PERSONALITY AND RESPONSES TO LIFE EVENTS IN THE ELDERLY

This Clinical Mental Health Academic Award (CMHAA-K07) will assist the applicant's development as an educator and investigator in the contribution of personality processes and life events to mental health in the elderly. The applicant will initiate a series of studies designed to extend his work in suicidal populations to another common life circumstance of the elderly--bereavement. In this study, the spouses of lung cancer patients seen at the University of Rochester Cancer Center will be followed prospectively. Data will be collected shortly after a spouse has entered treatment for lung cancer, and 6 months, 18 months, and 37 months after the spouse's death. The aims of this study are (1) to describe the subjects' Axis I diagnoses, level of depression (assessed via self-report and clinical ratings), and level of functioning throughout the study period and to compare bereaved spouses six months after loss with a married comparison sample; (2) to test the hypothesized association between prebereavement personality and postbereavement outcome; (3) to examine the relationship between personality and social support; and (4) to describe the subjects' responses to specific personality measures throughout the study period. As well, the applicant will examine similar questions using data collected in a prospective survey study of elderly couples in the Detroit area (n=1,532).