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Dynamic Factor Analysis of Worldviews/Religious Beliefs and Well-Being among Older Adults

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Abstract

Intraindividual patterns of time-lagged relationships among self-reports of worldviews/religious beliefs, self-concept, and physical and psychological well-being were investigated. Participants were older adults (mean age = 77 years) who were measured weekly covering a total of 25 weeks. Dynamic Factor Models were fitted to multivariate repeated measures data pooled over subsets of participants. The results showed significant time-lagged cross-factor relationships suggesting that worldviews/religious beliefs had a significant direct effect on self-concept and physical health over 2 weeks. For each factor series, there were substantial autoregressive effects indicating persisting effects of factors on themselves over 1 or 2 weeks. A link between worldviews/religious beliefs and physical health was found in the time-lagged structure of within-person variability. The findings underscore the need to study both intraindividual change and interindividual differences in intraindividual variability to obtain a better understanding of behavior and behavioral development.

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Notes

  1. P-technique factor analysis involves fitting the common factor model that is usually applied to cross-sectional studies of individuals to one individual's repeated multivariate measures data.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (K01-MH068491) to Jungmeen Kim and support from the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University to Michael McCullough.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology (MC 0436), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Jungmeen Kim

  2. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    John R. Nesselroade

  3. University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Michael E. McCullough

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  1. Jungmeen Kim
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  2. John R. Nesselroade
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  3. Michael E. McCullough
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Correspondence to Jungmeen Kim.

Appendix

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Table 3 Descriptive statistics for measures of the worldviews/religious beliefs, self-concept, subjective health, and life satisfaction
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Kim, J., Nesselroade, J.R. & McCullough, M.E. Dynamic Factor Analysis of Worldviews/Religious Beliefs and Well-Being among Older Adults. J Adult Dev 16, 87–100 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-009-9062-2

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