The individuals who have adjusted to their way of life constitute the largest number among the population over 85 that does not suffer from cognitive deterioration. As they have been growing old, their physical state and health have deteriorated, but this has not affected their emotional level: they have managed to adjust to their new situation. To address problems and, in general, to regulate their emotions, they resort, above all, to passive strategies and, to a lesser extent, to proactive ones. Two profiles that are more frequent among younger individuals –that of unhappy and dissatisfied individuals- hardly emerge at all among the over 85s.
After the age of 85, passive strategies are used to regulate problems and emotions
The Matia Institute and the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country have got together to study how emotional functioning changes as people grow older
First publication date: 09/04/2015
In a joint piece of research of the Matia Institute and the UPV/EHU, the PhD thesis of the psychologist Igone Etxeberria-Arritxabal has focussed on elderly people over the age of 85, and has studied their emotional situation, their strategies for regulating their emotions and other aspects of their emotional functioning. "We know very little about people in that age bracket since most of the studies are conducted on people under 80. And this will in fact be the population group that is going to grow the most over the coming years," pointed out Etxeberria. Besides emotional functioning, this study has looked at other factors, like personality, activity level in daily life, enabling activities, state of health and social support to determine how they influence this functioning.
"It is very interesting to study and get to know the emotional functioning of the over 85s, and also to find out what factors influence this because, after this age, the prevalence of disease increases as do functional, cognitive and sensory limitations. These changes may affect the emotional part of the person and cause their well-being to deteriorate," said the researcher.
So as not to restrict the study to the very elderly, people from younger population groups were also studied and the results were compared. 257 people over 65 were asked to complete a questionnaire in order to find out their physical and emotional characteristics. The results were classified into three groups: the first corresponding to the 65-74 age group; the second, to the group between 75 and 84, and the last one corresponding to the over 85s. With respect to the results of the people over 85, Etxeberria emphasises that "only a part of the total population in this age bracket were studied, in other words, I worked on a biased sample because I needed people who did not have any cognitive disorders, because the questionnaires to be filled in were quite ‘hard-going'. And only 30% of the population in this age bracket have no cognitive problems."
Trends… and differences
To find out the emotional functioning of these people, the study looked at positive and negative effects, their level of satisfaction with life, loneliness, and finally, their strategies for regulating their emotions. Three groups or profiles were detected: the dissatisfied ones, the happy ones and the resilient ones. In each age bracket, the main profile and the prevalence of the rest varied, "so we deduced that age does in fact exert an influence," said Etxeberria. As age increases, the largest group is that of resilient people, in other words, that of the ones who do not enjoy great positive affectivity but who do not suffer great negative affectivity either and who regulate their emotions in a very passive way (they tend to accept the situations and to sidestep or avoid problems). The other two profiles, by contrast, find their contingent is reduced as they advance in age.
Etxeberria extracted the ageing profiles by adding variables of other aspects of life to emotional functioning: functional capacity, state of health, personality and social support. In this aspect, the researcher describes four profiles: the happy people, the dissatisfied ones, the adjusted ones and the frail-isolated ones. As in the previous case, in this one, too, it can be observed that with the advancing years the predominance of the profiles varies: after the age of 85 the majority are adjusted people, in other words, those who even with their physical faculties severely depleted, adjust to their new situation. The group of frail-isolated people also "accounts for a considerable number in this bracket. They are people with a high level of neuroticism, significant loneliness and little social support. With the advancing years, the number of happy people gradually falls —in other words the number of people who are adaptive and enjoy an excellent life quality in terms of health— and the dissatisfied group, in other words, that of those people with a high level of neuroticism and negative affectivity and who resort to proactive strategies to regulate their emotions).
Aside from the trends, diversity within each age bracket is very important, according to Etxeberria: "After 85 the profile with the highest number of people is that of adjusted people, but there are also happy people in that group. And, conversely, although the adjusted people are higher in number after the age of 85, they are also present in the remaining age brackets. The individual differences are very important when it comes to planning care and activities relating to the respective profiles. At the end of the day, we are all different, and each one has to be offered the care he or she wants and needs."
Additional information
Igone Etxeberria-Arritxabal (Hernani, Basque Country, 1972) wrote up her PhD thesis in the Department of Basic Psychological Processes and their Development on the UPV/EHU's Donostia-San Sebastian campus, and worked in close collaboration with the Matia Institute to carry out her research. The co-supervisors of her thesis were Itziar Etxebarria-Bilbao, the UPV/EHU's current Ombudswoman, and Jose Javier Yanguas-Lezaun of the Matia Institute. Title of the thesis: Funcionamiento emocional en las personas muy mayores: variables descriptivas y predictoras (Emotional functioning in the very elderly: descriptive and predictive variables).
References
Etxeberria, I, Etxebarria, I. y Yanguas, J. J. (2014). "La regulación emocional en las personas muy mayores". Oral communication presented at the Eighth Symposium of the AME. Granada.
Etxeberria, I., Yanguas, J.J., Etxebarria, I., Urdaneta, E.(2011). Emotion regulation strategies: age differences in elderly people. Aging Clinical and Experimental research vol 23,(1), p 131-ISSN1594-0667/Online ISSN 1720-8319
Etxeberria, I., Urdaneta, E., Etxebarria, I., Galdona. N., Yanguas, J.J. (2011). Association between personality traits and the use of emotion regulation strategies for the management of sandez in elderly people. Aging Clinical and Experimental research vol 23,(1), p 261- ISSN1594-0667/Online ISSN 1720-8319
Photo caption: After the age of 85 most people are adjusted: even if their physical faculties are severely depleted, they adjust to their new situation.
Información editada por
OFICINA DE COMUNICACIÓN de la UPV/EHU