Drinking to cope, emotional distress and alcohol use and abuse: a ten-year model.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the ability of baseline drinking to cope to predict drinking behavior across an ensuing 10-year period. In addition, it examines whether a propensity to consume alcohol to cope with stressors strengthens the link between emotional distress and drinking behavior. METHOD: The study uses survey data from a baseline sample of 421 adults (54% women) assessed four times over a 10-year period (i.e., baseline and 1-, 4- and 10-year follow-ups). RESULTS: Baseline drinking to cope was associated with more alcohol consumption and drinking problems at all four observations across the 10-year interval. Baseline drinking to cope also predicted increases in both alcohol consumption and drinking problems in the following year. Moreover, change in drinking to cope was positively linked to changes in both alcohol consumption and drinking problems over the interval. Individuals who had a stronger propensity to drink to cope at baseline showed a stronger link between both anxiety and depressive symptoms and drinking outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate the power of alcohol-related coping strategies in predicting long-term drinking behavior and they illustrate one way in which such coping is linked to alcohol use and abuse. More broadly, they underscore the importance of considering individual differences in emotion-based theories of drinking behavior.

Long-term posttreatment functioning among patients with unipolar depression: an integrative model.

This study tested an integrative structural equation model of posttreatment functioning among 165 depressed patients followed for an average of 9 years after the end of an episode of treatment. The model examined (a) the link between life change and psychosocial resource change and (b) the role of resource change in mediating the relationship between life change and change in depression. An increase in the preponderance of negative over positive life events was associated with a decline in resources and an increase in depressive symptoms. A decline in resources was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms. The association between changes in events and depressive symptoms was completely mediated through resource change. These findings indicate that life stressors contribute to posttreatment depression through an erosion of personal and social resources.

Resource loss, resource gain, and depressive symptoms: a 10-year model.

This study examined a broadened conceptualization of the stress and coping process that incorporated a more dynamic approach to understanding the role of psychosocial resources in 326 adults studied over a 10-year period. Resource loss across 10 years was significantly associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, whereas resource gain across 10 years was significantly associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms. In addition, change in the preponderance of negative over positive events across 10 years was inversely associated with change in resources during the period. Finally, in an integrative structural equation model, the association between change in life events and depressive symptoms at follow-up was completely mediated through resource change.

Being labeled as gifted, self-appraisal, and psychological well-being: a life span developmental perspective.

This study examined the relation of being labeled as intellectually gifted to a midlife appraisal of having lived up to one's abilities and to psychological well-being at age eighty. Participants in the study were 399 individuals in the Terman Study of the Gifted who were between the ages of seventy-five and eighty-four in 1992. A proxy index of Terman Study membership was derived from participants' self-report during their mid-twenties of the age at which they first learned that they were members of the Terman Study. Learning at a younger age of membership in a study of intellectual giftedness was related to less likelihood of believing that one had lived up to one's intellectual abilities at midlife and to less favorable psychological well-being at age eighty. Results are discussed in terms of the possible implications of being labeled as gifted for the formation of unrealistic expectations about achievement.

Self-appraisal, life satisfaction, and retrospective life choices across one and three decades.

This research investigated the relationship of a self-appraisal of having lived up to one's intellectual abilities at midlife (average age of 49 years) with life satisfaction and retrospective life choices 1 and 3 decades later among 383 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted. Study 1 showed that participants who reported living up to their intellectual abilities were higher in satisfaction with occupational success, satisfaction with family life, and joy in living 11 years later. Study 2 showed that participants who reported living up to their abilities were higher in overall life satisfaction and were less likely to report that they would make different life choices in work or family life 3 decades later. In an integrative structural equation model, the relation between the midlife self-appraisal of having lived up to intellectual abilities and overall satisfaction at age 80 was mediated by life satisfaction discrepancy at age 61.

Social context, coping strategies, and depressive symptoms: an expanded model with cardiac patients.

This research broadened and refined a resources model of coping to encompass negative as well as positive aspects of social relationships and examined this expanded conceptualization in a 4-year prospective model with 183 cardiac patients (140 men and 43 women). Social support and social stressors in the family and extrafamily domains contributed significantly to a common social context latent construct. In addition, this conceptualization of social context was significantly related to depressive symptoms 4 years later. Especially important conceptually, coping strategies functioned as a mechanism through which both social support and social stressors related to subsequent depressive symptoms. Moreover, positive and negative aspects of social relationships made essentially unique contributions in predicting subsequent coping efforts.

Social support, coping, and depressive symptoms in a late-middle-aged sample of patients reporting cardiac illness.

This study tests a 1-year predictive model of depressive symptoms in a late-middle-aged sample of patients reporting diagnoses of cardiac illness. Results based on 325 individuals (248 men and 77 women) diagnosed with chronic cardiac illness, 71 individuals (52 men and 19 women) diagnosed with acute cardiac illness, and 219 healthy controls (129 men and 90 women) strongly supported the hypotheses. Compared with healthy persons, individuals with chronic and those with acute cardiac illness reported more depressive symptoms at follow-up. Women overall showed more depressive symptoms than did men, and women with cardiac illness were particularly vulnerable to behavioral manifestations of depressive symptoms. Integrative time-lag and prospective structural equation models indicated that, for individuals with cardiac illness, social support and adaptive coping strategies predicted fewer depressive symptoms.

Relation of life goals at age 70 to activity participation and health and psychological well-being among Terman's gifted men and women.

