Martin J. Tomasik

On the importance of a positive view on ageing for physical exercise among middle-aged and older adults: Cross-sectional and longitudinal findings

Physical activity is one of the most important health behaviours associated with the prevention and management of chronic diseases in older adults, but this potential is often insufficiently used. The present study examined for the first time whether a positive view on ageing (PVA) may contribute to a higher level of physical activity. Analyses were based on the German Ageing Survey, a longitudinal population-based survey (N = 4034) on middle-aged and older adults (40–85 years) conducted in the years 1996 and 2002. As hypothesised, middle-aged adults with a PVA not only engaged in physical activity in the form of sports more frequently; they even increased this activity provided that they were healthy enough to do so. For older adults, PVA was particularly associated with more regular walking and increases of walking over time. Because walking is often still recommended in spite of health problems, it was remarkable that even older people with worse health walked just as regularly as those with good health, provided that they had a positive view on ageing. The results shed some light on recent findings about the importance of PVA for health and longevity and point to a partial mediation between PVA and health by physical exercise.

Is it adaptive to disengage from demands of social change? Adjustment to developmental barriers in opportunity-deprived regions

This paper investigates how individuals deal with demands of social and economic change in the domains of work and family when opportunities for their mastery are unfavorable. Theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that with unattainable goals and unmanageable demands motivational disengagement and self-protective cognitions bring about superior outcomes than continued goal striving. Building on research on developmental deadlines, this paper introduces the concept of developmental barriers to address socioeconomic conditions of severely constrained opportunities in certain geographical regions. Mixed-effects methods were used to model cross-level interactions between individual-level compensatory secondary control and regional-level opportunity structures in terms of social indicators for the economic prosperity and family friendliness. Results showed that disengagement was positively associated with general life satisfaction in regions that were economically devastated and has less than average services for families. In regions that were economically well off and family-friendly, the association was negative. Similar results were found for self-protection concerning domain-specific satisfaction with life. These findings suggest that compensatory secondary control can be an adaptive way of mastering a demand when primary control is not possible.

Beneficial effects of disengagement from futile struggles with occupational planning: a contextualist-motivational approach.

Globalized labor markets confront many adults, both employed and unemployed, with demands arising from career uncertainty that have the potential to jeopardize their occupational planning. This article investigated how individuals in different regions of Germany, which are characterized by different economic opportunities, negotiate such demands to pursue a career. The central hypothesis is that under unfavorable economic conditions, disengagement from demands of career planning, in terms of reducing commitment to their mastery, will predict positive changes in subjective well-being. This was tested using a sample of N = 806 adults living in 91 regions of Germany. Results suggest that disengagement predicts increased subjective well-being, but only if individuals report a very high load of demands of career planning and live in regions characterized by particularly poor opportunities for goal striving. It is concluded that disengagement can be an adaptive way of mastering occupational planning under particularly disadvantageous circumstances.

Premature Behavioral Autonomy Correlates in Late Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Timing matters in the development of adolescents’ behavioral autonomy. Drawing from two German national surveys, the present studies showed that premature curfew autonomy (measured retrospectively) was associated with developmental risks in late adolescence (16–21 years, assessed in 1996) and young adulthood (25–30 years, assessed in 2005). Premature individuals neither experienced socioeconomic disadvantages nor had lower educational aspirations in late adolescence, but they attained lower levels of education in young adulthood. Premature curfew autonomy was further associated with maladjustment regarding certain developmental challenges of late adolescence (higher deviant behavior, lower disclosure, higher identity diffusion, and lower planfulness) and young adulthood (no differences in employment and partnership status, but higher demands of social change in work, family, and public life). Finally, premature curfew autonomy was related to lower subjective well-being in late adolescence and young adulthood.

Negotiating the demands of active ageing: longitudinal findings from Germany

ABSTRACT The challenges of population ageing and globalisation have been addressed by many welfare states in terms of active ageing policies, which in turn confront individuals with new demands such as keeping up to date with technological developments. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how individuals negotiate the demands of active ageing. The outcome variable was change in primary and secondary control strategies with regard to demands of active ageing over the course of one year. In a German sample of N = 602 men and women aged 55–75 years, we found a strong preference for engagement with these demands and a low preference for disengagement. Furthermore, a higher load of demands of active ageing was associated with an increase in engagement with these demands. However, when people perceived their everyday surroundings as unfavourable, their disengagement with demands of active ageing increased. Higher internal control beliefs concerning demands of active ageing were associated with an increase in engagement and a decrease in disengagement. We conclude that individuals strengthen their efforts to master demands of active ageing when they believe that they can control them. When the everyday ecology seems unfavourable, though, strategies are preferred that enable people to avoid a presumably lost case.

