Subjective age and perceived distance-to-death moderate the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth among older adults

Abstract

Objectives: Little research has addressed the association between posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in the second half of life. This study examined whether subjective age and perceived distance-to-death moderate this association.

Method: 339 community-dwelling older adults (age range 50–90; M = 65.44, SD = 9.77) were sampled through random dialing to Jewish residents in the south of Israel. Participants completed a phone-questionnaire on PTS symptoms, level of PTG, subjective age, and perceived distance-to-death.

Results: Higher levels of PTS symptoms were both linearly and curvilinearly related to higher PTG. Additionally, subjective age and perceived distance-to-death moderated this association in a linear way, so that the association was strongest in participants who reported younger subjective age and further distance-to-death.

Discussion: The findings emphasize the moderating effect of two time perspectives, one that focuses on time since birth and another that concerns the time that remains before death. These two perspectives affect the association between posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth within older individuals.

Keywords:

• posttraumatic stress symptoms
• posttraumatic growth
• subjective age
• perceived distance-to-death

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a research seed grant [grant number 45978] from the Center for Research and Study of Aging at the University of Haifa and from the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute.