Perceived expectations for active aging: the role of motivational and personality factors.

Objectives: Perceived expectations for active aging (PEAA) reflect subjective exposure to social expectations about staying active and fit in old age, for example, by maintaining health and social engagement. We investigated whether motivational and personality factors were related to PEAA in the domains of physical health, mental health, and social engagement.

Method: We used a nationally representative sample of German adults (SOEP-IS) covering the entire adult life span ( = 2,007, age range 16-94 years) to test our pre-registered hypotheses.

A dual process model of spontaneous conscious thought.

In the present article, I review theory and evidence on the psychological mechanisms of mind wandering, paying special attention to its relation with executive control. I then suggest applying a dual-process framework (i.e.

Manipulating prescriptive views of active aging and altruistic disengagement.

Older adults are faced with prescriptions to remain fit and socially engaged (active aging) or limit consumption of social resources (altruistic disengagement), and violations of these may result in backlash and marginalization. Despite such negative consequences that prescriptive views of aging (PVoA) may have for older adults, whether PVoA endorsement is modifiable is still to be examined. Thus, in our study, we investigated the malleability of PVoA endorsement.

Volunteering and political participation are differentially associated with eudaimonic and social well-being across age groups and European countries.

Voluntary participation is thought to promote the well-being of engaged individuals, especially in old age, but prior evidence on this link is mixed. In the present studies, we used the cross-sectional data from Round 6 (2012) of the European Social Survey (ESS) to investigate the variation in the associations between voluntary participation and eudaimonic (e.g.

Age, Individual Resources, and Perceived Expectations for Active Aging: General and Domain-Specific Effects.

Exposure to expectations for active aging may be modulated by age and individual resources (socioeconomic status, social integration, and health) via multiple pathways. Using a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of adults aged 17 to 94 ( = 2,007), we investigated the relations between age, individual resources, and perceived expectations for active aging (PEAA) in three domains (physical health, mental health, and social engagement). Across domains, young adults and individuals aged 70+ reported slightly lower PEAA than emerging adults did; no other age differences emerged.

Do workers accumulate resources during continuous employment and lose them during unemployment, and what does that mean for their subjective well-being?

Drawing on cumulative advantage/disadvantage and conservation of resources theories, I investigated changes in economic, social, and personal resources and in subjective well-being (SWB) of workers as they stayed continuously employed or continuously unemployed. I considered age, gender, and SES as potential amplifiers of inequality in resources and SWB. Using 28 yearly waves from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP 1985-2012), I conducted multilevel analysis with observations nested within participants.

Applying the volunteer process model to predict future intentions for civic and political participation: same antecedents, different experiences?

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the volunteer process model (VPM), we compared proximal (the TPB variables) and distal (general social support and sense of community) antecedents and quality of experience between civic (CP) and political (PP) participation. Outcome variables were future intentions. We used data from a mail survey of 3,231 adults with or without prior CP or PP experience.

Does participation in voluntary organizations protect against risky alcohol and tobacco use? Findings from the UK panel data.

Drawing on the literature that posits heterogeneous influences of social networks on health behaviors, we tested whether different forms of participation in voluntary organizations predicted more or less alcohol and tobacco consumption over time. (Access preregistration at https://osf.io/guzem/) We used panel data from younger (aged 14-29 at baseline), middle-aged (aged 40-50), and older (aged 65-75) UK adults, s = 1280-9073, followed from 1991 to 2014.

Effects of voluntary memberships and volunteering on alcohol and tobacco use across the life course: Findings from the German Socio-Economic Panel.

Background: It is unclear whether specific components of individual social capital promote or protect against substance use and whether such effects vary across the life course. In this study, we investigated the effects of voluntary memberships and volunteering on alcohol and tobacco consumption in age comparison.

Methods: Preregistration is accessible at https://osf.

Social Comparison in Coping With Occupational Uncertainty: Self-Improvement, Self-Enhancement, and the Regional Context.

Objective: Taking into account the regional context, we investigated whether social comparison in coping with occupational uncertainty served self-improvement (i.e., adaptive coping) or self-enhancement (i.

Warm and Supportive Parenting Can Discourage Offspring's Civic Engagement in the Transition to Adulthood.

It is widely believed that warm and supportive parenting fosters all kinds of prosocial behaviors in the offspring, including civic engagement. However, accumulating international evidence suggests that the effects of family support on civic engagement may sometimes be negative. To address this apparent controversy, we identified several scenarios for the negative effects of supportive parenting on youth civic engagement and tested them using four waves of data from the Finnish Educational Transitions Studies.

Perceived Expectations for Active Aging, Formal Productive Roles, and Psychological Adjustment Among the Young-Old.

We investigated how older adults' perceptions of societal expectations for active aging, or activation demands (e.g., to stay fit and to contribute to the public good), relate to their involvement in paid work and formal volunteering and psychological adjustment.

Changing contexts of youth development: an overview of recent social trends and a psychological model.

Globalization and economic change are translated into a variety of changes in the proximal contexts of youth development, which are perceived and tackled differently by different individuals.

Participation in voluntary organizations and volunteer work as a compensation for the absence of work or partnership? Evidence from two German samples of younger and older adults.

Objectives: We tested whether formal volunteering, in terms of its associations with mental health, compensates for the absence of major work and family roles among older adults or rather complements such roles among both younger and older adults.

Method: Two cross-sectional samples of younger (aged 18-42 years, N = 2,346) and older (aged 56-75 years, N = 1,422) German adults were used. We regressed mental health indicators on control variables, 2 indicators of formal volunteering (participation in voluntary organizations and volunteer work), and their interactions with employment/partnership status.

Dispositional optimism fosters opportunity-congruent coping with occupational uncertainty.

Objective: We investigated the relationship between dispositional optimism and coping with growing occupational uncertainty, drawing on the life span theory of control to assess coping.

Method: Participants were 606 German adults with various sociodemographic backgrounds, aged 16-43. They were interviewed at the end of 2005 (Time 1) and at the beginning of 2007 (Time 2).

Age, cumulative (dis)advantage, and subjective well-being in employed and unemployed Germans: a moderated mediation model.

The negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being (SWB) is well known, but the role of age in this relationship remains unclear. We suggest that cumulative advantage (or disadvantage) associated with the duration of current employment status may produce an age-related divergence in SWB between employed and unemployed individuals. We used cross-sectional data on employed (n = 1382) and unemployed (n = 254) Germans (age 18-42) surveyed in 2005.

Early, on-time, and late behavioural autonomy in adolescence: psychosocial correlates in young and middle adulthood.

Drawing on two nationally representative German studies (N(1) = 1744, N(2) = 759), we examined correlates of early, on-time, and late curfew autonomy, a retrospective indicator of behavioural autonomy, in young and middle adulthood (19-37 years of age). Adjustment in four domains was considered: educational attainment, externalizing problem behaviour, subjective well-being, and interpersonal relationships. The early group showed lower adjustment in multiple domains across young and middle adulthood.