Prosocial Behavior and Contributors to Older Adults’ Well-Being in Daily Life

Abstract This symposium reports findings from a national experience-sampling study of 165 older adults (mean age=71, range=60-88 years) who are heavily involved in prosocial activity, contributing to their communities as leaders or high-commitment volunteers in social-purpose organizations. Gerontological research has linked prosocial activity to a set of positive outcomes for the older adults who engage in it (e.g., better health and reduced mortality), including global measures of well-being such as life satisfaction. However, little is known about the contributors to these individuals’ momentary well-being. Four presentations address this gap in knowledge. In the first presentation, Dwight Tse revisits the concept of successful aging as a within-person variable with day-to-day variations. Experience sampling data revealed great variations in successful aging indicators, and successful aging was associated with better well-being as hypothesized. In the second presentation, Ajit Mann extends beyond general control beliefs and explores the diversity in distribution of control beliefs across various daily activities (e.g., active leisure, prosocial activity, socializing, etc.), in addition to investigating the relationship between later life control diversity and subjective well-being. In the third presentation, Kelsey Finley explores Aristotle’s concept of the golden mean (an ideal state between deficiency and excess) for the number of hours spent in prosocial work on momentary well-being outcomes. In the fourth presentation, Jeanne Nakamura examines the relationship between global meaning in life and meaningful engagement in the moment, illuminating variation in this relationship through a comparison of the prosocial leaders and high-commitment volunteers.

cognitive disability among non-Hispanic Arab Americans was 5.3%, which was lower than non-Hispanic whites (6.5%), blacks (10.8%), and Hispanics (10.0%). Among foreign-born adults, the prevalence of cognitive disability was highest, 7.3%, for non-Hispanic Arab Americans compared to all other racial and ethnic groups. Among foreignborn adults, non-Hispanic Arab Americans had 1.24 times greater odds (95% CI=1.12, 1.37) of having a cognitive disability compared to foreign-born non-Hispanic whites. This is the first study to examine cognitive disabilities among US-and foreign-born Arab Americans. More research is needed to better understand factors that may contribute to the increased prevalence of cognitive disabilities for foreignborn adults.

RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND COGNITION ACROSS RACE AND ETHNICITY
Ji Hyun Lee, 1 Indira Turney, 2 Reza Amini, 3 Benjamin Katz, 4 Kristine Ajrouch, 5 and Toni Antonucci, 6 1. Florida State University College of Medicine,Tallahassee,Florida,United States,2. Columbia University Medical Center,New York,New York,United States,Flint,Michigan,United States,4. Virginia Tech,Blacksburg,Virginia,United States,5. Eastern Michigan University,Ypsilanti,Michigan,United States,6. University of Michigan (UM),Ann Arbor,Michigan,United States Quality of social relations have increasingly been recognized as an important factor in cognitive health in later adulthood. Less is known about the association of relationship quality with executive functioning (EF) and memory; and whether the links differ by race/ethnicity. In this paper, we investigated the associations between positive and negative quality of relationship with spouse, children, family, and friends with EF and memory across non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Whites. Participants are drawn from Health and Retirement Study Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (N = 2,678). Independent of network size and contact, relationship quality with family was linked to EF. Racial differences were found such that negative relationship quality with children was protective of EF for blacks. Relationship qualities were not associated with memory. These findings indicate that examining quality of relationship with distinct relationships may be essential for understanding the association with cognition, especially in the context of race/ethnicity.