Sozialprestige von Ausbildungsberufen aus der Sicht von Realschüler/-innen

Zusammenfassung: Die Entwicklung von Konzepten zur sozialen Ungleichheit und des Verstandnisses von beruflichem Prestige ist ein bedeutsamer Aspekt der okonomischen Sozialisation von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Dieses sozial vermittelte Wissenssystem steht in direkter Abhangigkeit zu Werten und Normen der sozialisatorischen Instanzen (z. B. Eltern oder Lehrer). Es wird argumentiert, dass die Wahrnehmung und Beurteilung beruflichen Prestiges, genau wie bei anderen sozialen Phanomenen, zum Teil auch von der sozialen Position des Beurteilenden gepragt ist. Im empirischen Teil dieses Artikels werden Prestigeurteile Jugendlicher mit niedrigem und mittlerem sozialen Hintergrund sowie im Ost-West-Vergleich vorgestellt. Den Annahmen entsprechend unterscheiden sich diese Urteile merklich von gesamtgesellschaftlich aggregierten Prestigemasen und zwischen Gruppen mit unterschiedlichem sozialisatorischen Hintergrund.

Changing contexts of youth development: an overview of recent social trends and a psychological model.

Globalization and economic change are translated into a variety of changes in the proximal contexts of youth development, which are perceived and tackled differently by different individuals.

Teilnahmewahrscheinlichkeit und Stichprobenselektivität in altersvergleichenden Erhebungen

Zusammenfassung. Die Gultigkeit altersvergleichender Querschnittanalysen in der Entwicklungspsychologie kann nicht nur durch eine Konfundierung von Alters- und Kohortenunterschieden, sondern auch durch selektive und altersspezifische Teilnahmewahrscheinlichkeiten eingeschrankt sein. Von 1531 nach einem Zufallsverfahren aus dem Einwohnermelderegister gezogenen und anschliesend kontaktierten jungen, mittelalten und alten Erwachsenen nahmen 1022 Personen (66.8%) an einem kurzen Telefoninterview und davon wiederum 480 (31.4 %) Personen an einer intensiven zwei- bis dreistundigen psychologischen Befragung teil. Eine logistische Regressionsanalyse ergab, dass die Teilnahmewahrscheinlichkeit um so groser war, je junger, gebildeter, beruflich besser gestellt und zufriedener die Personen waren. Bei alten Erwachsenen, die am Telefoninterview teilnahmen, zeigte sich ein hoherer Einfluss der generellen Zufriedenheit auf die Teilnahmebereitschaft als bei jungen Erwachsenen. Auf der Grundlage des Maximum-Likelihood-Ver...

Orchestrating Multiple Goals Across Adulthood: From Solo to Tutti

Rather than focusing on single goals, people usually strive for multiple goals in different domains of life at the same time. To do so successfully, people need to match their multiple goals to their opportunity structures, maintain sufficient diversity in their goal system, and consider the positive and negative tradeoffs between particular goals. This issue brings together five original research articles addressing goals in the domains of work, family, leisure, and academic achievement. They draw on longitudinal data from the United States, Germany, Finland and Switzerland and on samples ranging from adolescence to adulthood.

Demands of Social Change Across Multiple Domains of Life and Across Time at the Advent of the Global Financial Crisis

Longitudinal data collected between 2005 and 2009 is analyzed to investigate the interplay of trajectories of perceived demands in the domains of work and family. Quadratic latent growth curve models were used to mimic the increase of demands in N = 1,296 young adults from Germany as structural uncertainty increased in the second half of the study. Demands in the different domains develop highly parallel, reflecting possible spill-over effects between the domains, and seem to indicate changes of objective uncertainty during the outset of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, there is also evidence for cumulative disadvantage and inoculation effects.