Dikla Segel-Karpas

• PhD
• Associate Professor at University of Haifa

Subjective views of aging (VoA) play a crucial role in shaping individuals’ physical, mental, and overall well-being. While past research has primarily focused on individual perspectives, recent literature suggests the development of VoA within interpersonal relationships. This study introduces a new scale, the Views of Couple Joint Aging (VoCJA),...

The aging population emphasizes the need for tailored training in welfare and health sciences, particularly for students who will work with culturally diverse older populations using advanced technological tools. This study examines how well the curriculum at the Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences prepares students for Age, Cultural, and Techno...

Current global aging trends emphasize the need to adapt healthcare systems to address older adults’ specific needs. Numerous age-friendly healthcare initiatives and approaches have emerged, but the field lacks a unified framework. The current study used Rodger’s evolutionary concept analysis model to explore ‘age-friendly healthcare’, examining the...

The construct of subjective views of aging (VoA) constitutes a growing field of research, relating to individuals’ general cognitions about the aging process, and their individual experience of aging. VoA develop throughout the life-course and have significant implications for individuals’ health and well-being in later age. Although VoA often deve...

Background: An individual’s own and their perceived partner cynical hostility are conceptualized as vulnerability factors, decreasing couples’ intimacy and relationship satisfaction. The perceived partner cynical hostility may be especially harmful when distress is high. Method: Longitudinal data were collected in two waves (during and after the CO...

Aims Aging populations require adapting healthcare systems for older adult's specific needs. Numerous initiatives to improve older‐patient care have emerged, but the field lacks a unified framework. The current study aims to provide a systematic concept analysis of ‘age‐friendly healthcare’, examining its characteristics, components and structure....

The exit from the workforce and the transition to retirement often coincides with changes in important aspects of individuals’ daily life and social roles. This can be a demanding experience for some retirees, affecting their mental health. It is thus important to identify relevant psychosocial, health, and financial predictors of adjustment qualit...

Sense of Okayness (SOK) is an emerging concept that describes a person’s ability to remain stable and unshaken in the face of life transitions and hardships. This quality enables effective stress regulation and heightened tolerance to uncertainty. To investigate the possible role of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) in mediating the relation...

Emotional intimacy is considered a fundamental factor contributing to the quality of marital relationships. However, marital strain can often limit intimacy. Thus, our first objective was to explore the intricate interplay between spouses' sense of intimacy and the levels of marital strain experienced by both themselves and their partners. In addit...

Objective This study explored how marital financial collaboration and approval along with financial constructs predicted midlife couples' reports of retirement financial concerns. Background Retirement is an expected time of life that many couples plan for in advance. Despite knowing that years of life without regular income are anticipated, many...

Whereas sharing a life with someone with high cynical hostility can be straining, little is known about how partner’s cynical hostility is associated with one’s mental health. In this paper, we report the findings from a longitudinal dyadic study using two waves of a large and representative American sample of older adults and their spouses to exam...

Objectives: Both anger and anxiety are common in older adulthood, with aversive consequences for individuals' physical and mental health. Theory suggests that anger can be an emotional response to the experience of anxiety. Similarly, anger can induce anxiety symptoms. Despite studies documenting the co-occurrence of anger and anxiety and their st...

Positive solitude is the capacity to choose spending time by yourself in a positive manner. This session provides a wide glance on the advantage of this capacity at the second half of life. The session will try to present new theoretical perspectives regarding this capacity. The lectures will give an opportunity to follow the directions in which re...

The present study describes the development of a new questionnaire for measuring positive solitude. First we will discuss the conceptualization of positive solitude, and refer to the contradictions that exist in the literature regarding this concept. We will then present the theoretical background on which we based our questionnaire, and some empir...

Positive solitude, the choice of being alone to engage in meaningful inner or physical, spiritual, mental, or cognitive activity/ experience, was recently suggested as a stand-alone phenomenon differentiated from loneliness and negative solitude. As loneliness was previously found to have adverse implications for mental health, the present study ex...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate its devastating effects posed unparalleled challenges to romantic relationships. National lockdowns forcing couples to spend long hours in closed quarters were especially straining, yet evidence points to considerable variability in the effect of the pandemic on relationship quality. Drawing...

Positive solitude (PS), the choice of being alone to engage in meaningful inner or physical, spiritual, mental, or cognitive activity/ experience, was recently suggested as a stand-alone phenomenon differentiated from loneliness and negative solitude. As loneliness was previously found to have adverse implications for mental health, the present stu...

