Do negative life events promote gerotranscendence in the second half of life?

Objectives: Gerotranscendence has been defined as a developmental shift in meta-perspective from a materialistic and pragmatic view to a more cosmic and transcendent view. Although gerotranscendence has been argued to increase with age and life experiences, the results have been mixed and based on cross-sectional studies. We use a longitudinal setting to investigate the role of negative life events, age, and gender on change in one dimension of gerotranscendence, cosmic transcendence. Method: 1569 individuals (ages 58-89) answered a questionnaire on cosmic transcendence in two cycles of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam in 1995-1996 (time 1) and 1998-1999 (time 2). Controlling for educ…