Examining Antecedents and Outcomes of Perceived Control
Open Access
- Author:
- Infurna, Frank John
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- January 16, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Denis Gerstorf, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Steven Howard Zarit, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Nilam Ram, Committee Member
Martin John Sliwinski, Committee Member
Laura Klein, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Perceived Control
Adulthood and Old Age
Health Outcomes
Social Context - Abstract:
- Perceived control refers to beliefs about one’s capability to shape and exert influence over life circumstances. Perceived control does not operate in isolation but is embedded within multiple systems of influence operating as both an antecedent of aging-related outcomes, as well as being a consequence of resources in the social, well-being, and health domains. For example, interactions with network members may inspire and enlarge one’s feelings of control to perform health-promoting behaviors, leading to more positive health profiles; in turn, individuals reporting stronger perceptions of control are more likely to draw from and utilize social resources in times of strain. My dissertation consists of three papers that utilize the multi-directional integrative framework detailed above to examine antecedents and outcomes of perceived control. Paper one focuses on mastery within caregiving processes and targets how caregivers’ mastery changes in relation to the placement of a care recipient in a nursing home or similar institution. I also explore the role of primary stressors in mediating reaction to placement and whether caregiver and care recipient characteristics moderate reaction to placement. Results indicate that caregivers typically experienced declines in mastery preceding placement, followed by a significant increase within one year of placement and further increases thereafter. Corresponding changes in role overload mediated the significant increase in mastery within one year of placement. Caregivers who reported more depressive symptoms and ADL/IADL dependencies of the care recipient were more likely to experience larger increases in mastery with placement. In papers two and three, I target how control potentially influences health outcomes. Empirical evidence suggests that control is linked to disability, disease incidence, and mortality in adulthood and old age; the next steps are to determine the psychosocial, health, and biological processes that underlie control-health associations. My goal is to target well-being, physical activity, social support, health, and physiological indicators that may underlie the reported control-health associations. In paper two I examine whether perceived control is associated with physiological indicators of functional health and cardio-metabolic risk and the role of physical activity in mediating such associations. Findings indicated that perceiving more control related to better grip strength and lower cardio-metabolic risk. I also found that the link between control and each physiological indicator was in part due to physical activity levels. Paper 3 focuses on conjointly examining psychosocial and health factors that may underlie control-health associations and the unique predictive ability of time-related change in perceived control in predicting 19-year mortality. Using data from the adult lifespan sample of the Americans’ Changing Lives Study, I first examine whether levels of perceived control predict mortality over a 19-year follow-up period and target the role of well-being, physical activity, social support, and health factors in accounting for this association. Second, I examine whether time-related change in control uniquely predicts mortality, over and above levels of control and known correlates of mortality. Results show that higher levels of control predicted 19-year survival, independent of socio-demographics and this association was primarily driven by well-being and health factors. More positive time-related changes in control uniquely predicted survival over and above levels of control and known correlates of mortality. In sum, this dissertation aims to extend our knowledge of how perceived control operates both as an antecedent of aging-related outcomes and as a consequence of resources in various domains of functioning. To do so, the collective dissertation papers target perceived control within caregiving processes, as a facilitator of better physiological functioning, and the unique predictive ability of time-related control change for mortality.