The COVID-19 lockdowns have brought significant changes to individuals’ daily lives, including their health behaviors and psychological health. Longitudinal studies exploring changes in health behaviors during the course of the initial containment phase are relatively scarce. Our aim is to understand how health behaviors have evolved during differe...

Older adults’ relationships with their children are often a source of reciprocal emotional and instrumental support, but also of strain. Cynical hostility is a cognitive schema, according to which people cannot be trusted. Previous studies showed that cynical hostility has adverse implications for social relationships. Little is known about the pos...

The present study relied on 15 dyads of adult children and their older parent to better understand intergenerational family relations from a life course perspective. Interviews were analyzed relying on qualitative thematic analysis, identifying similarities and differences within and between interviews and dyads. Our analysis resulted in three majo...

Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory, we examined the effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on perceptions of romantic relationships quality among older, compared to younger, adults. During the first lockdown in Israel which involved strict restrictions on movement and association with others, 280 adults aged 25-81 reported positive and negative qua...

Background and Objectives Although interest in sexuality in older age has increased over the last decades, few studies have focused on longitudinal change in sexual satisfaction around retirement age. In the present study, we studied change in sexual satisfaction across retirement in a sample of Swedish older adults with a partner. Research Design...

Drawing on the relational turbulence theory, this study explored the associations of self, partner, and relationship uncertainty, and partner interference and facilitation with psychological distress symptoms during the COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home orders. A longitudinal study of 313 individuals was conducted in Israel at 3 time points, spanning from the...

Retirement anxiety represents a major challenge for older workers who hold negative expectations and concerns regarding the consequences of their future retirement. Although prior studies suggest that retirement is an age-related transition that may serve as a reminder that life is nearing its end, little is known about how subjective nearness-to-d...

Although interest in sexuality in older age has increased over the last decades, few studies have focused on longitudinal change in sexual satisfaction around retirement age. In the present study, we studied change in sexual satisfaction across retirement in a sample of Swedish older adults with a partner. Our analyses were based on n = 759 partici...

Studies indicate that both subjective age—individuals’ perception of their own age as older or younger than their chronological age, and attitudes to ageing are related to physical and mental health. Less is known about the possible dual effect of these two constructs of subjective views of ageing. In the current study, 334 participants (aged 30–90...

Late-life relationships, and specifically spousal relations, are increasingly recognized as an important factor shaping the wellbeing, health, social and emotional health of older people. Therefore, a better understanding of the health and well-being trajectories of older adults requires considering the characteristics of their spouses and couple d...

Retirement is an expected stage of life that couples plan for far in advance. Despite knowing that years of life without regular income are anticipated, some underprepare, leading to financial uncertainty in later years. In this study we explore financial concerns for retirement expressed by a sample of 335 midlife (Mage=44) couples that participat...

Given substantial cohort differences in psychosocial functioning, for example in perceived control, and ongoing pension reforms, the context of retirement has changed over the last decades. However, there is limited research on the consequences of such developments on historical differences in subjective well-being in the retirement transition. In...

As humans, we have the unique ability to reflect on the course of our development. In other words, our age is more than the mere time which has passed since birth, and consequently, we are able to form a distinct and personal view of how our aging process may progress, and how we perceive older adults and our own aging selves. These subjective view...

The current set of studies was aimed at examining the theoretical basis, development process, and psychometric properties of a new scale for measuring positive solitude (PS). The theoretical idea behind the development of this construct was to develop a stand-alone scale for measuring the positive aspects of an individual's ability to volitionally...

Objectives Loneliness is an important risk factor for mental and physical health over the life span. Little is known about psychosocial predictors and consequences of loneliness apart from social network characteristics. One important factor that may both prevent from, but also be affected by loneliness, is perceived autonomy. Method In the presen...

Introduction Optimism is linked to varied advantageous outcomes, ranging from improved health to better relationships, while pessimism is linked to reduced well-being. Relatively little is known about how optimism and pessimism may work together to shape the perception of support within marital relationships, and whether perceived support can affec...

Objectives: Depression is a major health concern for both individuals and societies. Hence, understanding the risk factors for depression is of importance. As individuals grow older, the way in which they perceive the aging process may have a significant influence on their physical and mental health. More negative perceptions of aging could put ind...

