Terminal change and adaptation of subjective well-being in very old age: The role of physical health and health- and death-related anxieties in the approach of the end of life

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Oliver Karl Schilling
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2008 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 73500217

This project aims to contribute in-depth studies of the psychological consequences of degrading physical health in very old age, focussing on adaptation of subjective wellbeing (SWB). It addresses basic research gaps regarding findings on this particular age group and the consideration of the particular importance of mortality in such oldest-old study. The objectives are (1) to examine the impact of health constraints on changes in SWB in very old age, (2) to examine the impacts of contextual aspects of the physical environment, as well as (3) of health- and death-related anxieties on such adaptational changes, the latter objectives both addressing assumably fundamental aspects under oldest-old age conditions, which have hardly been considered in adaptation research. Following-up a previously generated sample of very old, the study serves to extend this existing data body into a enlarged longitudinal format, enabling in-depth analyses of adaptational and mortality-related changes by use of sophisticated longitudinal methodology (such as growth curve models, survival analyses). The suggested research aims to contribute to the lack of knowledge about extent, limits, and confounders of adaptation in the age group crucially affected by increasing morbidity risks.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Frank Oswald; Professor Dr. Hans-Werner Wahl