Kotter-Grühn Dana, Grühn Daniel, Smith Jacqui
Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, NC 27695-7650 USA.
Department of Psychology and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA.
Eur J Ageing. 2010 Oct 2;7(4):293-300. doi: 10.1007/s10433-010-0165-1. eCollection 2010 Dec.
Previous research found that the perception of a limited remaining lifetime is related to goal setting, social network composition, attitudes, and behavior. However, to better understand those findings, it is important to know if this subjective perception of being close to death corresponds with the time a person actually survives. The aim of the present study was to examine the predictive and time-dynamic relationship between subjective and objective nearness to death using 16-year longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (Baltes and Mayer 1999; = 516 older adults between 70 and 104 years). Older adults who felt close to death at the first measurement occasion were more likely to die over the following 16 years than persons who did not report feeling close to dying. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that there was a time-dynamic relationship such that subjective nearness to death increased as a function of objective nearness to death. Our results indicate that very old adults seem to have quite accurate perceptions of their nearness to death.
先前的研究发现，对剩余寿命有限的认知与目标设定、社交网络构成、态度及行为有关。然而，为了更好地理解这些研究结果，了解这种接近死亡的主观认知是否与一个人实际存活的时间相符很重要。本研究的目的是利用来自柏林衰老研究的16年纵向数据（巴尔特斯和迈耶，1999年；n = 516名70至104岁的老年人），检验主观和客观接近死亡之间的预测性及时间动态关系。在首次测量时感觉接近死亡的老年人在接下来的16年中比未报告感觉接近死亡的人更有可能死亡。多层次分析结果显示存在一种时间动态关系，即主观接近死亡程度随着客观接近死亡程度的增加而增加。我们的结果表明，非常年老的成年人似乎对自己接近死亡的程度有相当准确的认知。
