Premature parental death, subjective life expectancy, and health behavior.
Item
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Title
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Premature parental death, subjective life expectancy, and health behavior.
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Identifier
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AAI9218261
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identifier
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9218261
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Creator
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Denes-Raj, Veronika.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Howard Ehrlichman
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Date
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1992
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Personality | Psychology, Social
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Abstract
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Subjective life expectancy and health behavior were assessed in 167 college students with at least one parent who died prematurely (age 55 or younger) due to illnesses that are commonly believed to involve some genetic predisposition (PD group) and in 167 matched subjects with both parents alive and healthy (PH{dollar}\sb1{dollar} group). In addition, subjective life expectancy and health behavior were assessed in 202 college students whose parents were alive but developed an illness before the age of 55 that the subject perceived as life-threatening (PI group) and in 202 matched subjects whose parents were healthy (PH{dollar}\sb2{dollar} group). PD subjects anticipated a significantly shorter life span as compared to matched controls. In addition, they expected to live a shorter life than they believed comparable others would live. These differences were observed for both "objective" judgments (rational) and "gut feelings" (experiential). Subjective life expectancy of PI subjects was significantly lower than that of their controls, but significantly higher than that of subjects who have lost a parent prematurely. These results were obtained with both the "rational" with the "experiential" items. PI subjects' projections of the age when they might develop a serious illness did not differ either on the rational or the experiential items from those of control subjects. PD subjects reported poorer health habits than matched controls: they exercised less, smoked more, and monitored their calorie intake less conscientiously. PI subjects did not differ from control subjects on any of the self-reported health behaviors. Subjects beliefs concerning the likelihood that they would die of the same cause as their parent, or develop the same life threatening illness were unrelated to life span predictions or health behavior. There were also no significant associations between subjective life expectancy and the age of the subject at the time of parental death, the particular illness the parent died of, nor the gender match between subject and the deceased parent.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