Objectives. Loneliness is an important risk factor for mental and physical health over the lifespan. So far, too little is known about psychosocial predictors and consequences of loneliness apart from social network characteristics. One important factor which may both prevent from, but also be affected by loneliness, is perceived autonomy. Method....

Given substantial cohort differences in psychosocial functioning, for example perceived control, and ongoing pension reforms, the context of retirement has changed over the last decades. However, there is limited research on the consequences of such developments on historical differences in subjective well-being in the retirement transition. In the...

Background Aging anxiety, or fears and concerns regarding one's future aging, have been shown to take a toll on older adults’ health and well-being, including loneliness and depressive symptoms. However, little is known about the possible consequences that aging anxiety holds for middle-aged adults. The current study examines the relationship betwe...

Objectives: Older adults’ greater susceptibility to mortality from COVID-19 may have meaningful psychological implications not only for them, but also for their children. In this study, we focused on daughters of older women and examined the intergenerational relationships as a correlate of daughters’ anxiety, depressive symptoms, and psychosomatic...

We examined the extent to which a daughter’s worries are related to her mother’s perceived worries about COVID-19 (i.e., the daughter’s perception of her mother’s worries). Regard, defined as reciprocity, closeness or compatibility, and responsibility, defined as guilt, burden and protectiveness, were measured as potential moderators of the relatio...

The current study takes a dyadic perspective to understand how self-perceptions of aging are associated with C-reactive protein, an inflammation marker, among older adult married couples. The potential moderating role of marital support and strain are also examined. Respondents include 668 married couples who participated in the 2014 wave of the He...

Objectives The aim of this study was to explore old persons’ experiences of positive solitude (PS) and the gaps between their experience and professional caregivers’ perceptions of older adults’ experiences of PS. Moreover, we attempt to understand the basic mechanism that may explain these gaps. Design A qualitative method was used. Participants...

Objectives: Cynical hostility is a cognitive schema according to which people cannot be trusted, and it has associations with individuals' loneliness. The present study takes a dyadic approach to examine whether cynical hostility is related to one's own and their spouse's loneliness. We further explore whether friendship factors serve as a mediato...

This paper attempts to develop a better understanding of the positive solitude (PS) phenomenon and its meaning among age groups, as well as formulate a unanimous definition for PS. A qualitative study (N = 124) was conducted. Participants were gerontology professionals and laypeople. Interviews were conducted and content was analyzed in order to un...

Objective: Studies have demonstrated the importance of optimism in predicting perceived general health. However, the handful of studies focusing on cardiovascular biomarkers show inconsistent effects. Additionally, no study examined whether spousal levels of optimism and pessimism affect an individual's biological markers of cardiovascular health....

Despite its' potential contribution to quality of life, positive solitude (PS) has not been studied in depth, nor has it been well-defined. Moreover, it has not been sufficiently researched among older adults. Objectives: To better understand the PS phenomenon and its meaning among different age groups, and especially in old age. Method: The curren...

Objectives: Adults' perceptions of aging are known to affect their mental and physical health. However, not much is known about how perceptions of aging within the couple-unit affect each member of the unit. Therefore, the current study explores the effects of husbands' and wives' self-perceptions of aging (SPA) on each other's physical and mental...

How loneliness manifests in older adult married couples is necessary to consider. Marriage partners may become more or less lonely based on shared circumstances with one another (i.e., the shared environment hypothesis). Moreover, individuals may pair off with a marriage partner who shares similar levels of loneliness (i.e., the homophily hypothesi...

Perceived social support has traditionally been examined as an antecedent of well-being, including job satisfaction. The current study offers a new perspective in which job satisfaction can be both an antecedent and outcome of support in older employees. Two wave data from 910 older employees who participated in the Health and Retirement Study were...

Israel’s response to population ageing has included policies increasing pension age, flexible working, and privatisation of pensions. These policies have increased poverty risks for those experiencing exclusion and isolation and limited access to housing, education, quality jobs, and healthcare services . In this context, polarised gender/class pos...

Basing our argument on Terror Management Theory, we posit that retirement is an age-related transition, which could result in greater death saliency and anxiety, leading to increased depressive symptoms. An indirect-effect model was tested on a convenience sample of 574 Israeli Jewish older workers (mean age = 57), finding that the link between ret...

Background: Despite the ever-growing literature on weight-control diets, data about dieting among older adults are scarce. Purpose: To describe the prevalence of weight-control dieting across age groups and weight statuses (from healthy-weight to overweight and obese). To identify cross-sectional associations of perceived health and perceived ov...

