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The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people across the world, with important heterogeneity among older adults in how they respond to the challenges associated with this crisis. Relying on a cross-fertilization between Erikson’s personality theory and self-determination theory, this study aimed to exam...

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Autores principales: van der Kaap-Deeder, Jolene, Vermote, Branko, Waterschoot, Joachim, Soenens, Bart, Morbée, Sofie, Vansteenkiste, Maarten
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7914386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33679277
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00610-0
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author van der Kaap-Deeder, Jolene
Vermote, Branko
Waterschoot, Joachim
Soenens, Bart
Morbée, Sofie
Vansteenkiste, Maarten
author_facet van der Kaap-Deeder, Jolene
Vermote, Branko
Waterschoot, Joachim
Soenens, Bart
Morbée, Sofie
Vansteenkiste, Maarten
author_sort van der Kaap-Deeder, Jolene
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people across the world, with important heterogeneity among older adults in how they respond to the challenges associated with this crisis. Relying on a cross-fertilization between Erikson’s personality theory and self-determination theory, this study aimed to examine possible sources of resilience (i.e., ego integrity and need satisfaction) and vulnerability (i.e., despair) in older adults’ (mal) adjustment, thereby additionally considering the role of multiple risk and protective factors (e.g., gender and marital status). During the second month of the lockdown period in Belgium, 693 older adults (M(age) = 70.06, SD = 4.48, range: 65–89 years, 62.1% female) filled out online questionnaires concerning the study variables, while also completing assessments of several important sociodemographic factors. Structural equation modeling suggested that both ego integrity and despair related to indicators of well-being and psychological distress through experienced need satisfaction. Additionally, we found several factors to protect (e.g., higher perceived income) or diminish (e.g., being widowed) older adults’ well-being during these challenging times, with little evidence for a moderating role of these factors in associations between the psychological variables. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-79143862021-03-01 The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences van der Kaap-Deeder, Jolene Vermote, Branko Waterschoot, Joachim Soenens, Bart Morbée, Sofie Vansteenkiste, Maarten Eur J Ageing Original Investigation The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people across the world, with important heterogeneity among older adults in how they respond to the challenges associated with this crisis. Relying on a cross-fertilization between Erikson’s personality theory and self-determination theory, this study aimed to examine possible sources of resilience (i.e., ego integrity and need satisfaction) and vulnerability (i.e., despair) in older adults’ (mal) adjustment, thereby additionally considering the role of multiple risk and protective factors (e.g., gender and marital status). During the second month of the lockdown period in Belgium, 693 older adults (M(age) = 70.06, SD = 4.48, range: 65–89 years, 62.1% female) filled out online questionnaires concerning the study variables, while also completing assessments of several important sociodemographic factors. Structural equation modeling suggested that both ego integrity and despair related to indicators of well-being and psychological distress through experienced need satisfaction. Additionally, we found several factors to protect (e.g., higher perceived income) or diminish (e.g., being widowed) older adults’ well-being during these challenging times, with little evidence for a moderating role of these factors in associations between the psychological variables. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. Springer Netherlands 2021-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7914386/ /pubmed/33679277 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00610-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Investigation
van der Kaap-Deeder, Jolene
Vermote, Branko
Waterschoot, Joachim
Soenens, Bart
Morbée, Sofie
Vansteenkiste, Maarten
The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
title The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
title_full The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
title_fullStr The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
title_full_unstemmed The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
title_short The role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
title_sort role of ego integrity and despair in older adults’ well-being during the covid-19 crisis: the mediating role of need-based experiences
topic Original Investigation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7914386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33679277
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00610-0
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