We examine racial disparities in the association between work discrimination and life satisfaction among older adults and whether any differences are mediated by one’s sense of personal mastery using data from the 2010 and 2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. The results from the structural equation models (SEM) show White people who experience work discrimination report the lowest life satisfaction, followed by Hispanic and then Black people. After accounting for the mediating effect of one’s sense of mastery to cope with discriminatory work experiences, we find work discrimination still has a direct negative association with the life satisfaction of White and Black respondents but the effect for Hispanic people is no longer statistically significant. The results of the direct and total effects also suggest the mediating effects of mastery on the association between work discrimination and life satisfaction among older workers is strongest for White people, followed by Hispanic people and then Black people. These findings suggest that a person’s efficiency at drawing upon their coping resources like mastery when needed is essential for protecting their well-being from the harmful effects of work discrimination, especially for Black and Hispanic people.
This study examined discrepancies between persons living with dementia (PLWD) and their spousal caregivers in the perceived importance of PLWD’s care needs, and how caregivers’ dementia knowledge and empathy were associated with these discrepancies. Data were drawn from 65 couples managing early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. PLWD self-reported the importance of their physical, psychological, and social needs, while caregivers provided proxy ratings. PLWD perceived addressing their physical needs as more important than did their caregivers, whereas both partners agreed on the importance of psychological and social needs. Caregivers’ greater empathic concern was associated with smaller discrepancies in the perceived importance of physical needs; greater personal distress was associated with smaller discrepancies in social needs. Caregivers’ dementia knowledge was positively associated with discrepancies in psychological needs only when relationship quality was lower. These findings highlight the importance of caregivers’ emotional responsiveness and relational dynamics in caregiver interventions, expanding the focus beyond dementia knowledge.
Background: Family co-residence is often considered protective for older adults in India but may not ensure inclusion in household decisions. This study examined how widowhood and decision-making exclusion are jointly associated with depressive symptoms among co-resident older adults. Methods: Data came from LASI Wave 1 (2017–18) and included 27,840 married or widowed adults aged 60+. Survey-weighted logistic regression examined widowhood, decision-making exclusion, their interaction, dose-response patterns, and sex-stratified associations with CES-D depressive symptoms. Results: Decision-making exclusion was highest among widowed women and lowest among married men. More extensive exclusion was associated with higher depressive symptoms, while widowhood without exclusion was not significant after full adjustment. There was little evidence that widowhood and exclusion interacted. Associations with depressive symptoms were more clearly observed among women than men. Conclusion: Among co-resident older adults, having a meaningful voice in family decisions may be important for mental health beyond shared residence alone.
We examined associations between sexual activity, sexual quality, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels among partnered older adults with diabetes. Using longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, we studied 620 partnered respondents with diabetes aged 57 to 85 at baseline. We estimated mixed-effects models of sexual activity, frequency, and quality on HbA1c trajectories over ten years, including tests for gender differences. Results indicated that being sexually active and having sex a few times a month were associated with more favorable HbA1c trajectories compared to being sexually inactive. Emotional satisfaction was associated with worsening HbA1c trajectories for women but stable trajectories for men. Physical pleasure showed no gender differences. The findings suggest that partnered sexuality is a meaningful, gendered aspect of older adults’ metabolic health that deserves greater attention as a dimension of diabetes care in later life.
This study investigates how retirement’s effect on subsequent health varies by individual attributes and their interaction. Instead of spotlighting heterogeneity for a specific, theoretically predetermined feature, I consider the feature-wide effect heterogeneity to find possible data-driven candidates that generate this heterogeneity. To accomplish this, I use causal forests and harmonized data from the Gateway to Global Aging Data (the Gateway). The results show that temporal dimensions (such as age and birth cohort) and financial dimensions (such as income and wealth) are the most important features in heterogenizing retirement’s effect on health. Based on these findings, I suggest the “double scaffold” model to comprehensively explain feature-wide effect heterogeneity.
