Spousal bereavement is one of the most disruptive life events encountered during adulthood. However, we know little about whether and how the impacts of spousal loss on well-being have changed over the past decades. To examine such historical shifts, we applied area under the curve (AUC) metrics and latent basis growth models to multi-year within-person longitudinal change data from 2,044 participants ( M age at event = 65.73 years, 70% women) obtained annually across almost four decades from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984–2020). We found that compared to the 1980s and 1990s, those experiencing spousal loss in the 2000s and 2010s showed less severe declines in well-being between 5 years before and after the loss. This improvement was driven mostly by shallower anticipatory declines and faster recovery in the adaptation phase (both by about 0.1 SD per 10 years of historical time), rather than changes in the immediate reaction phase. We found little to no evidence that the role of socio-demographic, health, and social factors as moderators of bereavement has changed across the past 40 years. We take our findings to highlight that both historical context and individual difference factors are shaping how people experience critical life events such as bereavement.

This study investigates the life satisfaction of basketball coaches, addressing a gap in research on sports professionals. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), it examines life satisfaction scores among basketball coaches, categorized by license level, and compares them to teachers and managers. While previous research leads to the assumption of above-average life satisfaction of coaches due to specifi c personality characteristics, e.g., higher extraversion and lower neuroticism, the results do not support these suggestions. However, no signifi cant similarities were found between A-license coaches and managers or C-license coaches and teachers. In contrast, both managers and teachers report above-average levels of life satisfaction. Although no signifi cant diff erence between A- and C-license coaches was found, the results indicate that higher license levels can be associated with greater life satisfaction. Considering current research and the results of this study, practical suggestions state that structured career development and professional support could enhance coaches’ life satisfaction. Drawing from eff ective models in related professions, recommendations emphasize mentorship, experiential learning, and innovative training strategies. The study acknowledges limitations, including its reliance on cross-sectional data and potential external infl uences such as pandemic-related restrictions. Future research should explore these dynamics in various contexts and sports disciplines to develop targeted strategies for improving coaching environments, benefi ting individual coaches, teams, and the broader sports community.

Evidenzbasierte Gesundheitsinformationen als Instrument der Gesundheitsaufklärung unterstützen informierte Impfentscheidungen. Demgegenüber stehen verhaltenssteuernde Ansätze. Die Eignung verschiedener Aufklärungsansätze scheint von der anfänglichen Impfbereitschaft und den Informationsbedürfnissen (z. B. von Impfunentschiedenen, -skeptikern) abzuhängen. Mithilfe des „Corona-Online-Meinungs-Panel-Survey-Spezial“-(COMPASS-)Befragungspanels führten wir im Mai 2021 ein präregistriertes Experiment (N = 2944) mit verschiedenen Impfaufklärungsansätzen durch: evidenzbasierte tabellarische und grafische Faktenbox vs. Norm- und moralischer Nudge vs. Impfwerbung. Vor und nach der Impfaufklärung wurden Impfabsichten, Verstehen der Impfung, Einstellung sowie Vertrauen in die Impfstoffe von Impfbereiten, -geneigten, -skeptischen, -gegnern und -unentschiedenen gemessen. Faktenboxen unterstützten das Verstehen der Impfung. Grafische Faktenboxen verstärkten Impfabsichten von Unentschiedenen mit Informationsbedürfnissen und Impfskeptischen. Der moralische, aber nicht der Norm-Nudge verstärkte Impfabsichten von Impfgeneigten und von -unentschiedenen ohne Informationsbedürfnisse. Keiner der Ansätze zeigte einen negativen Einfluss auf das Vertrauen in Impfstoffe. Evidenzbasierte Informationen wirken dem gesellschaftlichen Ziel einer hohen Durchimpfung der Bevölkerung nicht entgegen. Zielgruppen mit verschiedenen Impfabsichten und Informationsbedarfen reagieren unterschiedlich auf Ansätze der Impfaufklärung bzw. -steuerung. Bei Nudging und Impfwerbung sollten Fragen ethischer und rechtlicher Verantwortung diskutiert werden.

In this article, we examine how local decision-makers make use of scientific expertise and the role such expertise plays in local politics. Drawing on seventeen interviews, we find that the rising demand for advice is met not by academic institutions but by consultants and other intermediary actors, who we refer to as 'quasi-scientific actors'. These intermediaries are perceived as scientific as well as solution- and process-oriented, and they fill a structural gap, since ties between local politics and academic institutions remain weak and interactions are perceived as linear and rarely productive.

