A Coordinated Analysis of the Associations Among Personality Traits, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia

Abstract There are considerable individual differences in the rates of cognitive decline across later adulthood. Personality traits are among the factors that may account for some of these differences. The current project investigated whether personality traits were associated with trajectories of cognitive decline, and whether the associations were different before and after dementia diagnosis. The data were analyzed using linear mixed effect regression models. Across study aims was a focus on replicability and generalizability. Each question was address in four independent longitudinal studies (EAS, MAP, ROS, SATSA), and then meta-analyzed using random effects meta-analysis, providing estimates of heterogeneity. As expected, we detected evidence for cognitive decline in all four samples. Results also indicated that neuroticism and openness were associated with total cognitive function. and openness was associated with decline post dementia diagnosis.

semi-structured interviews and gathered open-ended survey data from N=104 caregivers participating in an ongoing intervention trial at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.Open-ended questions explored the difficulties caregivers have experienced in caring for and supporting a relative in long-term residential care.Caregivers provided their perspectives about services and supports that have facilitated coping with uncertainty, anxiety, and loss during the pandemic, and identified resources and strengths they have found helpful in caring for their relatives.Thematic analysis was used to identify themes reflecting the key challenges and supports that have emerged for caregivers, and to highlight caregivers' recommendations for promoting their and their relatives' well-being during this crisis.

ASSOCIATIONS AMONG PERSONALITY TRAITS, STRESS EXPERIENCES, AND PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE OUTCOMES IN OLDER ADULTS
Chair: Eileen Graham Discussant: David Almeida Understanding between and within person variability in personality traits, and the processes of general and perceived stress are essential to understanding how to optimize cognitive health in older adults.It is well known that there is large variation in cognitive change: the pace and direction of change differs greatly across individuals.Personality traits and stress experiences are key factors that may account for some of these individual differences.The goal of our symposium is to present novel research in this area and discuss the implications for understanding personality, stress, and cognitive decline.First, Ferguson and colleagues will present a novel approach to assessing daily variability in personality.Their results demonstrate that daily personality assessments are able to capture within-person variability in personality, which could potentially help predict health trajectories in later adulthood.This is an important step in the study of change processes.Second, Luo and colleagues will present the factor structure of general and perceived stress, and show the predictive utility of these factors on physical and cognitive health outcomes.Third, Lawson and colleagues will discuss the extent to which personality is associated with cognitive function in a large sample of Mexican-origin adults.Fourth, Graham and colleagues will present results from a coordinated analysis that addressed associations among personality traits and cognitive decline both pre-and post-dementia diagnosis.Discussant David Almeida will contextualize these new findings and propose next steps.

University, Chicago, Illinois, United States
There are considerable individual differences in the rates of cognitive decline across later adulthood.Personality traits are among the factors that may account for some of these differences.The current project investigated whether personality traits were associated with trajectories of cognitive decline, and whether the associations were different before and after dementia diagnosis.The data were analyzed using linear mixed effect regression models.Across study aims was a focus on replicability and generalizability.Each question was address in four independent longitudinal studies (EAS, MAP, ROS, SATSA), and then meta-analyzed using random effects meta-analysis, providing estimates of heterogeneity.As expected, we detected evidence for cognitive decline in all four samples.Results also indicated that neuroticism and openness were associated with total cognitive function.and openness was associated with decline post dementia diagnosis.Trait personality measures may not be able to detect subtle personality changes and fluctuations which may be indicative of cognitive impairment.Measuring personality in daily life may allow sufficient sensitivity to capture this within-person variability.Eighty-six older adults from the Einstein Aging Study completed items assessing daily extraversion and neuroticism for a median of 17 days.Using separate unconditional models, we calculated the proportions of variance in daily extraversion and neuroticism that were due to between-person and within-person variability.Variability in daily extraversion was relatively evenly related to between-person differences and within-person fluctuation (Intra-Class Correlation [ICC] = 0.576), but the majority of variability in daily neuroticism was at the between-person level (ICC = 0.730).Thus, although these daily assessments were sensitive enough to capture within-person variability in personality in daily life, different traits may exhibit more or less of this variability.Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests the existence of a general perceived stress factor overarching different life domains.The present study investigated the general perceived stress relative to domain-specific perceived stress as predictors of 26 diverse health outcomes, including mental and physical health, health behaviors, cognitive functioning, and physiological health indicators.A bifactor exploratory structural equational modelling approach was conducted in two samples from the Health and Retirement Study.Across the two samples, perceived stress was well-represented by a bifactor structure where there was a robust general perceived stress factor representing a general propensity towards stress perception.Meanwhile, after controlling for the general factor, specific factors representing perceived stress in different life domains were still clearly present.The general perceived stress factor was the most robust predictor of the majority of health outcomes.Age, sex, personality traits, and stressor exposure were found as possible diathesis underlying the general perceived stress factor.

PERSONALITY AND SOCIOECONOMIC PREDICTORS OF MIDLIFE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN MEXICAN-ORIGIN ADULTS
Katherine Lawson, 1 Angelina Sutin, 2 and Richard Robins, 1 1.University of California, Davis, California, United States, 2. Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida, United States, The present study aims to identify personality and socioeconomic (e.g., education, per capita income, economic stress) factors that contribute to midlife cognitive functioning across middle adulthood.Specifically, we examined how the growth trajectories of personality and socioeconomic factors across 12 years predict subsequent cognitive functioning, using data from a large sample of Mexican-origin adults (N=1,110; median age at Time 1=37 years, age range at Time 1=26-65).Personality was assessed using the Big Five Inventory, which assesses the Big Five domains as well as specific facets of each domain; economic stress was assessed using measures of negative economic events (e.g., job loss) and economic hardship (e.g., difficulty paying bills).Cognitive functioning was assessed using the NIH Cognitive Toolbox with measures of memory, language, and executive function.Findings from this work will help identify intervention targets for promoting healthy cognitive aging in midlife and beyond in Mexican-origin adults.

BENCHMARKING AGE-FRIENDLY UNIVERSITY PRACTICES: AFU INVENTORY AND CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY (ICCS) STUDY INSIGHTS
Chair: Joann Montepare Co-Chair: Nina Silverstein The Age-Friendly University (AFU) initiative endorsed by GSA's Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) provides institutions of higher education with guiding principles for addressing the needs of aging populations.Benchmarks are now needed for assessing age-friendly academic, workplace, and physical campus environments, perceptions of campus constituents, and recommendations for advancing age inclusivity.This symposium will discuss what the AFU Inventory and Campus Climate Survey (ICCS) administered to a national sample of colleges and universities is revealing about the study of age-friendliness in higher education.The sample includes data from over 10,000 faculty, staff, students, and older learners surveyed in 2020-21.Whitbourne will introduce the conceptual model that served as the foundation for the ICCS, with special attention to the need to assess and compare "objective" age-friendly practices with "subjective" perceptions of these practices.Bowen will describe the utility of examining age-friendliness across institutional units with different functions: outreach-engagement, personnel, physical environment, research, services-resources, student affairs, and teaching-learning.Beaulieu will present data demonstrating the importance of assessing perceptions Giselle Ferguson, 1 Giancarlo Pasquini, 2 Andreas Neubauer, 3 and Stacey Scott, 2 1. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook University, New York, United States, 2. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States, 3. Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany