Carolyn M. Aldwin

Oregon State University | OSU · Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS)

As people live longer, the population of older adults in need of support continues to expand relative to the available workforce of caregivers, necessitating new solutions to supplement caregiver availability for the physical, cognitive, and social needs of older adults. Robotics and automation present strong possible solutions. Past solutions have...

Objectives Despite higher physical vulnerability to COVID-19, older adults reported less psychological stress than younger and midlife adults during the pandemic. However, little is known about age differences in stress within later life, and most COVID-19 studies have been cross-sectional. We examined weekly hassles exposure and severity trajector...

Objectives Prospective associations between coping and all-cause mortality risk are understudied, particularly among nonmedical samples. We assessed independent and joint associations of multiple components of the transactional stress and coping model with all-cause mortality in a cohort of community-dwelling men. We were particularly interested in...

Background and Objectives There have been major changes in military service over the past 50 years. Most research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among combat Veterans comes from help-seeking Vietnam and WWII cohorts; results from more recent cohort comparisons are mixed. The present study addressed these gaps by exploring cohort difference...

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major, chronic, worldwide stressor related to poorer health and well-being, especially among older adults, but less is known about risk and protective factors related to cognitive functioning during this stressful time. This eight-week study of 229 community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults (Mage=71.1; 74% women) exa...

Despite increased physiological vulnerability to COVID-19 (CDC, 2022), older adults reported fewer mental health consequences than younger adults (APA, 2022). The ability to draw upon prior experiences may be a source for enhanced well-being in late life (Aldwin & Igarashi, 2016; Charles, 2010). Older adults reported various prior experiences and r...

Research examining long-term effects of military service often focuses on help-seeking Veterans who served in Vietnam, Korea, and WWII. Less is known about Veterans from more recent conflicts or community-dwelling Veterans. We administered online surveys to community-dwelling combat Veterans (N=167; Mage=57.96; 31% women) to examine cohort differen...

Despite broad interest in how children and youth cope with stress and how others can support their coping, this is the first Handbook to consolidate the many theories and large bodies of research that contribute to the study of the development of coping. The Handbook's goal is field building - it brings together theory and research from across the...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been observed to negatively affect older adults’ psychological health compared with prepandemic levels. However, older adults’ coping efficacy may differ depending on their age, and little is known about effects of fluctuations in pandemic severity. Two longitudinal studies tested the hypothesis that pandemic severity woul...

Despite higher physiological vulnerability to stress, older adults may accumulate resources through prior experiences that can promote resilience (Aldwin & Igarashi, 2016). During the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults drew on prior experiences and resources to cope (McKinlay et al., 2021; Herron et al., 2021), although these events were typically not...

Older adults have adjusted better to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their psychological well-being than younger adults. We investigated individual differences in vulnerability within older adulthood as pandemic severity changed, providing a more refined prediction of older adults’ adjustment to COVID-19. Participants from this longitudinal study...

Older adults face particular challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased risk for morbidity and mortality (CDC, 2021). Social distancing and lockdown to prevent contagion may create social isolation and loneliness, adversely affecting mental and physical health. We examined anxiety symptom trajectories of older adults and identifie...

Despite their greater physiological vulnerability, community-residing older adults have shown surprising psychological resilience, at least at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a handful of reports suggest that older adults’ well-being has decreased after a few months, although others have suggested a recovery after a year (Schlomann...

Effective coping and emotion regulation are important for well-being across the lifespan. Successful maintenance or improvement in these processes are often invoked as explanations for age-related stability or enhancement of well-being. In this symposium, we leverage intensive data to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals manage daily emot...

Social support is important for optimal aging, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when older adults are at risk of social isolation and its attendant health problems. Providing support may be especially protective of health outcomes. We examined whether actual received, provided, and satisfaction with support were related to optimal aging earl...

Older adults experience increased risk for morbidity and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic (CDC, 2021). Social distancing and lockdown to prevent contagion may affected physical and mental health. We examined the fifteen physical symptom trajectories of older adults during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examined age, gender...

This volume traces the life journeys of a cohort of influential and transformative women in psychology, now in or nearing retirement, who have changed the discipline and the broader world of academia in significant ways. The 26 reflective essays record how these scholars thrived in an academic landscape that was often, at best, unwelcoming, and, at...