In this study I investigated the relation of life goals to activity participation and health and psychological well-being for men and women in Terman's Study of the Gifted. The subjects were between the ages of 65 and 75 years (M = 70.2 years) when they responded to a mail-out survey in 1982. The study included three goals scales-Autonomy, Involvement, and Achievement Motivation-as well as measures of activity participation and health and psychological well-being. Multiple regression analyses in which the three goals scales were used to predict health and psychological well-being were both significant. Path analyses demonstrated both a direct and an indirect contribution, through activity participation, of life goals to health and well-being. In most cases, the indirect effect of life goals on health and well-being accounted for more than one half of the total effect. Implications of the results for life satisfaction in aging are discussed.

Self-efficacy, social support, and depression in aging: a longitudinal analysis.

This study examines the relationship of self-efficacy and social support to adjustment in aging. Fifty-two community residents participated in an initial structured interview and a follow-up interview one year later. Measures of depression and self-efficacy relating to social support were included in the initial interview, with measures of depression and actual social support included at follow-up. Results showed that initial self-efficacy was related to social support one year later. A path analysis showed that self-efficacy functions directly as well as indirectly through its effect on social support in preventing depression. A partial correlational analysis showed that the relationships between initial self-efficacy and depression one year later and between social support and depression at follow-up hold when ongoing depression is controlled.

Marital attitudes over 40 years: a longitudinal and cohort analysis.

The present study investigated attitude change in adulthood within the context of historical change utilizing contemporary and archival data from the Terman Study of the Gifted. The study examined longitudinal comparisons of marital attitudes in light of a cohort comparison between the Terman subjects and a contemporary sample of 30-year-old individuals. The results indicated that significant change has occurred in marital attitudes for the Terman subjects over the 40 years from 30 to 70. These changes are in accord with current social trends. The changes for men and women differed in magnitude and areas of emphasis, and there was evidence for enduring sex differences in some areas. Changes occurring for the Terman women were of comparable magnitude to the cohort comparisons, whereas cohort differences for men were generally stronger than longitudinal changes.

Adjustment in aging: the roles of life stress, hassles, and self-efficacy.

This study examines the relationship of life stress, daily hassles, and perceived self-efficacy to adjustment in a community sample of 32 men and 32 women between ages 65 and 75. In a structured interview, negative life change events, daily hassles, self-efficacy, depression, psychosomatic symptoms, and negative well being were assessed. Both negative life events and daily hassles were related to psychological distress and physical symptoms for men, and hassles were associated with psychological distress and physical symptoms for women. An inverse relationship between self-efficacy and maladjustment was also found. Hassles showed the most powerful relationship to distress.

The relationship between life goals at thirty and perceptions of goal attainment and life satisfaction at seventy for gifted men and women.

This article examines the relationship between life goals at thirty and perceptions of goal attainment, happiness, and life satisfaction at seventy for gifted men and women. Respondents were members of the Terman Study of the Gifted. Men and women differed in life goals at age thirty, with men predominantly oriented toward occupational pursuit, and women predominantly oriented toward home and family life. Results showed a significant sex difference in feelings of goal attainment at age seventy, with men reporting greater attainment. Women with occupational goals at age thirty reported lower feelings of goal attainment at age seventy than women without such goals. For men, a positive relationship was found between satisfaction and happiness at age seventy and feelings of goal attainment. For women, these relationships varied according to life goals at age thirty. The implications of these results are discussed.

Lifetime achievement patterns, retirement and life satisfaction of gifted aged women.

The relationship of lifetime achievement patterns and retirement to life satisfaction for gifted aging women was investigated. Participants were 352 women in Terman's study of the gifted who were surveyed in 1977 at a mean age of 66. Lifetime achievement pattern was defined by either homemaker, job, or career work history. Dependent variables included health, happiness, life satisfaction, work attitudes, ambitions and aspirations, and participation in leisure activities. Results showed variations on life satisfaction measures as a function of lifetime career, with job holders generally less satisfied. There was a significant interaction between marital status and work pattern on overall life satisfaction suggesting an additive negative effect on the older woman of loss of spouse and a work history of working for income alone. Activity involvement varied as a function of retirement status and was differentially related to life satisfaction as a function of retirement status and career pattern.

Negative and positive components of psychological masculinity and femininity and their relationships to self-reports of neurotic and acting out behaviors.

Negatively valued masculinity (M-) and femininity (F-) personality scales were developed to supplement the positively valued Masculinity (M+) and Femininity (F+) scales of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ; Spence & Helmreich). M- consisted of traits that had been judged to be (a) more typical of males than females, (b) undesirable in both sexes, and (c ) agentic or instrumental in content. Two F- scales were developed, both containing stereotypically feminine, undesirable traits, one set of traits referring to communionlike characteristics (Fc-) and the other to verbal passive-aggressive qualities (FVA-). Significant sex differences in the predicted direction were found on all scales. In both sexes, low and typically nonsignificant correlations were found between parallel positive and negative scales, but highly significant negative correlations were found between positive and negative cross-sex scales. These findings provide additional evidence for the multidimentionslity of masculinity and femininity. Scores on a self-esteem measure were positively correlated with M+ and F+, uncorrelated with M-, and negatively correlated with the F- scales. Different patterns of scores were associated with two types of problem behaviors. In both sexes, neuroticism was most highly correlated (in a negative direction) with M+, and acting out behavoir was most strongly correlated (in a positive direction) with M-. The next highest correlation in both instances was with FVA-.