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January 2006 - present
January 1991 - December 2010
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Publications (78)
Ouderen zijn goed in ook het positieve zien in gebeurtenissen die negatieve emoties oproepen, althans als het hen in een experiment
wordt gevraagd.
Poems about aging and old age are published regularly in anthologies and websites. Over 15% of persons of 16 years and older in the Netherlands write poems at some time, including 8% of the elderly. Poetry reading and writing can have a beneficial effect. In many countries bibliotherapy and poetry therapy are part of the therapeutic arsenal of the...
Dick Sipsma, emeritus hoogleraar klinische geriatrie, heeft ze gespot,1 de ouderen die dank zij een heel stel engelbewaarders, zoals Nick Jaspers de beschermende persoonlijke en omgevingsfactoren noemde,2 zo vitaal leven dat ze bezwaarlijk nog gewoon ouderen of senioren kunnen genoemd worden. Het zijn novogeronten, en de meest strijdbare onder hen...
The present study is part of a broader investigation on the effects of living in a home for the elderly on functional performance and opportunities for successful aging. Community dwelling elderly and elderly living in an institution were compared concerning some indicators of successful aging: life satisfaction, positive and negative affect and ph...
Wellbeing, functional performance and personal control about care provision of non-institutionalized and institutionalized elderly The present study is part of a broader investigation on the effects of living in a home for the elderly on functional performance and opportunities for successful aging. Community dwelling elderly and elderly living in...
Previous research was extended by connecting maternal attachment representations not only to maternal emotional support and task structuring, but also to maternal discipline. A total number of 62 mothers of preschoolers (Mage = 54 months) completed the adult attachment interview and a self-report measure of dysfunctional discipline. Two years later...
The present study is part of a broader investigation on the effects of living in a home for the elderly on functional performance and opportunities for successful aging. Functional performance is defined as the daily activities people actually execute in the domains of housekeeping, self-care, and leisure and social activity. In this first study, a...
The present study is part of a broader investigation on the effects of living in a home for the elderly on functional performance and opportunities for successful aging. Functional performance is defined as the daily activities people actually execute in the domains of housekeeping, self-care, and leisure and social activity. In this first study, a...
Antenatal maternal anxiety has been shown to be related to infant temperament, childhood disorders, and impulsivity in adolescence. This study prospectively investigated whether antenatal maternal anxiety is associated with performance on a continuous performance task. Sixty-four adolescents (mean age, 15 y; 34 boys, 30 girls) were examined with a...
The quality of child-parent relationships remains a vital aspect of development through the entire life span. Early childhood attachment develops into a lasting adult attachment bond in which the balance between caregiving and care-receiving changes over time. Among young adult women a model was examined on the relationship of recalled early matern...
This study prospectively investigated the influence of antenatal maternal anxiety, measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory at 12-22, 23-31 and 32-40 postmenstrual weeks of pregnancy, on cognitive functioning in 57 adolescents (mean age 15 years). ANCOVAs showed effects of State anxiety at 12-22 weeks, after controlling for influences of Sta...
Toen ik een baby was huilde ik als mijn moeder haar blik afwendde of uit mijn gezichtsveld verdween, en zoals alle kinderen
van die leeftijd deed ik alles wat in mijn macht lag om het contact te herstellen en te bestendigen. Ik huilde, glimlachte,
kraaide. Toen ik kon kruipen en lopen zocht ik haar nabijheid, vooral als ik moe werd, mij verveelde,...
According to gerotranscendence theory (Tornstam, 1989), aging persons gradually develop 'a shift in meta-perspective, from a materialistic and rational vision to a more cosmic and transcendent one'. The present study examined the structure of the construct of gerotranscendence, age differences in gerotranscendence, and relations between gerotransce...
Associations between antenatal maternal anxiety, measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and disorders in 8- and 9-year-olds were studied prospectively in 71 normal mothers and their 72 firstborns. Clinical scales were completed by the mother, the child, the teacher, and an external observer. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showe...