The current study examined correlates of life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War Veterans. The sample included 450 male Veterans from the Korean Vietnam War Veterans Study, surveyed by mail in 2013 (Mean age = 67.4 years old, SD = 3.0). A hierarchical analysis was conducted by entering four blocks of variables: first demographic factors, and the...

Type 2 diabetes has increased in prevalence globally, with potential adverse effects on cognition. Both high levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and stressful life events (SLEs) are associated with impaired cognitive performance, but few studies have examined their synergistic effects. The present study examined direct effects of stress and HbA1c on s...

Prior research on Veterans’ mental health has largely focused on identifying risk and protective factors for negative psychological symptoms such as PTSD. However, mental health indicates not merely absence of psychopathology, but also the existence of positive psychological well-being (Keyes, 2005). Thus, the current study aimed to examine the cor...

Objectives We used a social ecological model to examine vulnerability and resilience among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We analyzed two open-ended questions included in a survey of 235 respondents, 51–95 years old (M = 71.35; SD = 7.39; 74% female), which asked about COVID-19-related difficulties and positive experiences duri...

The COVID-19 pandemic is particularly challenging for many older adults. They are strongly encouraged to practice social distancing and sheltering in place to decrease morbidity and mortality risks. However, social isolation and loneliness increase the risk of mental and physical health problems. Nonetheless, there are indications that older adults...

The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenging situation for many older adults at elevated risk for mortality. Social distancing and lockdown to prevent contagion may result in social isolation and feelings of loneliness, which can have adverse effects on health. We examined how depressive symptoms were associated with between-person differences and within...

Several cross-sectional studies have examined stressors and positive events among older adults during COVID-19. We extend these studies by examining changes across time in perceptions of stress and positive experiences. Older adults in Oregon (Mage = 71.1, SD = 7.3, range = 51-95) completed weekly surveys from April 28 to June 23, responding to an...

Relatively little is known about South Korean Vietnam War veterans, despite their being the second largest contingent of troops during the Vietnam War. Earlier research found elevated levels (39%) of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this older population, due to high exposure to combat and malevolent environments (Lee et al., 2020). The pre...

Objectives: We examined sources of vulnerability and resilience among older adults early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We surveyed 235 respondents, 51-95 years old (M = 71.35; SD = 7.39; 74% female), including two open-ended questions concerning COVID-19-related difficulties and positive experiences during the past week. Using inductive cod...

There are two central conundra in the field of stress, coping, and aging. First, why do older adults report less stress than do younger adults, despite the manifest problems of late life, such as increases in health problems of self and others, losses of loved ones, and restricted financial income? Second, why do older adults use fewer coping strat...

Much is known about the mental health of combat Vietnam Veterans, but less is known about Persian Gulf and post-9/11 veterans and how they compare to those from earlier eras. Using data from an online survey of Oregon veterans, we examine how PTSD symptoms differ by combat exposure across these three cohorts. The sample (N=167, Mage=57.86, SD=12.09...

We investigated the dimensional structure of mental health among aging Korean Veterans using latent profile analysis (LPA) on posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD), late onset stress symptomology (LOSS), and psychosocial well-being (PWB). The Korean Vietnam War Veterans Study consists of 367 men (Mage=72, SD=2.66). LPA identified five class...

The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) has been found to consist of various subscales in U.S. Veterans. The current study replicated the dimensional structure of the PCL-5 and examined the associations of PTSD symptoms with combat exposure, mental health, subjective physical health, and eudaimonic well-being among Korean Vet...

This article views adult development through the lens of daily life experiences and recent historical changes in these experiences. In particular, it examines whether theories that postulate general linear increases in well-being throughout adulthood still hold during times of less prosperity and more uncertainty. Descriptive analyses of the Nation...

Objective: South Korea had the second largest contingent of soldiers in the Vietnam War, but little is known about their adaptation, especially in later life. Previous work in a different sample found very high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; 41%) among Korean Vietnam veterans (KVVs; Kang, Kim, & Lee, 2014), compared to 19-31% for Am...

