Psychological resilience in young and older adults
Background The goal of the current study was to investigate psychological resilience in the older adults (>64 years) compared with that of the young ones (<26 years). Methods Questionnaire measures of depression, hopelessness, general health and resilience were administered to the participants...
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Published in | International journal of geriatric psychiatry Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 262 - 270 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Chichester, UK
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
01.03.2012
Psychology Press Wiley Subscription Services, Inc |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background
The goal of the current study was to investigate psychological resilience in the older adults (>64 years) compared with that of the young ones (<26 years).
Methods
Questionnaire measures of depression, hopelessness, general health and resilience were administered to the participants. The resilience measure comprised three sub‐scales of social support, emotional regulation and problem solving.
Results
The older adults were the more resilient group especially with respect to emotional regulation ability and problem solving. The young ones had more resilience related to social support. Poor perceptions of general health and low energy levels predicted low levels of resilience regardless of age. Low hopelessness scores also predicted greater resilience in both groups. Experiencing higher levels of mental illness and physical dysfunction predicted high resilience scores especially for the social support resilience scale in the older adults. The negative effects of depression on resilience related to emotional regulation were countered by low hopelessness but only in the young adults.
Conclusions
These results highlight the importance of maintaining resilience‐related coping skills in both young and older adults but indicate that different psychological processes underlie resilience across the lifespan. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-5L2DZ9HW-7 istex:E25CEA0EDA5FD2CC131E25D1980CA376EC279D4A ArticleID:GPS2712 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0885-6230 1099-1166 |
DOI: | 10.1002/gps.2712 |