The effectiveness of a virtual intergenerational activity for reducing younger and older adults' ageism.

We examined whether a virtual intergenerational activity was feasible and effective for reducing ageism among older (OA) and younger adults (YA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. OA (n=16) and YA (n=15) completed a virtual intergenerational activity, and analysis was conducted for a subsample (n=5 OA, n=10 YA) who completed pretest-posttest ageism surveys. Paired samples t-tests showed no significant ageism change in attitudes towards OA. OA's ageist attitudes towards YA (p=.012) were significantly reduced. Open-ended responses revealed several themes (e.g., challenging stereotypes). Preliminary evidence demonstrated the feasibility of this activity. A larger sample size is needed to better determine efficacy.

Perceptions of couplehood among community-dwelling spousal caregivers.

Objective: Spousal caregiving is increasingly common, and it is a role that can alter the nature of marriage in later life. Some may find spousal caregiving to be distressing, while others may have more positive experiences. Spousal caregiving, in particular, may be difficult due to caregiver burden as well as a loss of couplehood within the relationship. The current study used grounded theory methods to better understand the experience of and changes in couplehood among spousal caregivers.Method: Thirteen spousal caregivers completed semi-structured interviews. Spousal caregivers ranged in age from 53 to 85 (mean age = 66.00, SD = 9.04).Results: Qualitative analysis revealed four major themes upon evaluation of the interviews (couplehood, positive mindset, later life roles and transitions, and looking towards the future).Conclusion: These themes exemplified the complex interplay of couplehood and caregiving as well as the range of perceptions of couplehood. Results showed that while some caregivers struggle to find meaning and happiness within their caregiver role, and others said the illness/impairment bonded them together. Caregivers who reported a low sense couplehood discussed feeling trapped in their relationship, sad, and isolated. For some caregivers, a strong sense of couplehood may have helped them reframe the experience as an opportunity to be a role model for others and a reminder that their situation could be worse. Future research should focus on pre-illness couplehood and whether the nature of the impairment (e.g., cognitive, physical) is related to caregiver's couplehood.

Daily stressors and emotional reactivity in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy controls.

Daily experiences of stress are common and have been associated with worse affect among older adults. People with mild cognitive impairment (PWMCI) have measurable memory deficits in between normal cognition and dementia and have been identified as having greater psychological distress than cognitively healthy older adults (CHOAs). Little is known about whether daily stressors contribute to distress among PWMCI. We hypothesized that compared with CHOAs, PWMCI would have higher daily negative affect and lower daily positive affect, report greater numbers and severity of daily stressors, and experience greater emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Fifteen clinically diagnosed PWMCI and 25 CHOAs completed daily reports of stressors, stressor severity, and positive and negative affect over an 8-day period. PWMCI reported higher daily negative affect, lower daily positive affect, and higher numbers and greater severity of memory stressors but did not differ from CHOAs in numbers or severity of general stressors. Cognitive status was a moderator of the daily stress-affect relationship. Days with greater numbers and severity of general daily stressors were associated with higher negative affect only for PWMCI. The numbers and severity of memory stressors were not associated with negative affect. In addition, more severe general daily stressors and memory stressors were associated with lower positive affect for all participants. Results suggest that PWMCI are less resilient in the face of daily stress than are CHOAs in terms of negative affect, perhaps because of declines in reserve capacity. The study presents a promising approach to understanding stress and coping in predementia states of cognition.

Awareness of Memory Ability and Change: (In)Accuracy of Memory Self-Assessments in Relation to Performance.

Little is known about subjective assessments of memory abilities and decline among middle-aged adults or their association with objective memory performance in the general population. In this study we examined self-ratings of memory ability and change in relation to episodic memory performance in two national samples of middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS II in 2005-06) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; every two years from 2002 to 2012). MIDUS (Study 1) participants (N=3,581) rated their memory compared to others their age and to themselves five years ago; HRS (Study 2) participants (N=14,821) rated their current memory and their memory compared to two years ago, with up to six occasions of longitudinal data over ten years. In both studies, episodic memory performance was the total number of words recalled in immediate and delayed conditions. When controlling for demographic and health correlates, self-ratings of memory abilities, but not subjective change, were related to performance. We examined accuracy by comparing subjective and objective memory ability and change. More than one third of the participants across the studies had self-assessments that were inaccurate relative to their actual level of performance and change, and accuracy differed as a function of demographic and health factors. Further understanding of self-awareness of memory abilities and change beginning in midlife may be useful for identifying early warning signs of decline, with implications regarding policies and practice for early detection and treatment of cognitive impairment.

Daily stress magnifies the association between cognitive decline and everyday memory problems: an integration of longitudinal and diary methods.

We examined whether long-term fluid cognitive decline was associated with memory problems in everyday life, and whether stress plays a moderating role. We expected that the association between cognitive decline and everyday memory problems would be magnified in the context of self-reported and physiological stress. Data are from the Boston Longitudinal Study, a subsample of the Midlife in the United States study. Participants in the current study (n = 112) completed a battery of tests measuring fluid cognitive functioning at Time 1 (T1) and 2 (T2) over 10 years. At T2, participants completed weekly diaries of self-reported daily stressors and everyday memory problems for 12 consecutive weeks. Also at T2, participants provided 4 saliva samples over the course of 1 day to assess physiological stress using diurnal cortisol profiles [cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal cortisol slope (DCS)]. Self-reported daily stressors and a less healthy DCS were associated with more everyday memory problems, and participants with greater cognitive decline reported more memory problems compared to those with less or no decline. Self-reported daily stressors and CAR moderated the relationship of cognitive decline and memory problems. As expected, more cognitive decline was associated with greater increases in memory problems on weeks when individuals reported more daily stressors and for individuals with a less healthy CAR. The current findings can inform interventions aimed to identify factors, such as daily stress, that contribute to daily functioning in the context of cognitive decline.