Previous research using the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study identified four patterns of aging using group-based multi-trajectory modelling to identify joint changes in life satisfaction (LS) and functional health (FH) (Nath et al., 2018a,b). The purpose of the present study was to examine whether personality traits predicted these four patte...

There are mixed results in studies examining rural/urban differences in PTSD symptoms among veterans; however, many of these studies failed to consider possible confounds with geographic location. This study examined rural/urban differences in PTSD symptoms by combat exposure, war cohort, and gender. The VALOR (Veterans Aging: Longitudinal studies...

Mortality rates have declined significantly in the past decades. However, Case and Deaton (2015) showed that middle-aged white Americans with lower education levels have increasing mortality rates. Although some have suggested that stress is an important factor in both this and in racial/ethnic disparities in mortality, relatively few studies have...

Nearly all the research on appraisals of military service and homecoming experiences have been done on World War II veterans. However, Spiro et al. (2016) hypothesized that there were war cohort differences in military experiences that could affect life-long adaptation. For example, Boscarino et al. (2018) found that Vietnam veterans reported less...

Adverse early experiences have been associated with higher mortality risk, but evidence varies by type of experiences, and relatively little is known about the role of favorable early experiences on health in later life. This study evaluated the independent contributions to longevity of favorable and unfavorable early experiences, including psychos...

Practical wisdom is focused on sound decisions to promote a good life, while self-transcendent wisdom focuses on making ethical decisions for the greater good. Self-transcendence develops through self-knowledge, integration, and non-attachment, which focuses on decentering from egoistic perspectives. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of people a...

Cross-sectional studies have shown contradictory results concerning the impact of combat exposure on mental health in later life. We examined whether combat exposure influences trajectories of mental health symptoms in older male veterans using longitudinal data collected from 1985 to 1991 in the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (N = 1,105, a...

Wisdom development has typically been studied as a function of the individual, yet the social environment can also facilitate its development (Igarashi, Levenson, & Aldwin, 2018). We extended our earlier work by examining the sequence of social support and timing of pivotal wisdom-promoting social transactions following a difficult life event. Semi...

Control beliefs are related to health outcomes, especially in persons with chronic illnesses. We examined whether HbA1c, an indicator of glucose regulation, and control beliefs were predictive of survival for individuals diagnosed with diabetes, and whether control beliefs moderated the effects of HbA1c. The sample consisted of 1,901 individuals wi...

Most studies on the long-term effects of military service have utilized U.S. veterans. In particular, South Koreans had the second largest contingent of troops in the Vietnam War, but little is known about correlates of long-term outcomes of military service among Korean Vietnam War veterans. Previous research showed that both proximal (current str...

Religious meaning can be an important predictor of health outcomes in later life. We hypothesized that the type of religious meaning – positive or negative – may have differential effects on health outcomes. We examined whether the positive or negative meaning predicted mortality risk in congestive heart failure patients (N = 191; 64% male; Mage =...

Combat is one of the most traumatic experiences that one can experience. Sequellae such as post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can last into late life. Combat involves not only facing severe bodily harm and death to one’s self, but also harm to members of one’s own unit, civilians, and enemy soldiers. However, most soldiers do not develop chronic...

This study examined age-related changes in optimal aging among older men, and several personality traits (i.e., optimism, neuroticism, extraversion) as predictors of optimal aging classes. The sample consisted of 1,422 men from the Veterans Affairs’ Normative Aging Study (Spiro & Bossé, 2001), who provided 5,173 observations (M = 2.73, SD = 1.53, r...

Objectives: This study examined the development of wisdom within the context of difficult life events (DLEs), and the importance of individuals and their social environments in this process of growth. Social support has long been studied in adulthood, yet less is known about the ways social transactions can promote wisdom. Method: Semi-structure...

This edited volume presents insights into the impact of military service, including the surprising finding that service can be a protective factor in some contexts, throughout the aging process. Topic areas include the effects of combat and stress on longevity and health functioning; service's impact on memory, cognition, and ego development at var...

Background and objectives: We reviewed the literature on older adults (OAs) who are caring for persons living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with the goal of adapting models of caregiver stress and coping to include culturally relevant and contextually appropriate factors specific to SSA, drawing on both life course and cultural capita...