Patterns of scores on measures of the strength of current caregiver/care receiver relationship quality (adult attachment, closeness, and conflict) and measures of parent care (filial concern, caregiver burden, and amount of parent care given) were examined in India and Belgium (Flanders) with middle-aged women looking after their mother and/or moth...
This study examined the perceptions of self and the attachment relationship to parents in aggressive and nonaggressive rejected children, as compared to children with an average or popular sociometric status. Participants were 216 children from grades 3 and 4. They completed peer nomination measures, the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC),...
Subjective well-being is an important and relevant theme in psychogerontological theory and practice. Against the background of the distinction between hedonistic and eudaimonic conceptions of well-being a six-dimensional relational model of subjective well-being is described. A new instrument for the measurement of psychological, physical, social,...
Tornstam regards gerotranscendence as the final stage in a natural process towards maturity and wisdom, that can be described as a shift in meta-perspective which accompanies the process of aging: from a materialistic and rational perspective to a more cosmic and transcendent one. The present study contributes to the development of a by Tornstam us...
In a longitudinal study, the connections between children's self-representations at age 5 and their self-perceptions, socioemotional competence according to the teacher, and peer acceptance at age 8 were examined. The sample consisted of 60 children (33 boys, 27 girls). Self-representations at age 5 were assessed by the Puppet Interview (J. Cassidy...
In a longitudinal study, the connections between children’s self-representations at age 5 and their self-perceptions, socioemotional competence according to the teacher, and peer acceptance at age 8 were examined. The sample consisted of 60 children (33 boys, 27 girls). Self-representations at age 5 were assessed by the Puppet Interview (J. Cassidy...
A study on memory complaints (as measured by selected subscales of the Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire) and its context
was conducted on 179 older adults. A path analysis showed that memory complaints influence coping behavior through memory-related
anxiety and perceived seriousness of complaints and that both memory complaints and coping inf...
Loneliness is experienced by children, adolescents and adults across varied cultures. In the early 1960s and 1970s, some authorities in the field of psychology did not believe that children experienced loneliness. This book ushers in a new wave of theory and research examining the phenomena of loneliness during childhood and adolescence. The book r...
This paper focuses on the conceptual exploration of the concept of parental maturity which has been introduced along with the concept of filial maturity to describe the dynamic optimal states of caring and being cared for in adult children and their dependent elderly parents. A review of the literature shows that the development of the concept, con...
The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the satisfaction with, perceived responsibilities in, and the meaning of the relationship with the oldest grandchild, on the one hand, and the level of psychological well-being measured with the six-dimensional scale of Ryff, on the other hand. Questionnaires came from 255 Fle...
The present study set out to test Coleman's focal theory of adolescence in a cross-national context. The London Sentence Completion Test (LSCT) and the Louvain Loneliness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LLCA) were administered to 370 adolescents (11 to 17 years of age) in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The findings confirm those of earlier...
Aging is a multidimensional and multidirectional process. From a life-span perspective successful development and aging in late adulthood and old age requires the accomplishment of different typical developmental tasks or the solution of the final psychosocial crisis postulated in Erikson's stage theory (ego-integrity versus despair). Some theories...
In the present study, we examined the differential predictive power and the joint or compensatory effects of representations of child-mother and child-father attachment for children's representation of self and their socioemotional competence. The representations of attachment were assessed by an attachment story completion task, completed once for...
Evaluated the psychometric qualities of scores on a Dutch version of S. Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) and examined gender and grade differences. Ss were 760 Dutch-speaking Belgian fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Harter's Teacher Rating Scale of Child's Actual Behaviour (TRS) was used to test one aspect of the convergent vali...
Possible associations between parent-child interactions and adolescent well-being have been explored from a number of theoretical perspectives. In the present study, attachment theory was used as a general theoretical framework to study these associations with attention being concentrated on one particular aspect of adolescent well-being, i.e., lon...
With this article we would like to contribute to the elaboration and clarification of the concept of filial maturity. We first roughly outline how the concept has been used during the past 30 years to describe the nature and quality of the adult child-parent relationship. The concept is analysed in more detail. We argue that filial maturity can be...
