Centre for Policy on Ageing



Age differences in stress, coping, and appraisal — findings from the normative aging study
Author(s)	Carolyn M Aldwin, Karen J Sutton, Gina Chiara
Journal title	The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 51B, no 4, July 1996
Pages	pp P179-P188
Keywords	Mental health [elderly] ; Attitude ; Anxiety ; Older men ; Middle aged ; Cross sectional surveys ; United States of America.
Annotation	There are controversies concerning the influence of age on stress and coping, in part due to methods across studies. In this study, the authors used both semi-structured interview questions and a coping checklist in middle-aged, young-old, and old-old men. The types of problems reported varied systematically with age. Middle aged men were more likely to appraise their problems as both challenges and annoyances than the older men. Different age patterns emerged from the coping interviews vs the checklists, but controlling for type of problem significantly attenuated age differences. There were no age differences in perceived stressfulness of the problem, appraisal of harm/loss, or helpless appraisals, number of emotions reported, or coping efficacy. One interpretation is that the nature of stress changes with age, from episodic to chronic, which in turn affects the coping process.
Accession Number	CPA-970704007 A
Classmark	D: DP: ENP: BC: SE: 3KB: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.