Tag: health

Formal Religious Participation and Daily Spiritual Experiences: Separate, but Equal, Linkages with Psychological Well-Being?

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Greenfield, Emily A., George Vaillant, and Nadine F. Marks Working paper no. 2007-01 Abstract Building on the idea that religiosity and spirituality are related yet distinct phenomena, this study examined whether formal religious participation and daily spiritual experiences are independently and equally associated with diverse dimensions of psychological well-being (negative affect, positive affect, purpose in …

Psychological Implications of Motherhood and Fatherhood in Midlife: Evidence from Sibling Models

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Pudrovska, Tetyana Working paper no. 2007-02 Abstract Using a sample comprising full, twin, half-, step-, and adopted siblings, I examine psychological consequences of motherhood and fatherhood in midlife. My analysis includes between-family models that treat siblings as independent observations, and within-family models accounting for unobserved shared genetic and environmental endowments that may confound the relationship between parenthood and well-being. …

Do Older Adults Know Their Spouses’ End-of-Life Treatment Preferences?

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Moorman, Sara, Robert M. Hauser, and Deborah Carr Working paper no. 2007-05 Abstract When terminally ill patients become incapacitated, the patient’s surrogate often makes treatment decisions in collaboration with health care providers. We examine how surrogates’ errors in reporting their spouse’s preferences are affected by their gender, status as durable power of attorney for health …

The Dimensionality and Measurement of Cognitive Functioning at age 65 in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

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Yonker, James, Robert Hauser, and Jeremy Freese Working paper no. 2007-06 Abstract The 2003-05 telephone surveys of high school graduates in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study administered six cognitive assessments: immediate and delayed word recall, digit ordering, a subset of the WAIS-R similarities test, and letter and category frequency. We have analyzed these data separately among …

Work Complexity and Cognitive Functioning at Midlife: Cross-Validating the Kohn-Schooler Hypothesis in an American Cohort

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Hauser, Robert, and Carol Roan Working paper no. 2007-08 Abstract In an influential body of work extending across more than three decades and drawing on data from the United States, Poland, Japan, and the Ukraine, Melvin Kohn, Carmi Schooler, and their associates have found that cognitive capacities are affected by experiences on the job, specifically …

Effect of Early Conditions on Disability among Elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Monteverde, Malena, Kenya Noronha, and Alberto Palloni Working paper no. 2007-11 Abstract Poor early conditions have been associated with increasing risks of some non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease during adulthood. On the other hand, these morbidity conditions are known as important risk factors for experiencing disabilities. This suggests that there must …

Obesity and the Loss of Life: A Comparison between the US and Mexico

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Monteverde, Malena, Beatriz Novak, Kenya Noronha, and Alberto Palloni Working paper no. 2007-12 Abstract High and increasing levels of obesity in the US and Mexico could compromise future gains in life expectancy for these populations. Excess mortality due to obesity has been investigated in the US but not in Latin America where high prevalence and …

Sexual Satisfaction in the Seventh Decade of Life

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DeLamater, John, Janet S. Hyde, and Mei-Chia Fong Working paper no. 2007-17 Abstract The purpose of this research was to present and interpret data on the sexual behavior and satisfaction of men and women in their mid-sixties. These results fill an important gap in our understanding of human sexual activity across the life course. The …

Spouses’ Effectiveness as End-of-Life Health Care Surrogates: Accuracy, Uncertainty, and Errors of Overtreatment or Undertreatment

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Moorman, Sara, and Deborah Carr Working paper no. 2007-19 Abstract Purpose: We document the extent to which older adults accurately report their spouses’ end-of-life treatment preferences, in the hypothetical scenarios of terminal illness with severe physical pain, and terminal illness with severe cognitive impairment. We investigate the extent to which accurate reports, inaccurate reports (i.e., …

Early Life Exposure and its Effects on Health in the Puerto Rican Elderly Population

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McEniry, Mary, Alberto Palloni, Ana Luisa Dávila, and Alberto García Gurucharri Working paper no. 2008-01 Abstract Season of birth may help disentangle the effects on health of early life exposure to poor nutrition and infectious diseases from effects associated with other childhood conditions. Using data from 60 to 74 year old Puerto Ricans who lived …