As many health disparities in American minority communities (AMCs) are stress related, there has been an increased interest in the development of mindfulness programs as potential stress-reduction measures in these communities. However, the bulk of the extant literature on mindfulness research and mindfulness interventions is based upon experiences...

In the last 30 years, the scientific study of wisdom has flourished. Significant advancements have been made in terms of the definition and measurement of wisdom. Less work, however, has examined how wisdom manifests in, and develops from, real-life experiences. This is a noteworthy gap in the literature, given that wisdom is a highly contextual ph...

Many studies of aging have been conducted on samples that include WWII and Korea-era veterans; thus, military service a “hidden variable” in aging research. The impact of service on later life development and aging is poorly understood, yet its effects are often broad and long-ranging, and can alter lives in positive as well as negative ways. This...

Combat exposure influences posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) throughout the lifespan, including late life (Kang et al., 2016; Settersten, 2006). While PTSD is often comorbid with depression and anxiety (e.g., Stander et al., 2014), surprisingly few studies examine whether combat exposure influences the age-related trajectories of depressive and...

Although 320,000 South Korean army troops fought in the Vietnam War, few studies of Korean Vietnam War veterans exist. We used a lifespan developmental perspective to predict PTSD symptoms in later life among 450 male Korean Vietnam War veterans (Mage = 66.98, SD = 3.04). They completed mail surveys about prewar (prior stressors, childhood family e...

While research has documented long-term negative effects of combat exposure, we focused on possible long-term positive effects via positive appraisals of military service. We also assessed the effects of optimism and education using 1,006 male veterans from the VA Normative Aging Study surveyed in 1990 and 1991 (Mage = 62, SD = 7, range = 44–89). W...

Objective: Combat exposure can have long-term negative effects in later life; although aspects of service may be appraised positively, the long-term positive effects of combat on well-being in later life is largely unknown. Method: The sample included 1,006 male veterans from the VA Normative Aging Study, surveyed by mail in 1986, 1990, and 1991...

Stress-related growth (SRG) is defined as positive outcomes resulting from stressful or traumatic experiences, such as increases in mastery or coping skills, closeness to others, and spirituality. SRG varies by age, sex, and ethnicity, and is influenced by coping strategies, social support, and stress severity. SRG can occur through mobilization of...

In sub-Saharan Africa, older adults are increasingly being called upon to provide care for someone who is orphaned, ill, disabled or aged, but the social and cultural context of care present unique challenges provision of care and wellbeing. Data from WHO’s SAGE Wellbeing of Older People Study HIV: South Africa wave 1 (2010) were used to examine th...

We examined whether longitudinal patterns of hassles and uplifts trajectories predicted mortality, using a sample of 1315 men from the VA Normative Aging Study (mean age = 65.31, SD = 7.6). In prior work, we identified different trajectory classes of hassles and uplifts exposure and intensity scores over a period of 16 years. In this study, we used...

Most research on military service focuses on its short-term negative consequences, especially the mental and physical injuries of those deployed in warzones. However, studies of long-term outcomes reveal surprisingly positive effects of military service-both those early in adulthood that grow over time and others that can emerge later in life. Thes...

Stress can adversely affect both psychological and physical health when environmental demands outweigh an individual's psychological and physical resources. Coping strategies are evoked in response to stress and refer to how a person manages and adapts to external and internal difficulties associated with stress. The popularity of coping research c...

Although early adversity has been linked to worse mental and physical health in adulthood, few studies have investigated the pathways through which positive and negative dimensions of early experiences can jointly influence psychological well-being in later life. This study examined: (a) profiles of early experiences across multiple domains, (b) th...

Science is in the midst of a Kuhnian paradigm shift, from causal, deterministic models to more probabilistic ones that emphasize systems approaches. In the developmental sciences, this shift has been manifesting in relational developmental systems theories (RSDTs) which that highlight multilevel analyses, interindividual differences in intraindivid...

Objective: Spirituality is favorably related to depression, quality of life, hospitalizations, and other important outcomes in congestive heart failure (CHF) patients but has not been examined as a predictor of mortality risk in this population. Given the well-known difficulties in managing CHF, we hypothesized that spirituality would be associate...