In this study (a) the connection between 5-year-olds' behaviorally presented self-esteem and their domain-specific self-perceptions and (b) the stability in behaviorally presented self-esteem across a 3-year period (between age 5 and age 8) were examined. The behavioral manifestations of self-esteem were rated by the children's teachers using the B...
In American studies in the sixties and seventies caregivers, including physicians, showed a negative attitude towards the elderly. There are indications that such a negative attitude affects the quality of care and the communication with the elderly. Based on predominantly American literature this article reviews research on medical students' knowl...
The main question of the present investigation was whether the Life Regard Index (LRI) is an adequate instrument to study possible differences between young and elderly adults with regard to experienced meaning in life. Participants in this study were a group of 206 young adults (M= 17.8 years, 49.0% female) and a group of 373 elderly adults (M = 6...
The present studies examine some of the correlates of the self in the lives of young children. In Study 1, the connection is tested between young children's internal working model of self and their competence, social acceptance, behavioral adjustment, and behavioral manifestations of self-esteem. Ninety-five kindergartners aged between 51 and 76 mo...
A meta-analytic review of the literature points out that young adults benefit more from instruction in mnemonic techniques than do older adults. In a study on memory plasticity after instruction in the method of loci, it was found that the cognitive mechanisms of plasticity in young and older adults are largely identical, with the age-related varia...
There are many different ways to experience one's life and aging as meaningful. The present study looks for different patterns of personal meaning in the elderly. Respondents were 376 older adults (221 women and 155 men), their mean age was 65.9 years. They completed several standardized questionnaires including measures of sources of meaning (SOMP...
A meta-analytic review of the literature points out that young adults benefit more from instruction in mnemonic techniques than do older adults. In a study on memory plasticity after instruction in the method of loci, it was found that the cognitive mechanisms of plasticity in young and older adults are largely identical, with the age-related varia...
De stelling dat kinderen met verstorend gedrag een lage zelfwaardering hebben, wordt niet ondubbelzinnig bevestigd in empirisch
onderzoek. Dit kan het gevolg zijn van het feit a. dat deze kinderen hun negatieve zelfwaardering vaak verbergen, en b. dat
de gebruikte zelfrapporteringsmetingen van zelfwaardering niet door de façade heen prikken. Deze i...
There is a growing recognition of the usefulness of Blenkner's (1965) concept of filial maturity for theory and practice in the domain of adult development. This concept refers to a dynamic state of continuous successful coping with the normative task of parent care in middle-aged adult children. The objectives of the present study were (a) to begi...
Why do adolescents value their grandparents? This was the leading question of an investigation among 563 adolescents and young adults in Flanders (Belgium). The Grandparent Meaning Scale which probes eleven a priori dimensions of meaning, was completed by 147 early adolescents (M = 12.5 years), 175 middle adolescents (M = 15.7 years), and 241 late...
It is argued that a spiritual outlook on life may help elderly people to cope constructively with the vicissitudes of life. Many persons who are now in late adulthood and old age developed a relationship with a transcendent reality. This relationship is a core element of their global personal well-being. This paper briefly elaborates some thoughts...
In a group of 62 young and 75 older subjects, LISREL models were used to predict ordered list recall from age category, self-reported strategy use and selected cognitive abilities. It was found that: (a) age differences in the strategies of associating and repetition/testing were completely explained by speed of mental processing and associative me...
The focus of this study was on the relationship between young and older adults' performance on tasks of deliberate recall from episodic memory. A meta-analysis on 91 relevant studies (comprising a total of 154 conditions) was conducted. It was found that 83% of the variance in older adults' recall probability was accounted for by a quadratic functi...
This study examined 129 participants in seven types of memory training programs in Belgium. It was found that more than half of the subjects participated because they felt their memory was deteriorating or because they were afraid of memory deterioration. After completion of the program, subjects rated the training as being somewhat too short, as u...
