Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences最新文献

Objectives: This study investigated the association between caregivers' disability status and their mental strain when caring for family members with disabilities. Moreover, we examined the moderating roles of caregiving time and the presence of additional caregivers in this association.

Methods: Data were selected from a territory-wide survey of people with disabilities in Hong Kong, which included 85,700 family caregivers of people with disabilities. Logistic regression was adopted to test the study hypotheses. Weights were applied for all analyses to ensure the sample was representative of the population.

Results: Caregivers' disability status was associated with higher levels of mental strain among family caregivers of people with disabilities (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58, p < .001). More caregiving hours per week predicted higher risks of caregiving mental strain (20.0-39.9 hr: OR = 3.38, p = .005; 40.0-59.9 hr: OR = 5.01, p = .001; 60.0 hr or more: OR = 9.08, p < .001). The presence of additional caregivers did not reduce the mental strain of primary caregivers. Additionally, no significant moderating effects were observed. However, the results suggest that caregivers with disabilities were more sensitive to the adverse effect of more caregiving time on mental strain.

Discussion: This study highlights the significant impact of caregivers' disability status on mental strain, underscoring the need for targeted social services and policies to reduce caregiving burdens and protect caregivers' health, especially for those with disabilities.

Objectives: Disconnectedness from one's adult child(ren) can undermine older adults' well-being. However, the psychological consequences of disconnectedness may differ across marital contexts and by gender. Drawing on stress and normative violation frameworks, we examine the association between parent-child disconnectedness and European older adults' depressive symptoms, and the extent to which these patterns differ by marital status (married, remarried, cohabiting, divorced, widowed, and never married) and gender.

Methods: We used pooled data from 8 waves (2004-2022) of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, n = 216,469) and multivariable pooled ordinary least squares regression to evaluate whether marital status and gender moderate the association between disconnectedness and depressive symptoms. Analyses were adjusted for socioeconomic, health, survey year, and contextual covariates.

Results: Disconnectedness rates range from 1% among older adults in their first marriages to 13%-14% among divorced and remarried men and 17% among never-married men. Men have consistently higher rates of disconnectedness than women. Parent-child disconnectedness is associated with heightened depressive symptoms in many marital and gender categories. However, moderation analyses show the strongest associations in marital contexts in which disconnectedness is rare (first marriage, especially among women). Disconnectedness also is associated with heightened depressive symptoms among widowed and divorced persons, yet has negligible effects among remarried persons.

Discussion: We discuss the implications of disconnectedness for older adults' socioemotional and caregiving needs. We encourage interventions that focus on engaging older adults' supportive familial or nonfamilial ties rather than reestablishing potentially distressing ties with a disconnected child.

Objectives: The life course perspective on mental health suggests the link between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and depression in later life, yet current pathway models can't fully explain the link. The present study explored the relationship between childhood SES and depressive symptoms in mid- and late life and the mediation role of parenting styles among the Chinese population.

Methods: Based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2011-2020, a prospective cohort study including 7,632 participants was performed. The outcome was depressive symptoms. Parenting styles included parental responsiveness and parental demandingness. Cox regression models and the multiple mediation analysis approach were applied.

Results: Lower childhood SES was associated with a higher hazard of depressive symptoms in mid‑ and late life compared to higher SES (hazard ratios, HR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.06-1.24); higher parental responsiveness was associated with a lower hazard of depressive symptoms (HR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.88-0.96), while higher parental demandingness was associated with a higher hazard (HR: 1.08; 95% CI: 1.04-1.12). Gender- and residence-specific associations between parental responsiveness and depressive symptoms were observed. Parenting styles explained 8.1% of the total effects of childhood SES on mid‑ and late-life depressive symptoms.

Discussion: Parenting styles may be an important mediator in the association between childhood SES and depression in mid- and late life. This study suggests that depression prevention strategies should be taken from a life course perspective and that more focus should be put on the promotion of parenting, especially for those with low SES.

Objectives: Neighborhoods and communities can offer third places, places outside of older adults' individual homes or workplaces, that are meaningful to them. Although literature may describe these places, seeing them as photos from the viewpoint of older adults is often absent. The goal is to understand the role and function of neighborhood and community sites as third places in the older adults' lives, as portrayed through their own words and images.

Methods: A phenomenographic approach was used with older adults to analyze photovoice-based and narrative data from a virtual photovoice study about the meaning of home for 14 older adults, from October 2022 to May 2023, in Baltimore, Maryland. As part of this study, after IRB consent and photovoice protocol review, older adults took up to 10 photos on their smartphones. Each participant then interpreted and shared the meaning of home, neighborhood and community shown in the photos-thus constructing their personal meaning of third place.

Results: Four main sets of places that older adults discuss and conceptualize as third places through conversations about their photos. The concept of third places was expressed both traditionally and in novel ways through discussions and images around: (a) A community of walkable neighborhood stores and restaurants; (b) age-based community-based activity spaces; (c) larger neighborhood community: Spiritual community and faith-based spaces, and (d) parks and nature.

Discussion: These photo-interpreted third places offer additional ways to create a sense of familiarity, social connectedness, and wellbeing while experiencing one's social world in built and natural environments.

Objectives: This study examines the association between family structure and subjective well-being by focusing on the moderating effects of social connectedness across genders and country contexts. We compare the well-being of older adults across 4 family types: those with both a partner and children, those with a partner but not children, those with children but no partner, and those without a partner and children ("kinless").

Methods: We use data from 6 waves of the European Social Survey (2012-2024) and estimate ordered logistic regression models of happiness and life satisfaction among middle-aged and older Europeans aged 50-104 (62,687 men and 73,323 women). We include interactions in the analysis to test whether social connectedness mitigates the well-being differences between kinless adults and partnered parents.

Results: The results show that middle-aged and older adults, especially men, without a partner exhibit lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction compared with their partnered counterparts, regardless of the absence of children. The subjective well-being gap between partnered and unpartnered men diminishes according to their level of social connectedness, a moderating effect primarily observed in Nordic and Western European countries.

Discussion: Contrary to the notion that "kinlessness" leads to aging alone, middle-aged and older men in less family-centered countries are able to alleviate the detrimental impact of partnerlessness on subjective well-being through increased social connectedness. In contrast, in countries where family ties are more emphasized, particularly in Eastern Europe, un-partnered adults face greater well-being challenges that are harder to offset with social connectedness.

Objectives: The age-prospective memory paradox states that younger adults perform better than older adults in laboratory tasks, whereas the opposite has been observed for naturalistic tasks. These terms insufficiently characterize tasks and task settings. We therefore revisited the age-prospective memory paradox using a newly developed taxonomy to better understand how task characteristics or task settings contribute to age-related differences in performance.

Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis of 138 studies, classifying prospective memory tasks according to our newly developed taxonomy. The taxonomy included 9 categories that considered how close any task or task setting was to daily life.

Results: When categorizing relevant studies with this taxonomy, we found that older adults did better than younger adults in "close to real-life" tasks done at home and, particularly, in to-do lists and diary tasks. However, they did worse in "far from real-life" tasks done in naturalistic environments or in simulations of real-life tasks in a laboratory.

Discussion: Results of this meta-analysis suggest that the level of abstraction of a task and familiarity with the environment in which the task is taken can explain some of the differences between the performances of younger and older people. This is relevant for the choice of task settings and task properties to experimentally address any prospective memory research questions that are being asked.

Objectives: Purpose in life is positively associated with cognitive function and better maintenance of cognitive function over time in aging adults. However, purpose in life itself declines over time, and we examined whether such changes are related to changes in cognition and whether this varied by race and ethnicity.

Method: The current study used 3 waves of data from the nationally representative survey, Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N = 9,808), to examine the longitudinal associations between purpose in life and cognitive function in White, Black, and Hispanic adults age 65 and older. Purpose in life was measured using the 7-item version of the Ryff Psychological Well-Being scale. Cognitive function was assessed using a modified version of the TICS (Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status).

Results: Growth curve models showed that purpose in life and cognitive function both declined over time, initial levels of purpose and cognitive function were positively associated, and less decline in purpose was associated with less decline in cognitive function. Addition of interaction terms for race and ethnicity showed that the positive association between initial levels of purpose in life and cognitive function was stronger in Black participants than in White or Hispanic participants; there were no racial or ethnic differences in the longitudinal associations.

