Abstract

Objective

The goal of this study was to examine if mental health and psychosocial well-being differed between middle-aged (MA; 40–59 years), younger-old (YO; 60–79 years), and older-old (OO; 80+ years) adults with respect to their trends, heterogeneity, and correlates.

Methods

Eighteen mental health and psychosocial well-being instruments were administered to 590 adults over age 40. Cross-sectional data also included self-report-based measures of sociodemographics, cognitive functioning, physical health and activity, and body mass index.

Results

Age trends across instruments varied in magnitude and shape, but generally supported an inverted U-shaped trend in mental health and psychosocial well-being, with small increases from MA to YO age (d = 0.29) and smaller declines from YO to OO age (d = −0.17). A U-shaped association between age and mental health heterogeneity was also observed. The strongest correlates of mental health and psychosocial well-being differed by age (MA: perceived stress; YO: successful aging; OO: compassion toward others), as did the associations of a flourishing versus languishing mental health and well-being profile.

Conclusions

Our findings support the “paradox of aging,” whereby declines in physical and cognitive health co-occur with relatively preserved mental health and well-being. Our findings indicate that variance in mental and psychosocial health does not increase linearly with age and support careful consideration of heterogeneity in mental health and aging research. Our findings also suggest that mental health and psychosocial well-being decouple from stress-related dimensions in MA and become increasingly associated with positive, other-oriented emotions in OO, broadly supporting socioemotional theories of aging.

中文翻译：

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晚年心理健康和社会心理健康的趋势、异质性和相关性：对 590 名 40-104 岁社区居民的研究

摘要

客观的

本研究的目的是检查中年人（MA；40-59 岁）、较年轻的老年人（YO；60-79 岁）和老年人（OO；80 岁）之间的心理健康和社会心理健康是否存在差异。 + 年）成年人的趋势、异质性和相关性。

方法

对 590 名 40 岁以上的成年人使用了 18 项心理健康和社会心理健康工具。横截面数据还包括基于自我报告的社会人口统计学、认知功能、身体健康和活动以及体重指数的测量。

结果

不同工具的年龄​​趋势在幅度和形状上各不相同，但总体上支持心理健康和社会心理健康的倒 U 形趋势，从 MA 到 YO 年龄小幅增加（d = 0.29），从 YO 到 OO 年龄下降较小 （d  = -0.17）。还观察到年龄和心理健康异质性之间存在 U 形关联。心理健康和心理健康的最强相关性因年龄而异（MA：感知压力；YO：成功老龄化；OO：对他人的同情心），心理健康和幸福状况的繁荣与衰退之间的关联也是如此。

结论

我们的研究结果支持“衰老悖论”，即身体和认知健康的下降与相对完好的心理健康和福祉同时发生。我们的研究结果表明，心理和社会心理健康的差异并不随年龄线性增加，这支持在心理健康和衰老研究中仔细考虑异质性。我们的研究结果还表明，心理健康和社会心理健康与 MA 中与压力相关的维度脱钩，并与 OO 中积极的、以他人为导向的情绪越来越相关，广泛支持衰老的社会情感理论。