Exploring the Role of Resilience and Optimism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Older European Adults

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Abstract

This study examined how resilience and optimism were related to psychological well-being among older European adults during the early pandemic. The study used data sampled from the Eurofound COVID-19 survey conducted in 27 European countries during the first lockdown (April 2020). The study sample included 10,674 older adults (mean age = 69.71 ± 5.15, 68.6% women, 87.3% retired). Using structural equation modeling, the relationship between pandemic adversities, resilience, optimism, and well-being was investigated. Results indicated that resilience and optimism in part mediated the association between adversities and psychological well-being. Resilience and optimism have the potential to help older adults cope with stressful life events and other adversities. Future studies should more precisely explore the role of resilience and optimism, its formation, and the protective mechanisms that promote the psychological well-being of older adults.

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Most cited references 44

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Development of a new resilience scale: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC).

Kathryn M Connor, Jonathan Davidson (2003)

Resilience may be viewed as a measure of stress coping ability and, as such, could be an important target of treatment in anxiety, depression, and stress reactions. We describe a new rating scale to assess resilience. The Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC) comprises of 25 items, each rated on a 5-point scale (0-4), with higher scores reflecting greater resilience. The scale was administered to subjects in the following groups: community sample, primary care outpatients, general psychiatric outpatients, clinical trial of generalized anxiety disorder, and two clinical trials of PTSD. The reliability, validity, and factor analytic structure of the scale were evaluated, and reference scores for study samples were calculated. Sensitivity to treatment effects was examined in subjects from the PTSD clinical trials. The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties and factor analysis yielded five factors. A repeated measures ANOVA showed that an increase in CD-RISC score was associated with greater improvement during treatment. Improvement in CD-RISC score was noted in proportion to overall clinical global improvement, with greatest increase noted in subjects with the highest global improvement and deterioration in CD-RISC score in those with minimal or no global improvement. The CD-RISC has sound psychometric properties and distinguishes between those with greater and lesser resilience. The scale demonstrates that resilience is modifiable and can improve with treatment, with greater improvement corresponding to higher levels of global improvement. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): a reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test.

Michael F Scheier, Charles S. Carver, Michael W. Bridges (1994)

Research on dispositional optimism as assessed by the Life Orientation Test (Scheier & Carver, 1985) has been challenged on the grounds that effects attributed to optimism are indistinguishable from those of unmeasured third variables, most notably, neuroticism. Data from 4,309 subjects show that associations between optimism and both depression and aspects of coping remain significant even when the effects of neuroticism, as well as the effects of trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem, are statistically controlled. Thus, the Life Orientation Test does appear to possess adequate predictive and discriminant validity. Examination of the scale on somewhat different grounds, however, does suggest that future applications can benefit from its revision. Thus, we also describe a minor modification to the Life Orientation Test, along with data bearing on the revised scale's psychometric properties.

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Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies.

Michael F Scheier, Charles S. Carver (1985)

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Res Aging

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Res Aging

Journal ID (hwp): sproa

Journal ID (publisher-id): ROA

Title: Research on Aging

Publisher: SAGE Publications (Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA )

ISSN (Print): 0164-0275

ISSN (Electronic): 1552-7573

Publication date (Electronic): 25 January 2023

Publication date PMC-release: 25 January 2023

Electronic Location Identifier: 01640275231152570

Affiliations

[1 ]Faculty of Physical Culture, Ringgold 48207, universityPalacký University Olomouc; , Olomouc, Czech Republic

Author notes

[*]Sunwoo Lee, Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, Třída Míru 117, Olomouc 77111, Czech Republic. Email: sunwoo.lee@ 123456upol.cz

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Sunwoo Lee https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7847-1529

Article

Publisher ID: 10.1177_01640275231152570

DOI: 10.1177/01640275231152570

PMC ID: 9892883

PubMed ID: 36696282

SO-VID: 2439932e-fa35-4fae-bed9-ae9e034988bd

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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Funded by: Grantová Agentura České Republiky, FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001824;

Award ID: 19-11418Y GACR

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Keywords: covid-19,adversity,psychological resources,europe

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Keywords: covid-19, adversity, psychological resources, europe

Exploring the Role of Resilience and Optimism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Older European Adults

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 44

Development of a new resilience scale: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC).

Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): a reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test.

Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies.

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