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Many older adults experience chronic age-related stressors (e.g., life regrets or health problems) that are difficult to control and can disturb cortisol regulation. Self-compassion may buffer adverse effects of these stressful experiences on diurnal cortisol secretion in older adulthood. To examine whether self-compassion could benefit older adults' cortisol secretion in the context of chronic and largely uncontrollable age-related stressors, 233 community-dwelling older adults reported their levels of self-compassion, age-related stressors (regret intensity, physical health problems, and functional disability), and relevant covariates. Diurnal cortisol was measured over 3 days and the average area-under-the-curve and slope were calculated. Higher levels of self-compassion were associated with lower daily cortisol levels among older adults who reported higher levels of regret intensity, physical health problems, or functional disability ([beta]s < - .53, ps < .01), but not among their counterparts who reported lower levels of these age-related stressors ([beta]s < .24, ps > .28). These results suggest that self-compassion may represent an important personal resource that could protect older adults from stress-related biological disturbances resulting from chronic and uncontrollable stressors., Author(s): Heather Herriot [sup.1] , Carsten Wrosch [sup.1] , Jean-Philippe Gouin [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 1936 8630, grid.410319.e, Department of Psychology and Centre for Research in Human Development, [...]

This study examined whether self-compassion could benefit daily physical symptoms and chronic illness in early and advanced old age. The hypotheses were evaluated in a 4-year longitudinal study of 264 older adults. Results showed that self-compassion predicted lower levels of daily physical symptoms across the study period in advanced, but not early, old age (T-ratio = −1.93, p = 0.05). In addition, self-compassion was associated with fewer increases in chronic illness in advanced, but not early, old age (T-ratio = − 2.45, p < 0.02). The results of this study suggest that self-compassion may be particularly adaptive towards the end of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Older adults often experience an increase in low-grade chronic inflammation. Purpose in life could act as a protective factor as it is associated with beneficial health outcomes. Purpose in life may exert part of its adaptive function by promoting persistence in goal pursuit. During older adulthood, however, when many individuals experience an increase in intractable stressors and declining resources, the adaptive function of purpose could become reduced. Purpose: We examined whether the association between inter- and intra-individual differences in purpose in life and chronic inflammation differed across older adulthood. Method: We assessed four waves of data among 129 older adults (63–91 years old) across 6 years. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that within-person increases in purpose in life predicted reduced levels of chronic inflammation in early old age (25th percentile or 73 years, coefficient = −.016, p <.01), but not in advanced old age (75th percentile or 81 years, coefficient =.002, p =. 67). Between-person differences in purpose were not related to chronic inflammation. Conclusions: These results suggest that greater within-person increases in purpose may protect health processes particularly in early old age but become less effective in advanced old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]