0000000000647652

AUTHOR

Teresa Mayordomo

Afrontamiento, resiliencia y bienestar a lo largo del ciclo vital

El ser humano a lo largo del ciclo vital se enfrenta situaciones y sucesos para los que debe poner en marcha estrategias de afrontamiento que faciliten su adaptación y generen bienestar. La mayoría de los teóricos del afrontamiento (Carver, Scheier y Weintraub, 1989; Lazarus y Folkman, 1984; Moos, 1988; Moos y Billing, 1982), concuerdan en clasificar tres dominios generales de las estrategias según cómo éstas estén dirigidas a: la valoración (afrontamiento cognitivo), un intento de encontrar significado al suceso y valorarlo de tal forma que resulte menos desagradable; el problema (afrontamiento conductual), la conducta dirigida a confrontar la realidad, manejando sus consecuencias; y la em…

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How we compensate for memory loss in old age: adapting and validating the Memory Compensation Questionnaire (MCQ) for Spanish populations.

Compensating entails using external strategies and mechanisms that help overcome or alleviate the decreasing memory function that comes with age. This study aims to adapt and validate the MCQ in the elderly Spanish population. A total of 403 elderly people aged between 65 and 92 in the city of Valencia (Spain) completed the questionnaire for the validation process. The factorial validity of the scale was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The result showed a first order five-factor model with 23 items that met the criteria for model fit according to multiple fit indices. As a general conclusion, the adaptation into Spanish provided a reliable and valid measure of compensation in the…

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An overall decline both in recollection and familiarity in healthy aging

Background: In the area of recognition memory, the experimental data have been inconsistent about whether or not familiarity declines in healthy aging. A recent meta-analysis concluded that familiarity is impaired when estimated with the remember-know procedure, but not with the process- dissociation procedure. Method: We present an associative recognition experiment with remember-know judgments that allow us to estimate both recollection and familiarity using both procedures in the same task and with the same participants (a sample of healthy older people and another sample of young people). Moreover, we performed a within-subjects manipulation of the type of materials (pairs of words or p…

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Associative and implicit memory performance as a function of cognitive reserve in elderly adults with and without mild cognitive impairment

AbstractThis study aims to analyze implicit and explicit memory performance as a function of cognitive reserve (CR) in a healthy control group (N = 39) and a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) group (N = 37). Both groups were subdivided into high and low cognitive reserve, and were asked to complete an explicit and implicit associative recognition tasks. The results showed that the control group was able to learn both tasks (η2 = .19, p < .0001), and the high CR group fared better (η2 = .06, p < .05). The MCI sample, conversely, was unable to learn the implicit relationship, and showed very little learning on the explicit association task. Participants diagnosed with MCI showed little pl…

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Reminiscence and dementia: a therapeutic intervention.

ABSTRACTBackground:Dementia is a significant public health problem. One non-pharmacological therapy that has shown its effectiveness is reminiscence, which is a psychological intervention designed to address issues of particular relevance to older adults. The aim of this study was to examine the benefits of an integrative reminiscence program in elderly people with dementia.Methods:A quasi-experimental design and purposeful sampling were conducted at two retirement homes. Forty-two elderly adults with dementia were studied to measure the effect of the therapy (23 in the experimental group and 19 in the control group). The treatment group activity was held in 10 sessions.Results:The treatmen…

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Differences in false recollection according to the cognitive reserve of healthy older people

We present an associative recognition experiment comparing three samples of healthy people (young people, older people with high cognitive reserve [HCR], and older people with low cognitive reserve [LCR], with each sample consisting of 40 people), manipulating stimuli repetition during the study phase. The results show significant differences among the three samples in their overall performance. However, these differences are not due to a different use of familiarity, but rather due to a different way of using recollection: although there are no differences in the hit rates between the HRC and LRC samples, the LCR group makes significantly more recollective false alarms than the HCR group. …

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The Effects of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion on Improving the Capacity to Adapt to Stress Situations in Elderly People Living in the Community

ABSTRACTObjectives: This study aimed to show the effectiveness of mindfulness and self-compassion therapy in improving coping ability and adaptation to stressful situations in the elderly.Methods: Forty-five elderly non-institutionalized adults were randomized to either treatment or a treatment waiting list. A pre- and post-treatment assessment was performed, consisting of the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), and Coping Strategies Questionnaire. The program was developed over 10 sessions lasting 120 minutes each.Results: Analysis of variance for repeated measures showed significant differences in the time-group interaction for the treatment’s eff…

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Compensation strategies in older adults: sociodemographic and cognitive reserve differences

