"No matter how old I am, I don’t like what my stomach looks like." Lifespan perspective on the changes in self-assessment of attractiveness and life satisfaction in women
The study aimed to examine the association between self-assessment of attractiveness and life satisfaction in women, where age was a potential moderator of this relationship. A cross-sectional study of 360 women aged 18 to 89 was performed. Participants assessed their overall attractiveness, the attractiveness of their individual body parts, and their life satisfaction. The relationship between the assessment of attractiveness of particular body parts and life satisfaction depended on age. The results indicate that not only overall self-attractiveness, but also the perceived attractiveness of particular body parts (different in each distinguished age group: 18-25, 30-45 and 60+) can be cons…
Intersexual competition among humans: prosocial towards the opposite sex and proself towards the same sex?
In a research conducted on a sample of participants from three countries (N = 256): Poland, Ukraine and Denmark, a hypothesis of the moderating impact of other person sex on the level of social value orientation of men and women was tested. The study applied the now rarely used method of measuring social value orientation: the Warsaw Method, which was expected to reveal more subtle differences between men and women than those observed in the studies using the most popular social value orientation measurement tools, such as decomposed games. The direction of the observed relationship proved to be compatible with the predictions resulting from the phenomenon of intrasexual competition for a p…
Multidimensional Sexual Well-being Scale for Older Adults: Validity Evidence from a Polish Sample
Here, we report the results of a Polish adaptation of the Multidimensional Sexual Well-being Scale (MSWBS) for older adults. The MSWBS is a short self-report scale for assessing the five dimensions of an individual's sexual well-being: frequency of caressing, sexual intimacy, sexual compliance, sexual satisfaction, and sexual distress. The aim of our adaptation was to examine the utility of the scale in a country with conservative views on the sexuality of older people, which will help health care providers and researchers to better understand the sexual needs of older people. The study included 507 participants, aged 60-92. We found the reliability of the scale to be satisfactory (Cronbach…
Digital or In-Person: The Relationship Between Mode of Interpersonal Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health in Older Adults From 27 Countries
Social distancing has limited the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), but also changed communication patterns. However, studies of how mental health in older adults relates to the usage of different modes of interpersonal communication are sparse. The aim of this study was to analyze how COVID-19-related changes in the frequencies of using different modes of communication (digital or in-person) have influenced mental health in older adults from 27 countries. Our study was based on part of Wave 8 of the SHARE data set, which focused on the living situation of older adults during the pandemic. Findings suggest that in-person communication benefited mental health in people aged ≥60 years mo…