Loneliness takes a meaningful toll on individuals' physical and mental well-being. One of its possible consequences is the perception that others are not to be trusted and are a source of wrongdoing, defined as cynical hostility. At the same time, cynical hostility could also deter individuals from seeking the comfort of close social relationships....

Loneliness is considered a major issue, often negatively influencing the quality of life of individuals of all ages, and of older adults, in particular. The aims of this study are: (1) to assess the association between close social relationships and loneliness; and (2) to examine the moderating role of subjective age in this association. Married or...

Studies indicate that subjective age – individuals’ perception of their own age as older or younger than their chronological age, is related to their depressive symptoms. Less is known about the role that attitudes towards aging might play in this regard. 334 participants (age 30-90, M=58.15) reported their subjective age and depressive symptoms ev...

Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies showed that subjective age – individuals’ perceptions of their own age as older or younger in relation to their actual age, is an important predictor of physical, cognitive, and mental health. Despite some initial findings suggesting that subjective aging responses to variations in the daily experiences, les...

Objective: Studies have demonstrated the importance of optimism to various health outcomes. However, fewer studies have focused on biological markers, and none have examined whether marital partners levels of optimism and pessimism affect each other's biological markers. Thus, our objectives were to examine whether one's partners optimism and pessi...

Objective: Although research has investigated financial planning for retirement, less is known about how adults plan their retirement activities. Even less is known about couples' congruence and incongruence in retirement activities-planning. The authors examined husband and wife reports of retirement plans across a 5-year period that involved a U....

Objective: Although research has investigated financial planning for retirement, less is known about how adults plan their retirement activities. Even less is known about couples' congruence and incongruence in retirement activities-planning. The authors examined husband and wife reports of retirement plans across a 5-year period that involved a U...

Objectives: A great amount of interest has been invested in the understanding of public stigma toward persons with depression. However, published studies were mostly restricted to the study of stigma toward a young person with depression. This study was aimed to compare public stigma towards a younger and an older person with depression among a sam...

Objectives: Research has examined the link between subjective perceptions of life and death and psychological well-being. However, while cultural values were shown to provide a defense against death-related thoughts, little is known about specific cultural expectations with regard to this issue. Accordingly, the current study focused on two sub-cul...

Objectives: Retirement is not only an important later-life transition for the retiring individual, but also for his or her life partner. This study aims to improve our understanding of the partner's adjustment to the retirement of the older worker, by paying attention to the multidimensional nature of adjustment, and by examining to what extent pr...

Loneliness is a significant social concern—being lonely is linked to depressive symptoms, mortality, and blood pressure (Cacioppo, Hughes, Waite, Hawkley, Thisted, 2006; Hawkley, Masi, Berry, & Cacioppo, 2006; Luo, Hawkley, Waite, & Cacioppo, 2012). How loneliness manifests in older adult couples is necessary to consider, especially given roughly 1...

Objectives: This paper focuses on an aspect of emotional complexity as seen in the covariation between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Lifespan theories predict distinctive patterns of change in emotion covariation with chronological age. Nevertheless, research shows mixed evidence with most studies failing to find a significant con...

The present study examined whether endorsing a felt-age that is extremely divergent from one's actual age (whether older or younger) is related to worse functioning four years later. Data were drawn from 4938 participants, who completed the 2008 and 2012 questionnaires of the Health-and-Retirement-Study (HRS). Participants were divided into four gr...

Background: Recent studies have demonstrated the relevance of subjective time perceptions with regard to depressive symptoms among aging and older adults. Moreover, loneliness was found to bear a strong connection to such symptoms. However, little is known about the connection between the three constructs. Accordingly, the current research examine...

The effect of retirement on depressive symptoms remains a subject of scientific inquiry, given the fact that previous studies have found mixed results. Moreover, the possible effect of depressive symptoms on the propensity to retire remains relatively understudied. Given the sheer number of retirees, and the significance of depressive symptoms for...

Objective: The association between memory performance and self-rated memory is yet to be understood. More specifically, little is known about the factors that lie at the base of self-evaluations of memory in relation to actual changes in memory. In this study, we suggest that subjective age modifies the effect of objective change in memory on self-...

Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to investigate grip strength, hope, and their interaction as predictors of quality of life four years later in a nationally representative sample of older adults. Method: Data were derived from the first (2005–2006) and second wave (2009) of the Israeli component of the Survey of Health Ageing and Re...

