and women; (iii) compare the magnitude of these associations to those observed for the individual indicators used to define the MetL factor as well to the classical categorized MetS vs. non-MetS groups. The current analysis is based on cross-sectional data from 1,609 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (mean age = 68.5 years, SD (3.7); 50.1% female). We applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to establish a latent MetL factor defined by the five indicators commonly used to diagnose MetS. The latent MetL factor was associated with physician-assessed morbidity and kidney function (estimated glomerular filtration rate, eGFR) in both men and women, but not with hand grip strength and lung function (Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second (FEV1)). In addition, we found a negative association between MetL and fluid intelligence among men. A continuous latent variable approach representing the common variance of MetS indicators is well suited to foster our understanding of human aging as a systemic phenomenon in which risk factors are operating on either side of the normal versus pathological divide.

Background: The last decades have seen great advances in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although mortality rates due to CVD have declined significantly in the last decades, the burden of CVD is still high, particularly in older adults. This raises the question whether contemporary populations of older adults are experiencing better or worse objective as well as subjective health than earlier-born cohorts. The aim of this study was to examine differences in modifiable indicators of cardiovascular health (CVH), comparing data obtained 20 years apart in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE, 1990-93) and the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II, 2009-2014). Methods: Serial cross-sectional analysis of 242 propensity-score-matched participants of BASE (born 1907-1922) and BASE-II (born 1925-1942). Body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, total cholesterol, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), diet, smoking and physical activity were operationalized according to the "Life's simple 7" (LS7) criteria of the American Heart Association. Results: 121 matched pairs were identified based on age, sex, and education. In the later-born BASE-II sample, the mean LS7 score was significantly higher than in the earlier-born sample (7.8 +/- 1.8 vs. 6.4 +/- 2.1, p

This study assessed change in the Big Five personality traits. We conducted a coordinated integrative data analysis (IDA) using data from 16 studies including over 60,000 respondents to examine trajectories of change in the traits of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Coordinating models across multiple study sites, we fit nearly identical multi-level linear growth curve models to assess and compare the extent of trait change over time. Quadratic change was assessed in 8 studies with four or more measurement occasions. Across studies, the linear trajectory models revealed stability for agreeableness and decreases for the other four five traits. The non-linear trajectories suggest a U-shaped curve for neuroticism, and an inverted-U for extraversion. Meta-analytic summaries indicate that the fixed effects are heterogeneous, and that the variability in traits is partially explained by baseline age and country of origin. We conclude from our study that neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness go down over time, while agreeableness remains relatively stable.

This study examined the Big Five personality traits as predictors of mortality risk, and smoking as a mediator of that association. Replication was built into the fabric of our design: we used a Coordinated Analysis with 15 international datasets, representing 44,094 participants. We found that high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness were consistent predictors of mortality across studies. Smoking had a small mediating effect for neuroticism. Country and baseline age explained variation in effects: studies with older baseline age showed a pattern of protective effects (HR

This study assessed change in the Big Five personality traits. We conducted a coordinated integrative data analysis (IDA) using data from 14 studies including 47,190 respondents to examine trajectories of change in the traits of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Coordinating models across multiple study sites, we fit nearly identical multi-level linear growth curve models to assess and compare the extent of trait change over time. Quadratic change was assessed in 8 studies with four or more measurement occasions. Across studies, the linear trajectory models revealed stability for agreeableness and decreases for the other four five traits. The non-linear trajectories suggest a U-shaped curve for neuroticism, and an inverted-U for extraversion. Meta-analytic summaries indicate that the fixed effects are heterogeneous, and that the variability in traits is partially explained by baseline age and country of origin. We conclude from our study that neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness go down over time, while agreeableness remains relatively stable.

Personality is a powerful predictor of central life outcomes, including subjective well-being. Yet, we still know little about how personality manifests in the very last years of life when well-being typically falls rapidly. Here, we investigate whether the Big Five personality traits buffer (or magnify) terminal decline in well-being beyond and in interaction with functioning in key physical and social domains. We applied growth models to up to 10-year longitudinal data from 629 now deceased participants in the nation-wide German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP; age at death: M = 76 years; SD = 11). Lower neuroticism and higher conscientiousness were each uniquely associated with higher late-life well-being one year prior to death. At the same time, participants low in neuroticism experienced steeper terminal well-being declines. Similarly, individuals high in agreeableness and women high in extraversion reported higher well-being far away from death, but experienced more severe terminal decline, such that personality-related differences in well-being were not discernible anymore at one year prior to death. Interaction effects further revealed that individuals suffering from disability benefit less from higher levels of conscientiousness, while openness to experience appeared particularly beneficial for the less educated. We conclude that in the context of often severe late-life health challenges that accompany the last years of life, adaptive personality-related differences continue to be evident and sizeable for some traits, but appear to diminish and even reverse in direction for other traits. We discuss possible underlying mechanisms and practical implications.

Well-being is often relatively stable across adulthood and old age, but typically exhibits pronounced deteriorations and vast individual differences in the terminal phase of life. However, the factors contributing to these differences are not well understood. Using up to 25-year annual longitudinal data obtained from 4,404 now-deceased participants of the nationwide German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP; age at death: M = 73.2 years; SD = 14.3 years; 52% women), we explored the role of multi-indicator constellations of socio-demographic variables, physical health and burden factors, and psychosocial characteristics. Expanding earlier reports, Structural Equation Model Trees (SEM Trees) allowed us to identify profiles of variables that were associated with differences in the shape of late-life well-being trajectories. Physical health factors were found to play a major role for well-being decline, but in interaction with psychosocial characteristics such as social participation. To illustrate, for people with low social participation, disability emerged as the strongest correlate of differences in late-life well-being trajectories. However, for people with high social participation, whether or not an individual had spent considerable time in the hospital differentiated high vs. low and stable vs. declining late-life well-being. We corroborated these results with Variable Importance measures derived from a set of resampled SEM Trees (so-called SEM forests) that provide robust and comparative indicators of the total interactive effects of variables for differential late-life well-being. We discuss benefits and limitations of our approach and consider our findings in the context of other reports about protective factors against terminal decline in well-being.

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively. Human aging is characterized by large differences between and within older adults. Numerous factors are known to contribute to these differences, including genetic and immunological, somatic and medical, cognitive and behavioral, psychosocial and experiential, as well as socioeconomic and geospatial conditions. Continuing and expanding the scientific objectives of the Berlin Aging Study, the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) seeks to comprehensively describe phenomena associated with aging and old age and to better understand the multiple different underlying factors and their interactions. To this end, BASE-II was established as a multi-institutional project combining and integrating interdisciplinary perspectives ranging from molecular genetics and immunology, geriatric medicine and psychology, to sociology and economics. In this Special Issue, we have compiled seven empirical analyses that feature examples of interdisciplinary insights that BASE-II provides by linking data across multiple levels of analyses at which human functioning and development occur in old age. Here, we provide an overview of the study, note commonalities between BASE-II and earlier studies, and highlight some of its unique qualities.