Emily P Morris, Jordan D Palms, Kiana Scambray, Ji Hyun Lee, Ketlyne Sol, Lenette M Jones, Jacqui Smith, Lindsay C Kobayashi, Laura B Zahodne
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: Structural racism creates contextual stressors that disproportionately affect Black, relative to White, older adults in the U.S. and may contribute to worse cognitive health. We examined the extent to which interpersonal, community, and societal stressors uniquely explain Black-White disparities in initial memory and memory change.
Methods: The sample included 14,199 non-Latino Black and White older adults (Mage=68.32, 19.8% Black) from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study who completed psychosocial questionnaires at baseline and a word list memory task every two years over an eight-year period. Interpersonal, community, and societal stressors were operationalized as self-reported everyday discrimination, neighborhood physical disorder, and subjective societal status, respectively. Latent growth curves modeled longitudinal memory performance. Stressors were modeled simultaneously and allowed to correlate. Covariates included age, sex, education, wealth, parental education, and Southern residence.
Results: Compared to White participants, Black participants experienced more discrimination (β=-.004, SE=.001, p<.001), more neighborhood physical disorder (β=-.009, SE=.002, p<.001), and lower perceived societal status (β =-.002, SE=.001, p=.001), each of which uniquely mediated the racial disparity in initial memory. Sensitivity analyses utilizing proxy-imputed memory scores revealed an additional racial disparity in memory change, wherein Black participants evidenced faster decline than White participants. This disparity in memory change was only uniquely mediated by more everyday discrimination among Black participants.
Discussion: Elements of structural racism may contribute to cognitive disparities via disproportionate stress experiences at multiple contextual levels among Black older adults. Future research should consider multilevel protective factors that buffer against negative impacts of racism on health.
目标:结构性种族主义造成的环境压力因素对美国黑人老年人的影响比白人老年人更大,并可能导致认知健康状况恶化。我们研究了人际、社区和社会压力因素在多大程度上能独特解释黑人与白人在初始记忆和记忆变化方面的差异:样本包括美国健康与退休研究(U.S. Health and Retirement Study)中的 14,199 名非拉丁裔黑人和白人老年人(年龄=68.32,19.8% 为黑人),他们在基线时填写了社会心理问卷,并在八年时间里每两年完成一次单词表记忆任务。人际、社区和社会压力因素分别以自我报告的日常歧视、邻里关系失调和主观社会地位来表示。潜伏增长曲线对纵向记忆表现进行建模。压力源同时建模并允许相互关联。协变量包括年龄、性别、教育程度、财富、父母教育程度和南方居住地:结果:与白人参与者相比,黑人参与者经历了更多的歧视(β=-.004,SE=.001,p 讨论:结构性种族主义的因素可能会通过黑人老年人在多个背景层面上不成比例的压力体验而导致认知差异。未来的研究应考虑多层次的保护因素,以缓冲种族主义对健康的负面影响。
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences publishes articles on development in adulthood and old age that advance the psychological science of aging processes and outcomes. Articles have clear implications for theoretical or methodological innovation in the psychology of aging or contribute significantly to the empirical understanding of psychological processes and aging. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, attitudes, clinical applications, cognition, education, emotion, health, human factors, interpersonal relations, neuropsychology, perception, personality, physiological psychology, social psychology, and sensation.