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Zambrano Garza, Elizabeth

University of British Columbia

Older adulthood is characterized by strengths and vulnerabilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults faced heightened stress and disease risk. Close social partners can facilitate or hamper well-being; this dissertation aims to investigate this in older adults who participated with a close social partner of their choice, taking into consideration different individual experiences (solitude and rumination) and time scales (momentary and 6-months later) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample consisted of 144 older adults and their study partners (e.g., spouse, mother, friend) who simultaneously completed a time sampling portion where they reported their daily affect, solitude, and rumination in up to 10 end-of-day surveys plus rated their well-being six months later. Multilevel models were used for all studies. Study 1 examined the relationship between individual and study partner daily solitude (desired and bothersome) and daily individual well-being (positive and negative affect). Increased individual desired solitude was associated with higher individual positive affect. Study partner elevated desired solitude was associated with lower individual negative affect. Individual and study partner increases in bothersome solitude were associated with lower individual well-being. Study 2 analyzed the link between individual and study partner daily rumination (repetitive negative thinking) and daily individual well-being; increases in individual and study partner rumination were associated with lower individual well-being. Study 3 explored the associations between everyday individual and study partner solitude (desired and bothersome) from the time sampling portion and individual well-being at the six-month follow-up. Controlling for time sampling affect, individual solitude (desired and bothersome) and individual well-being at the six-month follow-up were not significantly associated. However, study partners’ everyday desired solitude and individual positive affect at the six-month follow-up were positively associated. Additional analyses indicate that when the time sampling portion was deemed to be an accurate snapshot of everyday life, study partner’s desired solitude was associated with higher individual positive affect whereas more individual desired solitude was associated with higher individual negative affect at the six-month follow-up. This work highlights the importance of social partners for phenomena that are typically examined at the level of the individual across multiple timescales during a time of stress.

Text

2025-07-04

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91489

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/