LONELINESS, TENDERNESS AND SUBJECTIVE FUT URE, ORIENTATION IN LATE-LIFE - AN EXAMINATION OF SOCIOEMOTIONAL SELECTIVITY THEORY

Within the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), associations between loneliness, health, social network size, social satisfaction, tenderness, and sub jective future orientation were examined in a sample of 516 participan ts aged 70 to 103 years. In general, pessimistic or limited future ori entations were shown to be associated with feelings of loneliness. How ever, this association disappeared when older people had a large perce ntage of very close emotional relationships in their social network. F indings suggest that older people who experienced their future as limi ted or negative? had a higher risk of experiencing loneliness. This ri sk seemed to be reduced when older people reported more emotional mean ingful social experiences than other social contacts.