HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY STUDIES DISSERTATION DEFENSE
FRANK INFURNA
TITLE: Examining Antecedents and Outcomes of Perceived Control.
Dissertation Committee:
Dennis Gerstorf
Professor of Psychology
Institute for Psychology
Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany
Chair and Thesis Advisor
Steven Zarit
Professor and Head
Human Development and Family Studies
Nilam Ram
Assistant Professor of Human Development
Martin Sliwinski
Director
Center for Healthy Aging
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Laura Klein
Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health
DATE:
TIME:
PLACE:
January 16, 2012
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
101 E HH Dev
Area of Specialization: Adult Development and Aging and Longitudinal Research Methodology.
ABSTRACT
Perceived control refers to beliefs about one’s capability to shape and exert influence over life
circumstances. Perceived control does not operate in isolation but is embedded within multiple systems
of influence operating as both an antecedent of aging-related outcomes, as well as being a consequence
of resources in the social, well-being, and health domains. For example, interactions with network
members may inspire and enlarge one’s feelings of control to perform health-promoting behaviors,
leading to more positive health profiles; in turn, individuals reporting stronger perceptions of control are
more likely to draw from and utilize social resources in times of strain.
My dissertation consists of three papers that utilize the multi-directional integrative framework detailed
above to examine antecedents and outcomes of perceived control. Paper one focuses on mastery within
caregiving processes and targets how caregivers’ mastery changes in relation to the placement of a care
recipient in a nursing home or similar institution. I also explore the role of primary stressors in mediating
reaction to placement and whether caregiver and care recipient characteristics moderate reaction to
placement. Results indicate that caregivers typically experienced declines in mastery preceding
placement, followed by a significant increase within one year of placement and further increases
thereafter. Corresponding changes in role overload mediated the significant increase in mastery within
one year of placement. Caregivers who reported more depressive symptoms and ADL/IADL
dependencies of the care recipient were more likely to experience larger increases in mastery with
placement.
In papers two and three, I target how control potentially influences health outcomes. Empirical evidence
suggests that control is linked to disability, disease incidence, and mortality in adulthood and old age;
the next steps are to determine the psychosocial, health, and biological processes that underlie controlhealth associations. My goal is to target well-being, physical activity, social support, health, and
physiological indicators that may underlie the reported control-health associations. In paper two I
examine whether perceived control is associated with physiological indicators of functional health and
cardio-metabolic risk and the role of physical activity in mediating such associations. Findings indicated
that perceiving more control related to better grip strength and lower cardio-metabolic risk. I also found
that the link between control and each physiological indicator was in part due to physical activity levels.
Paper 3 focuses on conjointly examining psychosocial and health factors that may underlie controlhealth associations and the unique predictive ability of time-related change in perceived control in
predicting 19-year mortality. Using data from the adult lifespan sample of the Americans’ Changing Lives
Study, I first examine whether levels of perceived control predict mortality over a 19-year follow-up
period and target the role of well-being, physical activity, social support, and health factors in
accounting for this association. Second, I examine whether time-related change in control uniquely
predicts mortality, over and above levels of control and known correlates of mortality. Results show that
higher levels of control predicted 19-year survival, independent of socio-demographics and this
association was primarily driven by well-being and health factors. More positive time-related changes in
control uniquely predicted survival over and above levels of control and known correlates of mortality.
In sum, my dissertation aims to extend our knowledge of how perceived control operates both as an
antecedent of aging-related outcomes and as a consequence of resources in various domains of
functioning. To do so, the collective dissertation papers target perceived control within caregiving
processes, as a facilitator of better physiological functioning, and the unique predictive ability of timerelated control change for mortality.