Objectives: The study aims to examine whether the reciprocal effects of physical morbidity and depression are moderated by subjective age-that is, individuals' perception of themselves as young or old. Method: Data from the first two waves of the Midlife in the United States study (1995-6, T1; 2004-6, T2; http://midus.wisc.edu/) were analyzed us...

Balancing between the work and family demands is psychologically demanding, and the transfer of negative affect and worries from work to home was found to harm workers’ health and well-being. We used data from two waves of the Midlife in the US national longitudinal study (N=3411) to examine whether work-to-family spillover has negative consequence...

Work and retirement are complex processes with important implications for emotional, physical, and cognitive health. Studies tapping into the relationship between work, retirement and health often use different perspectives aiming at measuring similar outcomes. While some studies investigate these relationships from the perspective of the worker/re...

Objectives: The transition to retirement implies significant changes in daily routine and in the social environment. More specifically, it requires more self-directed efforts in order to stay socially engaged. Hence, for those who suffer from loneliness, the transition to retirement could result in increased depressive symptoms due to the lack of s...

Objectives: Social contact has been shown to be positively associated with cognitive functioning. It is unclear, however, whether all individuals can equally benefit from social contact with regard to their cognitive functioning. The goal of this study was to examine whether the beneficial effects of social contact are affected by individual differ...

Objective: Expand understanding of the role of selected workplace exposures (ie, occupational complexity, conflict in the workplace, pace of work, and physical hazards) in adults' cognitive function. Methods: Cross-sectional data (n = 1991) from the second wave of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study; restricted to participants who com...

The aging of the workforce in the developed world has prompted organizations to implement human resource (HR) policies and practices encouraging older workers to defer retirement. However, little is known about the prevalence of such practices, and the organizational factors associated with their adoption. In this study, we used data collected from...

Objectives: This article explores the mediating role of self-perceived health in the relationship between objective health status (defined as the number of illnesses) and depressive symptoms. It also examines the moderating role of employment versus retirement in the relationship between health status and self-perceived health and between self-perc...

Attachment theory has received scant consideration in the negotiation literature. We examined the effects of attachment anxiety and avoidance on negotiation propensity and performance in two studies. In terms of negotiation propensity (Study 1), attachment anxiety had significant, deleterious effects, though contrary to our predictions, attachment...

Attachment theory has received scant consideration in the negotiation literature. We examined the effects of attachment anxiety and avoidance on negotiation propensity and performance in two studies. In terms of negotiation propensity (Study 1), attachment anxiety had significant, deleterious effects, though contrary to our predictions, attachment...

Background: Help-seeking (HS) for dementia presents a great challenge, especially because a timely and appropriate HS process might be associated with better outcomes for the person with dementia, their caregivers, and society. A clear understanding of the HS concept and its measurement in the area of dementia might improve the effectiveness of th...

Studies suggest that a large proportion of adults do not manage to save enough for retirement. Correlates of retirement saving behaviors have yet to be fully understood. The goal of this study was to examine perceived financial preparedness for retirement and its correlates. We studied the effect of perceived financial knowledge and involvement, so...

Objective: To study the willingness to use institutional care versus home care in hypothetical situations of permanent disability and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Method: A convenience sample of 484 adults aged 45 and older was obtained. Respondents were asked about their care preferences in case they were diagnosed with AD or became permanently disab...

Background Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild neurocognitive disorder is a well-established clinical entity included in current diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer’s disease and in major psychiatric classifications. In all, a loosely defined concern obtained from conceptually different sources (the individual, a knowledgeable informant, or a c...

Depression is a common disease among young and older adults. Although it can be treated, non-adherence is very common among individuals of different ages. The aim of the present paper is to review and summarize research findings regarding depression among young and older adults, with a special focus on the phenomenon of treatment non-adherence amon...

Given that it influences the appraisal of situations and the utilization of coping resources, attachment orientation may condition the effects of retirement-related stressors on retiree well-being. Focusing on depression, psychosomatic complaints and health, as well as income decline as a retirement-related stressor, we followed a sample of workers...

Given that attachment orientation shapes appraisals of situations and the evaluation of coping resources and social relations, it may also serve as a boundary condition on the effects of experienced retirement-related changes on retirees' well-being, thus reconciling inconsistent findings. Focusing on three dimensions of well-being -- namely depres...