The psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) were examined in a sample of 185 mothers and fathers. Factor analysis revealed 2 reasonably distinct factors involving parental distress and dysfunctional parent-child interactions. Both scales were internally consistent, and these scales were correlated with measures of parent psychopathology, parental perceptions of child adjustment, and observed parent and child behavior. PSI-SF scores were related to parent reports of child behavior 1 year later, and the Childrearing Stress subscale was a significant predictor of a parental history of abuse.

The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between a new battery of everyday cognition measures, which assessed 4 cognitive abilities within 3 familiar real-world domains, and traditional psychometric tests of the same basic cognitive abilities. Several theoreticians have argued that everyday cognition measures are somewhat distinct from traditional cognitive assessment approaches, and the authors investigated this assertion correlationally in the present study. The sample consisted of 174 community-dwelling older adults from the Detroit metropolitan area, who had an average age of 73 years. Major results of the study showed that (a) each everyday cognitive test was strongly correlated with the basic cognitive abilities; (b) several basic abilities, as well as measures of domain-specific knowledge, predicted everyday cognitive performance; and (c) everyday and basic measures were similarly related to age. The results suggest that everyday cognition is not unrelated to traditional measures, nor is it less sensitive to age-related differences. The present study was conducted to address two questions regarding older adults' cognitive performance with problems drawn from everyday life. First, the validity of several newly developed cognitive assessments using "everyday" stimuli was assessed. Specifically, in this study we examined the relationships between traditional psychometric measures and a new battery of everyday intellectual tasks. Second, within an ethnically heterogeneous sample of older adults ranging from 60 to over 90 years of age, we investigated whether age differences found with everyday cognition measures were similar to those found with psychometric ability tests or whether the greater familiarity and relevance of tasks using real-world stimuli might attenuate cross-sectional age differences as some theorists have proposed. For the purposes of this study, everyday cognition was conceptualized as the performance of individuals on problems using natural stimuli (e.g., real food package labels or official documents), and the problems were constructed to be similar to tasks older individuals might actually be called on to perform in their daily lives (e.g., identifying nutrition information or comparing the value of different financial products). This study is embedded in a larger body of research concerned with understanding the cognitive performance of individuals in the context of their daily lives. Specifically, proponents of the ecological approach have maintained that in the real world individuals can draw on domain-relevant experiences and naturalistic motivations to enhance their cognitive performance (e.g., Ceci & Bronfenbrenner, 1991; Neisser, 1978, 1991; Weisz, 1978) and that relatively "acontextual" laboratory-based assessments of cognition may produce an underestimation of true performance competencies (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Conway, 1991; Wagner, 1986). Historically, it has also been argued that traditional or academic measures of cognition and intelligence are biased tow...

The present study examined 2 approaches to the measurement of everyday cognition in older adults. Measures differing in the degree of structure offered for solving problems in the domains of medication use, financial management, and food preparation and nutrition were administered to a sample of 130 community-dwelling older adults ranging in age from 60 to 90 (M ϭ 73 years, SD ϭ 7.02 years). Well-defined and ill-defined everyday problem-solving measures, which varied in the amount of means-end-related information provided to participants, were used. The study found that (a) well-and ill-defined measures were moderately interrelated, (b) the 2 approaches were differentially related to basic cognitive abilities, and (c) together the 2 approaches explained over half of the variance in older adults' everyday instrumental functioning and were in fact better predictors of everyday functioning than traditional psychometric cognitive measures. Discussion focuses on the differential importance of both methods for assessing older adults' everyday cognitive functioning.Over the past 20 years, a growing focus of gerontological and psychological research has been on the examination of older adults' everyday cognitive functioning. The underlying motivation for this field of inquiry has been the concern that psychometric measures of cognition may not appropriately capture real-world cognitive functioning in older adults (