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND CONTRIBUTORS TO OLDER ADULTS' WELL-BEING IN DAILY LIFE
Chair: Jeanne Nakamura Co-Chair: Dwight Tse This symposium reports findings from a national experience-sampling study of 165 older adults (mean age=71, range=60-88 years) who are heavily involved in prosocial activity, contributing to their communities as leaders or high-commitment volunteers in social-purpose organizations. Gerontological research has linked prosocial activity to a set of positive outcomes for the older adults who engage in it (e.g., better health and reduced mortality), including global measures of well-being such as life satisfaction. However, little is known about the contributors to these individuals' momentary well-being. Four presentations address this gap in knowledge. In the first presentation, Dwight Tse revisits the concept of successful aging as a within-person variable with day-to-day variations. Experience sampling data revealed great variations in successful aging indicators, and successful aging was associated with better well-being as hypothesized. In the second presentation, Ajit Mann extends beyond general control beliefs and explores the diversity in distribution of control beliefs across various daily GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting Innovation in Aging, 2020, Vol. 4, No. S1 activities (e.g., active leisure, prosocial activity, socializing, etc.), in addition to investigating the relationship between later life control diversity and subjective well-being. In the third presentation, Kelsey Finley explores Aristotle's concept of the golden mean (an ideal state between deficiency and excess) for the number of hours spent in prosocial work on momentary well-being outcomes. In the fourth presentation, Jeanne Nakamura examines the relationship between global meaning in life and meaningful engagement in the moment, illuminating variation in this relationship through a comparison of the prosocial leaders and high-commitment volunteers. Studies on successful aging have conceptualized it as a between-person construct, meaning that people's aging process is seen as more or less successful than others' across contexts. This study examines within-person, moment-tomoment successful aging indicators, such as (absence of) physical pain, good physical and cognitive functioning, and active engagement in social and productive activities, and their relations to one-time well-being indicators (affective balance, psychological needs satisfaction, meaning in life, and satisfaction with life) at the time and one year after. Multilevel modeling on experience sampling data revealed that successful aging varied substantially (over 50% total variances) within-person and was positively associated with well-being. This study illustrates the utility of momentary successful aging indicators and advocates for a more nuanced understanding besides a simple classification of older adults undergoing "successful" or "normal" aging processes.

THE DYNAMICS OF CONTROL: INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF CONTROL DIVERSITY ON SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING IN LATER LIFE Ajit Mann, and Jeanne Nakamura, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, United States
Recent advancements in research on control beliefs have enabled the assessment of inter-individual differences in its intra-individual variability via a measure of control diversity. However, past research has focused on control diversity in relation to daily stressors. Among a sample of prosocial exemplars, this experience sampling study investigates control diversity across general daily activities and explores its relationship with subjective well-being. Participants indicated the activity they were primarily involved in, the extent to which they felt in control over the situation, and levels of positive and negative affect each time they were signaled; satisfaction with life was measured using a one-time survey at the end of the study. Results from multilevel structural equation modeling suggested that control diversity did not significantly predict positive or negative affect, or satisfaction with life. The study points toward the lack of association between control diversity and subjective well-being and highlights future directions for research. Aristotle believed that happiness and success result from cultivating virtue at the mean between deficiency and excess -the golden mean. Some evidence suggests there is a golden mean of hours spent volunteering, where well-being benefits are maximized. Our study examined potential linear and nonlinear functions in the amount of time spent in prosocial work (PSW) in a day on the outcomes of eudaimonia, high arousal negative affect, and high arousal positive affect in a sample of high-commitment volunteers and prosocial leaders. In addition to nonlinear functions, interactions were explored. For example, we found that those who spend less time per week in PSW experience less negative affect when they spend more hours per day in PSW; however, those who spend more time per week in PSW experience more negative affect when they spend more hours per day in PSW. Additional findings for positive affect and eudaimonia will be discussed.

MEANING IN LIFE AND MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT IN THE MOMENT: LIVES OF PROSOCIAL LEADERS AND VOLUNTEERS Jeanne Nakamura, and Ajit Mann, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, United States
Recent years have seen growing interest in older adults' sense of meaning in life, a core dimension of eudaimonic well-being throughout adulthood that has been associated in later life with reduced morbidity and mortality. Currently, the relations between this global sense of meaning in life and the experience of meaningful engagement in the moment remain largely unexplored, particularly in later lives that are distinguished by high levels of meaning. Multilevel analysis of ESM data from prosocial leaders and volunteers indicated that feelings of meaningful engagement fluctuated in daily life for both groups, even while questionnaire data showed that global sense of meaning in life was high. Examining basic sources of fulfillment (e.g., sense of relatedness) revealed type of involvement (leadership vs. volunteerism) affected the source(s) of fulfillment that connected meaning at the global and momentary levels. Implications for theory, research, and applied work on meaning and prosocial commitment are discussed.

AGING IN AN INCREASINGLY TECHNOLOGY-BASED SOCIETY: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE Walter Boot, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States
While it took over 70 years for the telephone to reach 50% of U.S. households, it took only 14 years for the cellphone, and 6 years for the MP3 player. Aging takes place in the context of a rapidly evolving technological landscape. What are the implications of such radical and rapid changes for how we age? And how can existing and emerging technologies help support aging adults' health, wellbeing, social connectivity, and cognition? This talk will explore these