Table 1.

Summary of Individual Difference Characteristics

	Middle-age			Older			Oldest-old
	%	M	SD	%	M	SD	%	M	SD
Age		51.29	4.06		71.8	8.13		91.21	1.58
MMSEa *		28.83	1.35		28.64	1.25		27.17	1.49
Vocabularyb *		25.54	7.71		25.63	7.1		21.58	7.8
GDSc		2.27	3.09		1.64	2.08		2.29	2.45
FDSd*		6.05	0.89		5.72	0.97		5.46	1.06
BDSd		4.45	1.15		4.22	0.95		3.93	1.09
SJSe*		4.54	0.77		4.09	0.68		3.58	0.65
Years of Education
< High school	2.08			4.69			14.58
High school	18.75			18.75			25.00
Partial college or training	31.25			37.5			31.25
College degree	25.00			25.0			14.58
Graduate degree	22.92			14.06			14.58
Health at the present time
Excellent	18.75			25			18.75
Good	60.42			51.56			66.67
Fair	16.67			23.44			14.58
Poor	4.17			0			0
Health prevents activities
Not at all	52.08			42.19			33.33
A little/some	39.58			43.75			47.92
A great deal	8.33			14.06			18.75
Health compared to others *
Better than	41.67			73.02			83.33
The same as	43.75			22.22			16.67
Worse	14.58			4.76			0
Clubs and social organizations
None	18.75			4.69			8.33
Between 1–3	72.92			76.56			72.92
Between 4–6	2.08			14.06			14.58
More than 6	6.25			4.69			4.17
Hours per week spent outside*
None	0			0			6.25
Between 1–5	2.13			17.19			20.83
Between 6–9	10.64			18.75			39.58
Between 10–19	17.02			17.19			12.50
More than 19	70.21			46.87			20.83
Social support*
Very satisfied	40.43			73.44			81.25
Fairly satisfied	34.04			26.56			18.75
A little satisfied	14.89			0			0
Not satisfied	10.64			0			0
Confidant*	91.67			93.75			72.92

Notes.

^aMini-Mental State Exam (Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975).

^bVocabulary (Jastak & Jastak, 1965).

^cGeriatric Depression Scale (Sheikh & Yesavage, 1986).

^dFrom the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Wechsler, 1981).

^eFrom Cherry, Elliott and Reese (2007).

^*p < 0.01 from chi-square test