This study examined consistency of performance, or intraindividual variability, in older adults' performance on 3 measures of cognitive functioning: inductive reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed. Theoretical speculation has suggested that such intraindividual variability may signal underlying vulnerability or neurologic compromise. Thirty-six participants aged 60 and older completed self-administered cognitive assessments twice a day for 60 consecutive days. Intraindividual variability was not strongly correlated among the 3 cognitive measures, but, over the course of the study, intraindividual variability was strongly intercorrelated within a task. Higher average performance on a measure was associated with greater performance variability, and follow-up analyses revealed that a higher level of intraindividual variability is positively associated with the magnitude of a person's practice-related gain on a particular measure. The authors argue that both adaptive (practice-related) and maladaptive (inconsistency-related) intraindividual variability may exist within the same individuals over time. Keywordsinconsistency; older adults; cognitive aging; age effects; intraindividual variability in cognitive performance Short-term intraindividual variability represents transient within-person fluctuations in behavioral performance. Some authors have argued that such variability represents the steady-state "hum" of psychological constructs (Ford, 1987;. Li, Huxhold, and Schmiedek (2004) have argued that such short-term intraindividual variability must be distinguished from longer term and more enduring behavioral changes, which more typically would be referred to as development or change (Baltes, Reese, & Nesselroade, 1977;. The goal of the present study was to explore short-term intraindividual variability in cognition in a sample of community-dwelling older adults and to further understand the association of such intraindividual variability with individual differences in cognitive performance level. The current study also examined whether withinperson variability itself remained a stable (i.e., trait-like) attribute of individuals over a 2-month period of repeated measurement.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jason C. Allaire NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptThis study extends previous research in several ways. First, we examined intraindividual variability in performance accuracy on a set of primarily fluid or mechanic abilities (inductive reasoning, list memory, perceptual speed). Although such measures have been widely studied in the cognitive aging literature (Ball et al., 2002;Singer, Verhaeghen, Ghisletta, Lindenberger, & Baltes, 2003), much of the gerontological research on intraindividual variability has focused on reaction time data (Anstey, 1999;Hultsch, MacDonald, & Dixon, 2002;MacDonald, Hultsch, & Dixon, 2003;Rabbitt, Osman, Moore, & Stollery, 2001;Strauss, MacDonald, Hunter, Moll, & Hultsch, 2002). Second, we included a subst...

We proposed a mediation model to examine the effects of age, education, computer knowledge, and computer anxiety on computer interest in older adults. We hypothesized that computer knowledge and computer anxiety would fully mediate the effects of age and education on computer interest. A sample of 330 older adults from local senior-citizen apartment buildings completed a survey that included an assessment of the constructs included in the model. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the results supported the hypothesized mediation model. In particular, the effect of computer knowledge operated on computer interest through computer anxiety. The effect of age was not fully mitigated by the other model variables, indicating the need for future research that identifies and models other correlates of age and computer interest. The most immediate application of this research is the finding that a simple 3-item instrument can be used to assess computer interest in older populations. This will help professionals plan and implement computer services in public-access settings for older adults. An additional application of this research is the information it provides for training program designers.

The knowledge gained from studying diverse populations should help to address inequities and prepare us to deal with the needs of the increasing number of older minorities in this country. At the same time, research that is not properly conducted threatens to lead us astray and misconstrue relationships and outcomes related to behavioral aspects of aging. In this article, we propose that simple comparisons between groups are neither necessary nor sufficient to advance our understanding of ethnic minorities. We discuss common pitfalls conducted in group-differences research, including a specific treatment on the issue of statistical power issues. Our goal is to encourage the use of multiple methodological designs in the study of issues related to racial and ethnic minorities by demonstrating some of the advantages of lesser employed approaches.

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Healthy normotensive men and women (N=33) underwent a 60-day diary assessment of emotions and cardiovascular functioning. Individual differences in social connectedness and mood were measured in questionnaires, and positive emotions, negative emotions, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were assessed daily for 60 consecutive days. Results confirmed that the cardiovascular undoing effect of positive emotions is evident primarily in the context of negative emotional arousal. The daily associations between positive emotions and cardiovascular outcomes were linked to individual differences in social connectedness. Controlling for individual differences in mood levels, multilevel regression analyses showed that social connectedness predicted extended positive emotion, diminished SBP and DBP reactivity, and more rapid SBP recovery from daily negative emotional states.