We tested a life-span model of combat exposure on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in later life, examining the direct and indirect effects of prewar, warzone, and postwar factors. The sample included 947 male World War II and Korean War veterans from the VA Normative Aging Study (Mage = 65, SD = 7). They completed mail surveys on chil...

This study aimed to examine reciprocal relations between cholesterol and depression. We assessed cholesterol and depressive symptoms twice over a 3-year interval, using 842 men from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (M = 64, standard deviation = 8). Because depressive symptoms were skewed, we used zero-inflated Poisson analyses. Cross-lagg...

Whether wisdom is a culturally-specific or universal construct is a matter of some debate (see Curnow 1999; Grossman et al. Psychological Science, 2012). This study compared similarities and differences in the factor structure of a measure of wisdom focused on self-transcendence in U.S. (n = 305, M age = 33.99) and Korean samples (n = 838, M age =...

The articles in this issue are all based on the invited addresses given by the authors at the 2013 biennial meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Development. All of the authors address the unfolding paradigm shift in developmental sciences, from reductionism to relational developmental system theories. This theoretical stance involves the...

We investigated whether hassles mediated the effect of life events on mortality in a sample of 1293 men (Mage=65.58, SD=7.01), participants in the VA Normative Aging Study. We utilized measures of stressful life event (SLE) and hassles from 1989 to 2004, and men were followed for mortality until 2010. For life events and hassles, previous research...

We examined whether the social convoy model and socioemotional selectivity theory apply in collectivistic cultures by examining the contextual factors which are hypothesized to mediate age-related differences in social support in a collectivist European country. Five hundred Spanish community-dwelling older adults (Mean age = 74.78, SD = 7.76, rang...

To examine emotion regulation in later life, we contrasted the modified hedonic treadmill theory with developmental theories, using hassles and uplifts to assess emotion regulation in context. The sample was 1,315 men from the VA Normative Aging Study aged 53 to 85 years, who completed 3,894 observations between 1989 and 2004. We computed 3 scores...

The literature on religiousness, spirituality (R/S), and health has increased dramatically in the past decade, but suffers from a lack of integrative theoretical models and well-defined constructs. Drawing on self-regulation theory, we hypothesized that the effects of religiousness (e.g., affiliation, service attendance) on health affects behaviora...

Wisdom has returned to psychology, as a topic of study at least, and several approaches have been advanced, some very general and perhaps somewhat vague, and others quite specific. Wisdom has been understood in a number of quite different ways each of which has some domain-specific validity. Indeed, "wisdom" has such a broad range of denotation tha...

Resilience is a phenomenon seen at the individual, contextual, and larger sociocultural levels. In later adulthood, it has been equated with successful or optimal aging. We present a transactional, ecological model that is based on individual stress and coping processes, which are informed by resources and barriers at the community and sociocultura...

Examination of stress and coping across the lifespan clearly reflects the principles of lifespan development. Stress and coping processes change across the lifespan, require a multidisciplinary perspective to understand that change, are affected by the social context, and demonstrate individual differences in trajectories of change. How stress chan...

We examined long-term patterns of stressful life events (SLE) and their impact on mortality contrasting two theoretical models: allostatic load (linear relationship) and hormesis (inverted U relationship) in 1443 NAS men (aged 41-87 in 1985; M = 60.30, SD = 7.3) with at least two reports of SLEs over 18 years (total observations = 7,634). Using a z...

Although older adults are thought to experience more stress and to be more vulnerable to its adverse effects, they often report less stress than younger adults and sometimes show more resilience. Paradoxically, while stress sometimes has long-term positive effects on well-being, studies differ as to whether this increases or decreases with age. We...

Coping and development are inextricably intertwined. Neural, cognitive, and the psychosocial systems underlie the development of both problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies in childhood. In turn, how individuals cope with problems can affect developmental trajectories across the life span. This review synthesizes the literature on developme...

This issue on resilience across the life span honors the enormous contributions that Emmy E. Werner has made to developmental psychology. Her longitudinal work has challenged long-held assumptions concerning the inevitability of adverse adult outcomes for high-risk children. She focused instead on their resilience and interactions between the indiv...