Reports editorial errors in the original article by P. Verhaeghen et al ( Psychology and Aging, 1992[Jun], Vol 7[2], 242–251). The S groups reported in the unpublished dissertation by T. M. Flynn (1987) and in the article by Flynn and M. Storandt (see record 1990-28066-001 ) mentioned in the 3rd part of Table 1 on page 244 are in fact the same. The...
Reports editorial errors in the original article by P. Verhaeghen et al ( Psychology and Aging, 1992[Jun], Vol 7[2], 242–251). The S groups reported in the unpublished dissertation by T. M. Flynn (1987) and in the article by Flynn and M. Storandt (see record 1990-28066-001 ) mentioned in the 3rd part of Table 1 on page 244 are in fact the same. The...
The focus of this study was on the relationship between young and older adults' performance on tasks of deliberate recall from episodic memory. A meta-analysis on 91 relevant studies (comprising a total of 154 conditions) was conducted. It was found that 83% of the variance in older adults' recall probability was accounted for by a quadratic functi...
A meta-analytic literature review on adult age differences in speed of search in short-term memory (12 studies), memory span (40 studies), list recall (68 studies), paired-associate recall (21 studies), and prose recall (39 studies) is presented. Results show that age differences are quite large (depending on the task, elderly people can be situate...
A relative memorability analysis was conducted on a young (19.5 years, n = 48) and an old (67.0 years, n = 45) age group, using 10 episodic memory tasks (four lists of words, four lists of paired associates, and two texts). Probability of recall of individual items (lists) or idea units (texts) by the older adults could be predicted from probabilit...
Do young adult grandchildren find their grandparents important? What are the meanings that grandparents seem to have for these grandchildren? Those were the leading questions in the present study. Subjects were 239 university students (mean age: 19.5 years). They completed the Grandparents Meaning Scale, a recently developed 82-item instrument whic...
The effectiveness of memory training for the elderly was examined through a meta-analysis of pre-to-posttest gains on episodic memory tasks in healthy subjects aged 60 or above. Pre-to-posttest gains were found to be significantly larger in training groups (0.73 SD, k = 49) than in both control (0.38 SD, k = 10) and placebo (0.37 SD, k = 8) groups....
Measures of adolescent egocentrism were administered to 228 Belgian and 241 German adolescents in order to explore (a) the intercorrelations between different aspects of the construct and (b) their developmental functions. Correlational results argue in favor of the multidimensional nature of the construct. The Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS) exhibi...
Adolescents in grades 7 and 9 were given two presentations of a set of Piagetian-inspired control-of-variables (COV) tasks and an extended post-test. Between the first two administrations, subjects in each of five conditions were either given specific prompts (i.e., some version of a pair-choice task or a control task). Use of the COV-strategy incr...
A multidimensional loneliness measure was administered to 444 subjects in the 11-17 age range. The four-scale instrument probes for loneliness in relationships with parents and peers, and for aversion to and affinity for aloneness. All subscales were shown to exhibit high reliability and excellent factorial validity. With regard to age effects, a m...
Investigated differences in loneliness involving parents and peers and the relations between loneliness, choices of a "first comfort figure" (FCF), and social sensitivity as perceived by peers. 60 female and 52 male 5th graders, 97 female and 45 male 7th graders, and 66 female and 73 male 9th graders were given a loneliness scale and a sociometric...
This study investigated differences in loneliness involving parents and peers. The relations between loneliness, choices of a “first-comfort figure,” and social sensitivity as perceived by peers were also investigated. A total of 393 boys and girls from the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades were given a loneliness scale and a sociometric measure of...
The recent availability of attachment measures such as the Security Scale makes it possible to take further steps into the testing and refinement of attachment theoretic assumptions, especially as they apply to the middle-childhood period. In the longitudinal study presented in this chapter, some of these theoretically relevant questions were addre...
Ouder worden is een complex fenomeen van lichamelijk verouderen, een senior worden in de samenleving en het vervullen van ontwikkelingstaken. Het ouder worden overkomt ons, wordt ons geschonken en aangedaan, en we doen het ook zelf (Marcoen, 2006a). Lichamelijk verouderen impliceert een "progressieve, algemene functionele achteruitgang die leidt to...