INTRODUCTION:Evidence-based health information is a key tool in health communication to support informed decision-making. In contrast, there are behavioural approaches. The suitability of the different approaches seems to depend on the initial willingness to vaccinate and the information needs (e.g. of undecided people, sceptics). METHODS:Using the longitudinal Corona Online Opinion Panel Survey Special (COMPASS) survey panel, we conducted a preregistered experiment (N = 2944) in May 2021 involving information presentations on vaccination: evidence-based tabular and graphical fact box vs. norm and moral nudge vs. vaccination advertising. Before and after vaccination education, vaccination intentions, understanding of vaccination, and attitudes toward and trust in vaccines were measured among those willing, inclined, sceptical, opposed and undecided. RESULTS:Fact boxes supported understanding of vaccination. Graphical fact boxes reinforced vaccination intention of undecideds without information needs. The moral nudge, but not the norm nudge, increased the vaccination intention of vaccination sceptics and undecided people without information needs. No negative influence on trust in vaccines could be identified. DISCUSSION:Evidence-based information does not counteract the social goal of high immunisation coverage of the population. Depending on the intention to vaccinate and the need for information, different target groups react differently to vaccination communication. Questions of ethical and legal responsibility should be discussed with regard to nudging and vaccination advertising.

So wickeln Sie Zollangelegenheiten schnell und rechtssicher ab: Dieses Buch von Mirko Wolfgang Brill und Gert R. Wagner erklärt Ihnen Schritt für Schritt alle zollrechtlichen Grundlagen für den reibungslosen Import und Export. Sie brauchen keine juristischen Vorkenntnisse. Es zeigt, welche Dokumente Sie brauchen, wie Sie richtig tarifieren, den Zollwert der Ware bestimmen und Einfuhrabgaben ermitteln. Nutzen Sie das Buch, um Lieferzeiten zu verkürzen und unnötige Kosten zu vermeiden, damit Ihr Unternehmen von den Chancen auf den globalen Märkten optimal profitieren kann. Inhalte: * Detaillierte Anleitungen zum Ausfüllen von Zollformularen * Praxiswissen zu Zollfragen und den Bestimmungen zum Import und Export * Darauf müssen Sie trotz des freien Verkehrs von Waren in der EU und in gleich gestellten Ländern achten * So erreichen Sie Zahlungserleichterungen und Zollfreistellungen Neu in der 5. Auflage: * Alle zollrechtlichen Änderungen zu Ausfuhrgenehmigungen für Dual-Use-Güter * Digitalisierung der Zollabwicklung * Lieferantenerklärung, ATLAS Release * CO2-Ausgleichsabgabe u. a.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people had two important but imperfect teachers of risk. First, they learned about incidence, mortality rates, and reproduction numbers from reports and graphs. Second, they learned about the risk of infection through their own experience and the experience of others. Personal experience has been found to serve as an input for risk judgments in numerous contexts, including climate change. Here we examine how it shapes risk judgments within the dynamics of a pandemic, drawing on data collected from more than 15,000 German citizens between March 2020 and May 2022. People with personal experience of having contracted the virus consistently rated the risk of infection higher than those without such experience. The influence of others' experience increased with their social distance to the respondent. Media coverage also influenced risk judgments but to a lesser extent. We discuss the implications of these patterns for risk communication.

Research across a number of different areas in psychology has long shown that optimism and pessimism are predictive of a number of important future life outcomes. Despite a vast literature on the correlates and consequences, we know very little about how optimism and pessimism change across adulthood and old age and the sociodemographic factors that are associated with individual differences in such trajectories. In the present study, we conducted (parallel) analyses of standard items from the Life Orientation Test (Scheier & Carver, 1985) in three comprehensive data sets: Two-wave data from both the Berlin Aging Study II (N = 1,423, aged 60-88; M = 70.4, SD = 3.70) and the Midlife in the U.S. Study (N = 1,810 aged 60-84; M = 69.12, SD = 6.47) as well as cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement (N = 17,087, aged 60-99; M = 70.19, SD = 7.53). Using latent change-regression models and locally weighted smoothing curves revealed that optimism is on average very stable after age 60, with some evidence in Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement of lowered optimism in very old age. Consistent across the three independent studies, pessimism evinced on average modest increases, ranging between .25 and .50 SD per 10 years of age. Of the sociodemographic factors examined, higher levels of education revealed the most consistent associations with lower pessimism, whereas gender evinced more study-specific findings. We take our results to demonstrate that age-related trajectories and correlates thereof differ for optimism and pessimism. Older adults appear to preserve into older ages those levels of optimistic expectations they have had at 60 years of age and show only modest increases in pessimism. We discuss possible reasons for these findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional stressor reactivity and recovery from stressors are associated with the personality trait neuroticism. We examined whether higher extraversion or openness might buffer these associations in daily life. Participants from two age-heterogeneous samples (lifespan: n = 364, aged 14-88 years; late adulthood: n = 170, aged 66-89 years) answered personality questionnaires and reported their momentary negative affect (NA) and stressors six times per day over nine or seven days, respectively. Higher neuroticism was associated with higher overall NA in both samples, but with more pronounced stressor reactivity only in the late adulthood sample. Neither extraversion nor openness moderated associations between neuroticism and stressor reactivity or recovery. We discuss the role of different personality traits in stress processes for different age groups.

