This project involves both assessmental and experimental analyses of the role of life events in demoralization and well-being of two at risk groups of the elderly, recently bereaved and recently disabled (plus matched controls): N=240. A longitudinal assessment covers 10 monthly interviews within which is contained an experimental intervention for half the sample. The guiding conceptual theme of the project concerns personal mastery and perceived personal control; event measures and special scales assess it and the intervention directly manipulates it. Trained elderly peers conduct the contracts. The renewal proposes: (1) extension of time and support for extensive data analyses and (2) extension of time and support for conducting two 6-month follow-ups. Participants in the current project are being asked if they wish to be contacted later and the interviewer staff has been alerted to the possibility of follow-up assessment. The relative ease of maintaining ongoing project activities to acquire the followup data provides a unique opportunity to study the time course of events and adjustment in these two at risk populations. Data collection from the original grant will be completed by the proposed start date for renewal. However, delays in acquiring participants has moved forward the date of completion of data acquisition; completion of final analysis has been moved forward into the time period covered by this renewal application. Preliminary analyses of data gathered to date are showing clear differences between risk groups and significant relationship among assessed variables. Particularly striking are the relationships among recurrent stresses of daily living and demoralization. These relationships need more extensive analysis. Complex casual modeling techniques and high order analyses of variance and multiple regression are necessary. The intervention's impact must be assessed over a longer term since it is necessary to determine if its effects endure and are not short-term in duration only. Long-term trends in the assessmental data would provide valuable insights into the time course of adjustment, and prospective analyses made possible only by such long-term coverage provide evidence of the predictive power of the variables under investigation.
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