Los términos de reserva cognitiva y compensación, han sido utilizados en una amplia variedad de situaciones en la literatura científica para referirse a la superación o reducción de las pérdidas o déficits en diferentes mecanismos y procesos como es la memoria. A través del Memory Compensation Questionnaire (MCQ), se pretende analizar los diferentes mecanismos de compensación en relación con ciertas variables sociodemográficas (edad, genero y nivel educativo) de una muestra española y establecer, a partir de una medida combinada de reserva cognitiva (RC), las diferencias existentes entre sujetos con alta y baja reserva en el uso de mecanismos de compensación. Se evaluó a 264 sujetos jubilad…

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Coping Strategies: Gender Differences and Development throughout Life Span

Development during life-span implies to cope with stressful events, and this coping may be done with several strategies. It could be useful to know if these coping strategies differ as a consequence of personal characteristics. This work uses the Coping with Stress Questionnaire with this aim using a sample of 400 participants. Specifically, the effects of gender and age group (young people, middle age and elderly), as well as its interaction on coping strategies is studied. With regard to age, on one hand, it is hypothesised a decrement in the use of coping strategies centred in problem solving and social support seeking as age increases. On the other hand, the use of emotional coping is h…

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Resilience and Coping as Predictors of Well-Being in Adults.

Well-being is one of the keys to successful and optimal development across the lifespan. Based on the idea that development involves changes in individuals' adaptive capacity to meet their needs over time, the changes that occur in the second half of life require effort to adapt to the new reality. This study used a structural model to test the effects of coping strategies and resilience on well-being in a sample of 305 mid-life adults. Several constructs were measured: coping strategies, resilience, and well-being. A final model was obtained with good fit indices; psychological well-being was positively predicted by resilience and negatively by emotional coping. Moreover, positive reapprai…

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Is Age Just a Number? Cognitive Reserve as a Predictor of Divergent Thinking in Late Adulthood

The purpose of the study was to test a model of causal relationships among cognitive reserve (CR), personality variables such as Neuroticism and Openness to experience, and divergent thinking (DT), independently evaluating performance in different domains (verbal and graphic). It was hypothesized that CR, Openness, and Neuroticism would each directly influence verbal and graphic DT. A total of 135 subjects between 55 and 84 years old participated in the study and were interviewed in individual sessions. For a correct fit Neuroticism was eliminated from the measurement model. The goodness-of-fit indexes of the measurement model, the adequate composite reliability index and the discriminant v…

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Effects on intermittent postural control in people with Parkinson's due to a dual task.

Objectives The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of performing a dual task on the sway density plot parameters in Parkinson's disease and control subjects. Methods A cross-sectional design was used to establish differences in the mean peak, mean time, and mean distance between a group with Parkinson's disease and a control group without Parkinson's disease. The subjects performed, in a unique measurement session, two trials under three different randomized conditions: i. eyes open, ii. eyes closed, and iii. Eyes open with foam base. One trial was performed as a single task (i.e., the subjects completed one of the balance test), while the other trial was performed as a du…

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Bem-estar psicológico em função da etapa de vida, sexo e sua interação

Objetivo. Evaluar las diferencias en las dimensiones del bienestar psicológico en función de los grupos de edad, sexo y su interacción. Método. Se obtuvo una muestra de 706 participantes, dividida en tres grupos de edad (jóvenes, adultos y adultos mayores), quienes respondieron a las escalas de bienestar psicológico de Ryff. Se calculó un Manova teniendo en cuenta las variables grupo de edad, sexo y su interacción. Posteriormente, se realizaron varios Anova para conocer entre cuáles grupos existían diferencias para cada dimensión. Resultados. El análisis mostró una disminución, con la edad, en las dimensiones de bienestar psicológico de relaciones positivas con otros y crecimiento personal,…

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Adapting and validating the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for elderly Spanish population.

ABSTRACTObjectives:This study aims to adapt and validate the most common measure of self-esteem, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), in the elderly Spanish population based on the initial one-factor model proposed by the author of the scale.Design:The factorial validity of the scale was tested using confirmatory factor analysis.Setting:The study was carried out in the city of Valencia (Spain).Participants:A total of 231 elderly people with a mean age 72.68 (SD=8.55).Measurements:The participants completed the questionnaire RSES for the validation process, sociodemographic data and Mini-Mental State Examination.Results:Confirmatory factor analysis with a five-item structure for the one-f…

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The effects of instrumental reminiscence on resilience and coping in elderly

A B S T R A C T Objectives: Aging, as a stage of development is marked by major changes to which the subject must adapt. Instrumental reminiscence is based on recalling times one coped with stressful circumstances, and analyzing what it took to adapt in those situations. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effectiveness of an instrumental reminiscent program to enhance adaptive capacity (problemfocused coping and emotion-focused) and resilience in older adults. Method: Thirty participants noninstitutionalized conducted a pre and post assessment on a treatment consisting of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Brief Resilient Coping Scale and Stress Coping Questionnaire …

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Resilience and coping as predictors of general well-being in the elderly: A structural equation modeling approach

