Puente Antonio Nicolas, Lindbergh Cutter A, Miller L Stephen
Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2015 Sep;30(9):950-6. doi: 10.1002/gps.4243. Epub 2015 Jan 7.
Extant research has established several predictors of functional ability (FA) in older adults (OAs); however, one factor that has been relatively ignored is personality. Preliminary evidence suggests that openness and agreeableness are associated with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). However, how personality is related to IADLs remains unclear. We aimed to determine how personality factors predict performance of IADLs, which we hypothesized, was because of executive functioning (EF).
To best understand the relationship between personality and IADLs, we recruited and ran 65 independent community dwelling OAs. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical regressions were completed to determine the associations between openness and agreeableness with IADLs. Lastly, mediation analyses were completed to examine our hypothesis that EF would mediate this relationship
Correlation and regression findings support the relationship between openness and IADLs but not agreeableness and IADLs. As hypothesized, the relationship between openness and IADLs was mediated by EF.
We replicated the relationship between openness and IADLs and extend the literature by showing the mechanism of action for this relationship is EF. While our mediation results support this perspective, future research should determine if interventions that increase OAs' EF, in turn, increase or attenuate decline in IADLs over time.
现有研究已确定了老年人功能能力（FA）的几个预测因素；然而，一个相对被忽视的因素是人格。初步证据表明，开放性和宜人性与日常生活工具性活动（IADL）相关。然而，人格与IADL之间的关系仍不清楚。我们旨在确定人格因素如何预测IADL的表现，我们假设这是由于执行功能（EF）所致。
为了更好地理解人格与IADL之间的关系，我们招募并研究了65名独立居住在社区的老年人。完成了双变量相关性分析和分层回归分析，以确定开放性和宜人性与IADL之间的关联。最后，完成了中介分析，以检验我们的假设，即EF将介导这种关系。
相关性和回归分析结果支持开放性与IADL之间的关系，但不支持宜人性与IADL之间的关系。如我们所假设的，开放性与IADL之间的关系是由EF介导的。
我们重复了开放性与IADL之间的关系，并通过表明这种关系的作用机制是EF来扩展了文献。虽然我们的中介分析结果支持这一观点，但未来的研究应确定增加老年人EF的干预措施是否会随着时间的推移增加或减轻IADL的下降。
