This grant requests support of 2 more years of analyses and followup data collection for a grant now in its 3rd year of funding (NIA R01 AG04924, """"""""Life Events and Demoralization in the Elderly""""""""). Interviews on samples of recently disabled and conjugally bereaved older adults and matched control samples have been conducted monthly for 10 month and 1 followup interview 6 months later has been completed. The research has focused on the relationships between these stressors and mental health. Analyses have determined the latent structure of mental health and social support, intergroup differences in those structures; the effects of an experimental intervention aimed at improving personal mastery also have been determined. Initial assessment of the occurrence of, and reaction to, both major and everyday small events have been performed. A new conceptual framework for understanding stress and recovery has superseded the framework guiding the initial grant. Two classes of psychosocial variables are studied as predictors of mental health: Risk Factors, variables which tend to reduce adequacy of adaptation efforts, and Resistance Resources, variables which enhance recovery and reduce vulnerability. Analyses to date indicate that disability and bereavement lead to very different patterns of recovery. Different risk and resource factors appear to influence adaptation depending upon the nature of the stressor. Our methods to date have been retrospective. However, significant number of our subjects experienced illness/injury, bereavement and other loss events during the course of the project, providing the capability of prospective analyses. However, an additional followup is needed to insure adequate time passage and sample sizes. As central issues in this framework, 3 sets of tasks remain: (a) assessing, through repeated measures, how everyday stressful events act as stable or changing sources of influence on mental health; (b) moving beyond our initial single-scale assessment of physical health by determining the latent structure of 104 items (10 subscales) measuring various aspects of physical health, and testing that model's relationship with mental health, both longitudinally and prospectively, and (c) assessing how changes in social networks effect mental health as individuals enter and leave social networks over time.
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