Midlife in the United States (MIDUS): Boston Longitudinal Study (BOLOS) of Cognition in Midlife, 1995-2008

This survey of adult management tasks began in 1995 as part of a larger national project (MIDUS) to investigate the patterns, predictors, and consequences of midlife development in the areas of physical health, psychological well-being, and social responsibility. Conducted in Boston, the survey was designed to examine how adults manage tasks in three domains of life -- work, family, and health. Further goals were to describe the subjective experience of goal attainment in midlife and to link it with objective measures of short-term longitudinal changes and cognitive functioning. During the national study, the Boston area was intentionally oversampled in order to create a subset to be used for in-depth study of management processes in midlife. The Boston study began six months after the national study, and consisted of three interviews: a 30-minute phone interview followed by a 20-minute mail questionnaire (Time 1), a 90-minute in-person combination of cognitive tests, cortisol testing, photograph taking, and interview (Time 2), and a 30-minute phone interview (Time 3), conducted at six-month intervals. The focus was on projects related to family, work, and health that participants were working on during the period of the study. Each successive interview investigated participants' assessments of their progress in the present, recollection of six months in the past, and prediction six months into the future. Two waves of data collection were completed for this study. There were 151 respondents who participated in the first wave, 151 respondents who participated in both waves, and 26 additional respondents who participated in the second wave of data collection. At Time 1, participants generated a list of two important family, work, and health tasks, then chose one of each as the most important in that domain. For each of the most important tasks, questions were asked about deadlines, whether participants were doing tasks because they had to do them, felt that they should do them, or chose to do them, and whether participants were doing tasks for themselves, others, or both. All six projects were ranked according to importance, and participants divided all their time into percentages spent on family, work, and health. The majority of questions on the mail questionnaire at Time 1 were taken from the Midlife Development Inventory (MIDI), the instrument created for the national study. Respondents were asked to rate their control over health, to make assessments about present, past, and future health, to list any serious illnesses, and to indicate their physical health status. Study participants also rated their mental health, and discussed stressful life events in the last six months for self, spouse/significant other, parents, and children. Other questions focused on depression, mastery and constraints, community involvement, family, work, and life satisfaction. Scales used included the Ryff Well-Being Scales, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Staudinger and Baltes Wisdom Scale (1995), and the Ways of Coping Scale. Time 2 was done in-person, and included a 50-minute series of cognitive tests followed by a 40-minute interview. The cognitive testing consisted of nine measures of cognitive ability completed in the following order: WAIS Forward Digit Span, WAIS Backward Digit Span, WAIS Vocabulary, counting backwards test, letter comparison test, dual-task test involving the counting backwards and letter comparison tests, WAIS Digit Symbol, Schaie-Thurston Letter Series, and Raven's Advanced Progressive Ma Matrices. The Time 2 interview began with a series of questions asking about each of the family, work, and health tasks elicited from the participants in Time 1. Many questions were repeated from the MIDI including rating physical health, family life, work situation, and life overall, rating physical and mental health from poor to excellent, and a measure of stressful life events in the last six months for self, spouse/significant other, parents, and children. Participants were asked to rate how old they felt and how old they looked and to indicate their total yearly household income. Lastly, a series of open-ended questions asked about best and worst aspects of family, work, and health, how participants managed their daily life, the most challenging aspect of life and how it was managed, and what participants found

本研究始于1995年，旨在作为一项更大规模国家项目（MIDUS）的一部分，调查中年发展在身心健康和社会责任领域的模式、预测因素及其后果。该调查在波士顿进行，旨在探讨成年人如何在生活的三个领域——工作、家庭和健康中管理任务。研究还旨在描述中年人实现目标的主观体验，并将其与短期纵向变化的客观指标和认知功能相联系。在全国性研究期间，波士顿地区被故意过度抽样，以创建一个用于深入研究中年管理过程的子集。波士顿研究始于全国研究六个月后，包括三次访谈：一次30分钟的电话访谈，随后是一次20分钟的邮寄问卷（时间1），接着是一次90分钟的面对面访谈，内容包括认知测试、皮质醇测试、拍照和访谈（时间2），以及一次30分钟的电话访谈（时间3），每六个月进行一次。研究重点在于参与者在此期间正在进行的与家庭、工作和健康相关的项目。每次连续访谈都调查了参与者在当前、过去六个月以及未来六个月的预测中对自己进步的评估。该研究完成了两波数据收集。第一波有151名受访者参与，151名受访者参与了两次波次，还有26名额外的受访者参与了第二次数据收集。在时间1，参与者列出了一份包括两个重要家庭、工作和健康任务的清单，然后从每个领域中选择一个最重要的任务。对于每个最重要的任务，都询问了关于截止日期、参与者是否因为必须做这些任务、认为应该做这些任务或选择做这些任务而执行任务，以及他们是否为自己、他人或两者都执行任务的问题。所有六个项目都按重要性进行了排名，参与者将他们所有的时间按百分比分配到家庭、工作和健康上。时间1的邮寄问卷中的大多数问题都来自用于全国研究的《中年发展调查》（MIDI）。受访者被要求评估他们对健康的控制程度，对现在、过去和未来的健康状况进行评估，列出任何严重疾病，并表明他们的身体健康状况。研究参与者还对其心理健康进行了评估，并讨论了过去六个月中自己、配偶/重要他人、父母和孩子的压力生活事件。其他问题集中在抑郁、掌握和约束、社区参与、家庭、工作和生活满意度上。使用的量表包括Ryff幸福量表、Eysenck人格问卷、Staudinger和Baltess智慧量表（1995年）以及应对方式量表。时间2的研究是在个人面试中进行的，包括一系列50分钟的认知测试，随后是一次40分钟的访谈。认知测试包括九项认知能力测试，依次为：WAIS前进数字广度、WAIS后退数字广度、WAIS词汇、倒序计数测试、字母比较测试、涉及倒序计数和字母比较测试的双重任务测试、WAIS数字符号、Schaie-Thurston字母系列和Raven的高级渐进矩阵。时间2的访谈开始于一系列关于从时间1的参与者中引发的每个家庭、工作和健康任务的问题。许多问题与MIDI重复，包括对身体健康、家庭生活、工作状况和整体生活的评估，从较差到优秀的身体和心理健康评估，以及过去六个月中自我、配偶/重要他人、父母和孩子的压力生活事件的测量。参与者被要求评估他们感觉和看起来有多老，并表明他们全年的家庭总收入。最后，一系列开放式问题询问了家庭、工作、健康的最佳和最差方面，参与者如何管理日常生活，生活中最具挑战性的方面及其管理方式，以及参与者认为什么是最有价值和最无价值的事情。