To check claims of a "loneliness epidemic," we examined whether current cohorts of older adults report higher levels and/or steeper age-related increases in loneliness than earlier-born peers. Specifically, we used 1,068 age-matched longitudinal reports (M-age observations = 79 years, 49% women) of loneliness provided by independent samples recruited in the German city of Berlin in 1990 and 2010, n = 257 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and n = 383 participants in Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). Using multilevel models that orthogonalize between-person and within-person age effects, we examined how responses to items from the UCLA Loneliness Scale provided by observation-matched cohorts differed with age and across cohorts, and if those differences might be explained by a variety of individual factors. Results revealed that at age 79, the later-born BASE-II cohort reported substantially lower levels of loneliness than the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = -0.84), with cohort differences accounting for more than 14% of the variance in loneliness. Age trajectories, however, were parallel without evidence of cohort differences in rates of within-person age-related changes in loneliness. Differences in gender, education, cognitive functioning, and external control beliefs accounted for the lion's share of cohort-related differences in levels of loneliness. Results show that loneliness among older adults has shifted to markedly lower levels today, but the rate at which loneliness increases with age proceeds similarly as 2 decades ago. Future studies should investigate how psychosocial functioning across the life course is progressing in different sociohistorical contexts and in other age groups, such as younger and middle-aged adults.

Since the new millennium, research in the field of personality development has focused on the stability and change of basic personality traits. Motivational aspects of personality and their longitudinal association with basic traits have received comparably little attention. In this preregistered study, we applied bivariate latent growth curve model to investigated the codevelopment of nine life goals and the Big Five traits. We tested age, perceived control, gender, educational background, and regional socialization as potential moderators of codevelopment. Data came from the German Socio-Economic Panel study (N = 55,040, age range: 18-103 years) and span a study period of 13 years. During this period, the Big Five traits and life goals were assessed four times. Our findings suggest that development in broader life goal domains (e.g., self-fulfillment) is more strongly connected to personality development across the life span, whereas changes in specific goals (e.g., having children) are more closely tied to trait changes during young and middle adulthood. The strongest codevelopment was found between Openness and agentic goals with a focus on personal growth followed by codevelopment between Agreeableness and communal goals. Developmental stage and educational background moderated the codevelopment of Conscientiousness and economic achievement as well as family-related goals. Contrary to the previous research, we found that Neuroticism codeveloped with communal life goals (i.e., having a happy relationship/marriage). Our findings reinforce theoretical frameworks that highlight the role of changing opportunities, constraints, and developmental tasks across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This paper studies the effects of Covid-19 and related daycare and school closures during lockdowns on gender role attitudes toward maternal employment in Germany. Using data from 2008 through 2021, we study gender role attitudes of women and men with dependent children. First-difference and difference-in-differences estimates show that fathers' egalitarian attitudes toward maternal employment dropped substantially one year after the outbreak of the pandemic. This drop is observed for men in West Germany, who showed a steady progression toward more egalitarian attitudes in the pre-pandemic period. Attitudes by women are not affected. The drop in men's attitudes is most pronounced for fathers of young children. These findings suggest that the pandemic not only affected the short-term allocation of housework and childcare, but also reverses previous changes in more egalitarian attitudes toward maternal employment in the short run.

Background Individuals who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are at increased risk for aging-related diseases and perform less well on tests of cognitive function. The weathering hypothesis proposes that these disparities in physical and cognitive health arise from an acceleration of biological processes of aging. Theories of how life adversity is biologically embedded identify epigenetic alterations, including DNA methylation (DNAm), as a mechanistic interface between the environment and health. Consistent with the weathering hypothesis and theories of biological embedding, recently developed DNAm algorithms have revealed profiles reflective of more advanced aging and lower cognitive function among socioeconomically-at-risk groups. These DNAm algorithms were developed using blood-DNA, but social and behavioral science research commonly collect saliva or cheek-swab DNA. This discrepancy is a potential barrier to research to elucidate mechanisms through which socioeconomic disadvantage affects aging and cognition. We therefore tested if social gradients observed in blood DNAm measures could be reproduced using buccal-cell DNA obtained from cheek swabs. Results We analyzed three DNAm measures of biological aging and one DNAm measure of cognitive performance, all of which showed socioeconomic gradients in previous studies: the PhenoAge and GrimAge DNAm clocks, DunedinPACE, and Epigenetic- g . We first computed blood-buccal cross-tissue correlations in n = 21 adults (GEO111165). Cross-tissue correlations were low-to-moderate ( r = .25 to r = .48). We next conducted analyses of socioeconomic gradients using buccal DNAm data from SOEP-G ( n = 1128, 57% female; age mean = 42 yrs, SD = 21.56, range 0–72). Associations of socioeconomic status with DNAm measures of aging were in the expected direction, but were smaller as compared to reports from blood DNAm datasets ( r = − .08 to r = − .13). Conclusions Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with DNAm indicators of worse physical health. However, relatively low cross-tissue correlations and attenuated effect sizes for socioeconomic gradients in buccal DNAm compared with reports from analysis of blood DNAm suggest that in order to take full advantage of buccal DNA samples, DNAm algorithms customized to buccal DNAm are needed.

