title: Primary and secondary control strategies for managing health and financial stress across adulthood.
abstract: The study examined the relation among three types of control strategies (persistence, positive reappraisals, lowering aspirations) and subjective well-being across adulthood (N = 3,490). Specifically, the authors investigated whether age-adapted endorsement of control strategies is conducive to subjective well-being if individuals experience health or financial stress. The results reveal an overall enhanced reliance on control strategies in older as compared with younger adults. In addition, persistence showed a stronger positive relation to subjective well-being in young adulthood as compared with old age. In midlife and old age, positive reappraisals had a stronger positive relation to subjective well-being than persistence. Lowering aspirations was negatively related to subjective well-being, independent of age. Age differences in the relation of control strategies to subjective well-being were particularly salient in individuals who faced either health or financial stress.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. wrosch+@andrew.cmu.edu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wrosch
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heckhausen
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lachman
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004467:Economics; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*