Centre for Policy on Ageing



Functions of reminiscence and mental health in later life
Author(s)	P Cappeliez, N O'Rourke, H Chaudhury
Journal title	Aging & Mental Health, vol 9, no 4, July 2005
Pages	pp 295-301
Source	http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords	Memory and Reminiscence ; Mental health [elderly] ; Life satisfaction ; Stress ; Personality ; Correlation ; Canada.
Annotation	The extent to which various forms of life satisfaction and psychiatric distress, on their own, and after taking into account the contribution of personality traits, is investigated. 420 older people (170 men, 250 women) were recruited over 1 year as part of a larger study of marriage in later life. Among these older people, reminiscences to revive old problems and to fill a void of stimulation were associated with lower life satisfaction and greater psychiatric distress. Reminiscence to maintain connection with a departed person also predicted psychiatric distress. In contrast, reminiscence for death preparation and to foster conversation were linked with higher life satisfaction. Based on the authors' proposed model of the functions of reminiscence, discussion focuses on adaptive and non-adaptive uses of reminiscence in later life. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-060202215 A
Classmark	DB: D: F:5HH: QNH: DK: 49: 7S
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.