Changing investment in activities and interests in elders' lives: theory and measurement.
Socioemotional selectivity and gerotranscendence, newer theories with roots in the disengagement theory of aging, provided the theoretical framework for a new measure of perceived change in investment in a variety of pursuits. The 30-item Change in Activity and Interest Index (CAII) was given to a sample of 327 outpatients aged 65-94. Items with at least 30% decreased investment responses included Entertaining in my home, Concern with others' opinions, Shopping and buying things, and Attending social events with new people. Principal Components Analysis of the index with dichotomous recoding (less vs. more or same investment) resulted in four factors: Active Instrumental (AI), Social Intellectual (SI), Spiritual Concerns (SC), and Transcendence (TR). Support for socioemotional selectivity and gerotranscendence is evident in the reported increase of importance of SI pursuits, with concurrent decrease in importance of AI activities among these respondents. Zero-order correlations of component scores with study variables suggest that AI and SI are more clearly related to older age, functional impairment, and negative affect than are SC and TR. The CAII appears to tap several dimensions of change in interests; the index gives geriatric mental health practitioners and researchers a tool to measure an aspect of social development that has been neglected in gerontology.
Adams
Kathryn Betts
KB
Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106-7164, USA. kathryn.adams@case.edu
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006304:Health Status; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011594:Psychometrics; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires