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ABSTRACT
Using the communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA), this study examined whether or not older adults’ ways of communicating about a variety of age-related issues (e.g., making age-related excuses for their shortcomings, teasing other people about their age) predict older adults’ dietary habits. Participants were classified as engaged, bantering, and disengaged agers based on their own patterns of age-related communication. The probability of being an engaged ager positively predicted fruit consumption and negatively predicted soft drink consumption. The probability of being a bantering ager negatively predicted vegetable consumption. Results suggest the potential to expand the CEMSA’s boundary conditions to include routine dietary habits. Future researchers can build on these findings by utilizing additional methods to assess dietary habits and testing whether or not dietary habits mediate the associations between age-related communication and a variety of health problems.
Notes
1. This second study makes a distinct contribution to the literature because the first study examined how older adults’ recalled memorable messages about aging predict older adults’ patterns of own age-related communication and successful aging (operationalized as global perceptions of aging well). Nothing from the previous study referenced older adults’ dietary habits, which is the main focus of this investigation. Likewise, nothing from the current investigation references memorable messages, which was the main focus of the previous study.
2. A full list of items is available from the authors upon request.
3. Fit statistics for all five models are available from the authors upon request. A latent profile plot for the three-profile solution is also available upon request.
4. For the sake of space, regression coefficients are only reported for the models in which step two explained a significant or marginally significant amount of unique variance in the criterion variable. Full lists of regression coefficients for the other models are available upon request.