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Browsing by Author "Diehl, Manfred, advisor"

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    Assessment of physical health, physical performance, and physical activity in exercise promotion intervention for older adults
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Forsyth, Garrett, author; Diehl, Manfred, advisor; Luong, Gloria, committee member; Li, Kaigang, committee member
    This study examined the effects of an intervention program, known as AgingPlus, on indicators of physical health (i.e. systolic and diastolic blood pressure), physical performance (i.e. left- and right-hand grip strength), and physical activity levels (i.e. total steps walked, total kilocalorie expenditure, and total distance). The sample included 120 older-adult participants who were relatively healthy and community residing. The study used a randomized pretest-posttest control group design. Findings showed that NVOA and self-efficacy beliefs did not mediate the association between the intervention and the outcome variables. We found that participants in the treatment and the control group improved their physical health, physical performance, and physical activity from the baseline assessment to the Week 8 follow-up. Additionally, the results showed that only participants in the treatment condition significantly decreased their systolic and diastolic blood pressure and significantly improved their left- and right-hand grip strength over an eight-week interval. These findings suggest that targeting NVOA and self-efficacy beliefs may be an effective strategy to optimize adults' healthy aging.
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    Awareness of age-related change (AARC): measurement, conceptual status, and role for promoting successful aging
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Brothers, Allyson F., author; Diehl, Manfred, advisor; Bielak, Allison, committee member; Fidler, Deborah, committee member; Henry, Kimberly, committee member
    Recent renewed interest has arisen regarding the ways in which individuals experience the process of growing older, an area of research known as subjective aging. A growing body of research shows a consistent pattern of results in which subjective aging exerts wide-reaching and consequential influence on both physical functioning as well as psychological well-being in later life. Historically, research has relied on simplistic, unidimensional measures, that while quite predictive of developmental outcomes, are somewhat of a 'black box' in that it is not understood exactly what information people rely on to make them. Therefore, the construct awareness of age-related change (AARC) was developed to yield insight into the specific behavioral domains in which aging experiences are noticed. Given the need for such a construct in the literature, the manuscript in Chapter 2 focuses on the development of a reliable and valid assessment tool to measure awareness of age-related change (AARC). Not only is such a construct more representative of leading theories in adult development and aging, it is also vital for understanding how people experience aging in different life domains. Therefore, the manuscript in Chapter 3 will explore how AARC is similar to and distinct from existing subjective aging constructs, and also how it is related to important physical and psychological outcome variables. Chapter 4 then extends the current state of research regarding subjective aging, which has largely been observational in nature, and attends to the issues of intervention design: Given the mounting evidence of the importance of attitudinal variables of aging, Chapter 4 explores the following questions: 1) Can more realistic and positive attitudes toward aging be promoted through intervention? and 2) Does modifying attitudes have tangible effects on health behavior promotion?
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    Emotion regulation in the context of daily stress across the adult lifespan
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Chui, Helena, author; Diehl, Manfred, advisor; Henry, Kimberly L., advisor; McCabe, David P., committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn M., committee member
    Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in psychological functioning across the lifespan. This study examined within-person variability and between-person differences in emotion regulation in adults of different ages. Participants (N = 239) filled out daily diaries and were interviewed daily for 30 consecutive days. Using the dynamical systems approach, emotion regulation was conceptualized as the tendency for affect to return towards the equilibrium. The study specifically examined the regulation of affect to return towards equilibrium in response to daily stressors. Results indicated that positive and negative affect showed a self-regulatory pattern, such that daily affect oscillated around the equilibrium and excessive departure from the equilibrium was avoided. For positive affect, the effect of daily stressors became non-significant when the control variable, physical symptoms, was entered in the model. Physical symptoms were associated with a faster return towards equilibrium when positive affect was above equilibrium. Whereas, when positive affect was below equilibrium, physical symptoms were associated with a slower return towards equilibrium. Neuroticism, self-concept incoherence, and age did not predict the regulation of positive and negative affect. The control variable, mean positive affect across 30 days, showed a significant cross-level interaction effect with daily stressors on the regulation of positive affect. Substantively, for individuals with higher positive affect in general, the effect of daily stressors on the regulation of positive affect was weaker. No within-person or between-person variables predicted the regulation of negative affect. Overall, these findings provided partial support that positive affect has a protective effect on emotion regulation. This study extends the current understanding of the regulation of daily affect and raises further questions for future research to test how emotion is regulated and how features of daily stressors are associated with the pattern of emotion regulation.
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    Views of aging: their measurement, associations with the paradox of well-being, and malleability in the second half of life
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Tseng, Han Yun, author; Diehl, Manfred, advisor; Bielak, Allison, committee member; Luong, Gloria, committee member; Henry, Kimberly, committee member
    As individuals age, they accumulate experiences that not only mark their position in the course of life, but also shape their feelings, beliefs, and attitudes towards aging, collectively known as subjective views of aging (VoA). Negative VoA, whether assessed explicitly through self-report questionnaires or implicitly via computer-administered subliminal priming tasks, consistently correlate with poorer self-rated health status, diminished functional outcomes, and reduced longevity in later life. Drawing upon the extensive VoA literature, this dissertation proposed three distinct yet related research themes of VoA, examining their measurement, their moderating role in buffering the impacts of declining health on subjective well-being (SWB), and their malleability via intervention. Specifically, the first manuscript in Chapter 2 validated a multidimensional VoA questionnaire, the Awareness of Age-Related Changes (AARC) scale, in a sample of Taiwanese older adults. This study also explored cross-cultural similarities and differences in AARC-gains and AARC-losses by examining measurement invariance with a comparable older adult sample in Germany. Chapter 3 investigated divergent trajectories of health and SWB from age 60s to 80s, known as the paradox of well-being in late life, using a 20-year longitudinal cohort study from Germany. To gain a more nuanced understanding of the well-being paradox, this manuscript explored the moderating role of VoA in the decoupled developmental trajectories of health and SWB. Chapter 4 focused on the malleability of adults' implicit and explicit VoA in the context of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Whereas most interventions targeting older adults' negative VoA typically evaluated their efficacy based on explicit, self-reported VoA, this manuscript contrasted the intervention effects of the AgingPLUS program on explicit and implicit VoA. This study also examined the extent to which positive intervention-induced changes in explicit VoA were contingent upon varying levels of implicit VoA. Overall, the results derived from the three manuscripts aimed to (1) enhance the assessment and research of VoA in non-Western cultures and societies, (2) provide empirical support for VoA as positive age-related psychosocial processes contributing to high levels of well-being, and (3) inform the design of future interventions leveraging VoA for promoting successful and optimal aging among middle-aged and older adults. Overall, these findings underscored the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to measuring VoA across diverse aging populations. They also highlighted the potential of interventions promoting more positive VoA foster resilience and well-being in the second half of life.