Psychosocial adaptation to age-related macular degeneration: The role of control beliefs

The experience of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) places limits on exerting what the life span theory of control has coined selective control and compensatory control efforts should gain in importance over time. In order to provide a test of this assumption, 71 older adults with AMD (mean age: 78.9) were followed across a 1-year period. As theoretically expected with respect to control trajectories, selective control strategies consistently decreased over time, while compensatory control strategies only partially increased. Also, higher selective control at T1 predicted higher functional ability and positive affect at T2, while the other control strategies were less consistently related to behavioural and emotional outcomes.