Abstract Lifespan psychological and life course sociological research have long shown that spousal bereavement constitutes one of the most stressful life events in older adulthood that is often associated with marked declines in well-being. It is an open question though whether and how the well-being implications of spousal loss have changed over the past decades. To do so, we used multi-year within-person longitudinal change data from 2,042 participants (Mage at event =65.73 years, 71% women) of the German Socio-Economic Panel obtained annually since 1984. We combine latent basis growth models with methods that analyze the Area under the Curve so as to consider the time window from five years prior to five years after spousal loss. Results revealed that having lost one’s spouse in the 2000s and 2010s is associated with overall less well-being declines than having lost one’s spouse in the 1980s and 1990s. Building on earlier approaches that have distinguished anticipation, reaction, and adaptation phases of bereavement revealed that such improvements are primarily driven by fewer declines in the anticipation phase and faster recovery in the adaptation phases (both by about 0.1 SD per 10 years of historical time), whereas we found partial evidence for steeper declines in the immediate reaction phase. We discuss and in part examine possible explanatory factors at the individual, spousal, social, and societal level for the observed historical improvements in life satisfaction trajectories surrounding spousal loss in Germany over the last three decades.

History-graded increases in older adults' levels of cognitive performance are well documented, but little is known about historical shifts in within-person change: cognitive decline and onset of decline. We combined harmonized perceptual-motor speed data from independent samples recruited in 1990 and 2010 to obtain 2,008 age-matched longitudinal observations (M = 78 years, 50% women) from 228 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and 583 participants in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). We used nonlinear growth models that orthogonalized within- and between-person age effects and controlled for retest effects. At age 78, the later-born BASE-II cohort substantially outperformed the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = 1.20; 25 years of age difference). Age trajectories, however, were parallel, and there was no evidence of cohort differences in the amount or rate of decline and the onset of decline. Cognitive functioning has shifted to higher levels, but cognitive decline in old age appears to proceed similarly as it did two decades ago.

Germen Abstract: Für das im Jahr 2025 stattfindende 100-jährige Jubiläum des DIW Berlin und dessen Geschichte ist die hier vorgelegte Dokumentation eines 1999 geführten Gesprächs zwischen den ehemaligen DIW-Abteilungsleitern Fritz Franzmeyer und Reinhard Pohl einerseits und Gert G. Wagner andererseits von Interesse, das die Frage thematisiert, warum das Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin) in der Öffentlichkeit seit Jahrzehnten als "arbeitnehmernah" und "keynesianisch" etikettiert wurde. Die Dokumentation wurde bislang nicht veröffentlicht; die vorliegende Fassung wurde auf Basis eines eingescannten Ausdrucks im Mai 2023 fertiggestellt; inhaltliche Änderungen wurden nicht vorgenommen.

Abstract Damage to residential buildings caused by natural disasters will increase as climate change progresses. However, in Germany not all buildings are insured against it. This article gives an overview on the current debate in Germany on how to improve the common state of insurance. We present new empirical evidence on the acceptance of natural disaster insurances and outline the key parameters that should be subject to regulation. This includes the types of natural disasters that should typically covered by such an insurance, the level of the deductible to be paid by the household, state support for paying off the deductible, ways to deal with risk clusters that single insurers might face, as well as the specification of a stop-loss threshold to cap the insurers’ financial risks.

Urbanization is Globally increasing at a rapid rate but its consequences for mental health, including cognitive functioning, are not well understood. In particular, little is known about the effects of different morphological features associated with urban development, such as variations in the densities of urban fabric (i.e., degrees of ground sealing). We investigated associations of episodic memory, working memory, and fluid intelligence with different densities of urban fabric, obtained from the European Urban Atlas, in a structural equation model framework. We used data on 1053 healthy participants aged 61-88 years (mean age 70.33; SD = 3.75; 51% female) drawn from the Berlin Aging Study II. All participants were living within the city of Berlin, Germany. Our data include the precise geographical coordinates of every household, thereby permitting the calculation of the share of each density type of urban fabric within a 1-km radius around the household. We found these types to be significantly related to working memory and fluid intelligence. No significant association emerged for episodic memory. All results were robust against the inclusion of a set of covariates known to be related to cognitive performance. We discuss the idea of enrichment effects due to morphological features of urban development as one possible mechanism.