Discussion: These results show that maintaining higher levels of purpose in life may protect cognitive abilities in older adults from diverse racial and ethnic groups.

Objectives: While caregivers are typically enmeshed in broad networks of family and friends assisting with care, this network has been neglected in favor of examining a "primary" caregiver. This study examines types of family and unpaid friend networks for individuals with dementia and how one's network type relates to the well-being of care recipients with dementia and their caregivers.

Methods: Data are drawn from the nationally representative 2017 National Health and Aging Trends Study and associated National Study of Caregiving. The sample includes 336 dementia care networks (network size mean = 2.9). We first identified network types using latent class analysis and then examined the extent to which network type is associated with the well-being of care recipients with dementia (sleep, depressive symptoms) and their caregivers (emotional difficulty, overload, social support from family and friends) using ANOVA and linear regressions adjusting for demographics.

Results: 3 network types were identified: "Siloed"-small networks, limited task sharing (29.8% of networks); "Small but Mighty"-small networks, high task sharing (23.0% of networks); and "Complex"-large networks, diverse membership, members who share and specialize in task assistance (47.2%). Individuals with dementia with a "Siloed" network had significantly poorer sleep quality and caregivers in "Siloed" networks reported receiving less social support from family and friends than those in "Small but Mighty" and "Complex" networks.

Discussion: Caregiver networks that are less collaborative may need supports to reduce isolation among caregivers and improve health outcomes for individuals with dementia.

Objectives: Most studies on retirement and social network dynamics focus on the closer social network, leaving the role of more peripheral contacts largely overlooked. This article studies how retirement affects contact frequency with a wider range of social ties. We formulate and test differential hypotheses for each category of ties, and additionally examine gender and partner status differences.

Methods: We analyze 3 waves of panel data of the NIDI Pension Panel Study, collected in the Netherlands between 2015 and 2023 (n = 5,238). We use 2-way fixed-effects regression models to study within-person change in contact frequency with the different categories of social ties after retirement. To test the differential hypotheses, we conduct Wald tests comparing coefficients across models.

Results: The results indicate that retirement stimulates contact primarily with neighbors and friends, to a lesser extent with siblings and (grand)children, and does not affect contact frequency with parents. Contact with ex-coworkers initially increases but then decreases over time. For women, the positive association between retirement and contact with ex-coworkers, friends, and children is stronger. Not having a partner reduces the association between retirement and contact with friends and ex-coworkers.

Discussion: Our findings suggest that retirees attempt to replace lost workplace interactions by engaging with their former colleagues outside of work and increasing contact with neighbors. Simultaneously, the results suggest substantial continuity in contact with all ties. We suggest that larger changes might take place outside of the ties studied here, with new contacts, and provide several suggestions for future research.

Objectives: Mothers with young children tend to have shorter sleep durations than childfree women, but previous research has not considered heterogeneity in sleep duration among midlife mothers who have varying coresidential patterns with their adult, minor, and grandchildren. We examine the distribution of sleep duration across mothers' different intergenerational coresidential contexts (living without any children, living with any minor children, living with only adult children, and living with any grandchildren) and test how these patterns differ across racial/ethnic groups.

Methods: Regression analyses estimate sleep duration among a sample of midlife mothers with minor and adult children and grandchildren from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) data (N = 3,300). Moderation analyses consider differences across racial/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic).

Results: Relative to the mothers with no coresiding children or grandchildren, mothers with coresiding minor or adult children reported less sleep. However, this gap varies across racial/ethnic groups; specifically, the lower sleep duration for mothers with coresidential children is only significant for White and Black mothers, not Hispanic mothers.

Discussion: Sleep is a critical health indicator across the life course and a contributor to other health outcomes later in life. Thus, it is important to identify whose sleep is most vulnerable-especially in midlife when sleep trajectories are the groundwork for later-life well-being. We demonstrate the importance of coresidential status with adult and minor children and grandchildren on the sleep of mothers in midlife, drawing specific attention to the differences across racial/ethnic groups.