The aims of this article are: (a) to test for the validity of the three constructs involved in the structural model; (b) to test for the effects of both coping strategies and resilient coping on well-being in a sample of elderly, by means of a structural model with latent variables; (c) to empirically study whether a brief scale of resilient coping could predict well-being over and above that predicted by the coping resources.The research is a survey design. The sample consisted of 225 non-institutionalized elderly people living in the city of Valencia (Spain). The three constructs measured were: well-being, resilient coping, and coping strategies.The analyses consist of a series of alterna…

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Autobiographical memory for the differential diagnosis of cognitive pathology in aging

Aim The present study distinguishes three memory stages across the lifespan, and aims to compare episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in healthy older adults, with amnesic mild cognitive impairment, and with Alzheimer's disease. This information can offer evidence about the way semantic and episodic autobiographical memory work, and how the disease affects them. Methods The sample was composed of 56 people, all aged over 60 years; 15 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, 12 with Alzheimer's disease and 29 healthy older people. Participants were evaluated with the Autobiographical Memory Interview. Results A mixed anova showed significant main effects of memory and time-period, a…

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Idle minds are the devil's tools? Coping, depressed mood and divergent thinking in older adults.

The main aim was to test a causal relations model of the problem-focused and emotion-focused coping styles, depressed mood, and divergent thinking (DT) in older adults. It was hypothesized that both forms of coping would have a significant effect on predicting depressed mood, and that problem-focused coping and depressed mood would have a significant effect on DT.Participants were 135 subjects with ages ranging between 55 and 84 years old, who took part in a personal interview and filled out several questionnaires. The statistical analysis included structural equations models (SEM).The initial model led to a final model endorsed by the goodness of fit, composite reliability, and discriminan…

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Effectiveness of follow-up reminiscence therapy on autobiographical memory in pathological ageing

The objective is to examine the effects of reminiscence therapy (RT) on total, episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) groups, testing the effects of RT on different stages of autobiographical memory, and its effectiveness at follow-up. A sample composed of 43 aMCI (27 treatments, 16 controls) and 30 AD (15 treatments, 15 controls) subjects were evaluated with the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) test. The RT consisted of 10 sessions lasting 60 minutes each. Both groups, aMCI and AD, showed significant effects on overall autobiographical memory; aMCI showed significant main effects on episodic and semanti…

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Divergent Thinking in Older Adults : Understanding its Role in Well-being

The purpose of the study was to explore the nature of the relationship between Divergent Thinking and Well-being. Two theoretical models about the relationship between Divergent thinking, Psychological well-being and Life Satisfaction were tested. A total of 152 subjects between 65 and 84 years old participated in the study. Final model emphasises the idea that PWB is affected by DT and that PWB is also significantly related to LS. The model also highlights the importance of four dimensions of well-being: environmental mastery, life purpose, personal growth and self-acceptance. The goodness-of-fit indexes confirmed the existence of a significant relationship between DT and well-being, and b…

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The effects of healthy aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease on recollection, familiarity and false recognition, estimated by an associative process-dissociation recognition procedure

Given the uneven experimental results in the literature regarding whether or not familiarity declines with healthy aging and cognitive impairment, we compare four samples (healthy young people, healthy older people, older people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment - aMCI -, and older people with Alzheimer's disease - AD -) on an associative recognition task, which, following the logic of the process-dissociation procedure, allowed us to obtain corrected estimates of recollection, familiarity and false recognition. The results show that familiarity does not decline with healthy aging, but it does with cognitive impairment, whereas false recognition increases with healthy aging, but decli…

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Estrategias de compensación en adultos mayores: Diferencias sociodemográficas y en función de la reserva cognitiva

Resumen: Los terminos de reserva cognitiva y compensacion, han sido utilizados en una amplia variedad de situaciones en la literatura cientifica para referirse a la superacion o reduccion de las perdidas o deficits en diferentes mecanismos y procesos como es la memoria. A traves del Memory Compensation Questionnaire (MCQ), se pretende analizar los diferentes mecanismos de compensacion en relacion con ciertas variables sociodemograficas (edad, genero y nivel educativo) de una muestra espanola y establecer, a partir de una medida combinada de reserva cognitiva (RC), las diferencias existentes entre sujetos con alta y baja reserva en el uso de mecanismos de compensacion. Se evaluo a 264 sujeto…

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Adaptation and Initial Validation of the BRCS in an Elderly Spanish Sample

Resilience is understood as a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of adversity. This study examined the validity of the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), a 4-item measure designed to capture tendencies to cope with stress in a highly adaptive manner, in an elderly Spanish population. A total of 133 elderly people from an association of retired persons in Valencia (Spain) provided the responses for the validation study. The factorial validity of the scale was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, with a single dimension of resilience with adequate fit indexes emerging from this analysis. The BRCS has adequate internal consistency both at the scale and…

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