title: Correlates of changes in desired control scores and in life satisfaction scores among elderly persons.
abstract: This report describes the correlates of Life Satisfaction and Desired Control among seventy-nine elderly residents, with an average age of seventy-eight, of a partial-support apartment complex. The residents were assessed at three points in time: shortly after moving into the building, six months later, and after a total of eighteen months. Both Life Satisfaction and Desired Control (a measure of the extent to which a person reports control over desired outcomes) are intercorrelated and related to other indices of psychological well-being at all three points in time. Cross-lag correlations also indicate an enduring relationship between Life Satisfaction, Desired Control, Activity, and Rated Vitality. A residual regression analysis employing hierarchical procedures for evaluating significance of added variance yielded only one predictor of changes in Life Satisfaction: an initial measure of psychomotor speed. The residual regression analysis yielded one predictor of changes--[in Desired Control--initial activity level.]
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010551:Personality; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012931:Social Environment