Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Effects of COVID-19 on Employment Disruption and Financial Precarity.

Previous research shows that minoritized (i.e. Black and Hispanic) older workers are more likely to work in jobs subject to employment disruptions and negative economic outcomes, including job and wage loss.

Measuring Psychological Resilience in Aging: Findings From the Health and Retirement Study and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Background And Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the measurement properties of 2 emerging psychological resilience (PR) measures constructed for use in large national data sources and to test their reliability across social axes including race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Research Design And Methods: Using 2006/2008 data, the Simplified Resilience Score and the Add Health Resilience Scale were tested using overall and multigroup measurement models in a structural equation modeling framework.

Results: Both PR measures perform well as reliable, 1-factor latent constructs capturing adaptive capacity at various life stages.

Prospective exploration of the role of combined internalizing symptoms in self-reported memory among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: A growing literature suggests depression and anxiety increase risk of cognitive decline. However, few studies have examined their combined effects on cognition, among older adults, especially during periods of high stress.

Method: Based on a sample of community dwelling older adults ( = 576), we evaluated the effects of pre-pandemic anxiety and depressive symptoms, obtained in September 2018, to changes in self-reported memory (SRM) assessed 3 months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adherence Promotion With Tailored Motivational Messages: Proof of Concept and Message Preferences in Older Adults.

This study examined the feasibility of using tailored text messages to promote adherence to longitudinal protocols and determined what facets of text message tone influence motivation. Forty-three older adults ( = 73.21,  = 5.

Work and income instability and retirement financial wellbeing for women and men.

Financial wellbeing in retirement is contingent on realizations of financial expectations developed earlier in life and may differ substantially by gender. People's standard of living in retirement is tied to stability in work and income trajectories during working years along with retirement benefits and savings. Women have a greater overall income disadvantage relative to men, including reduced life course labor force exposure that may restrict retirement savings and benefits.

Health Care Stereotype Threat and Sexual and Gender Minority Well-Being.

Sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) have experienced progressive change over the last 50 years. However, this group still reports worse health and health care experiences. An innovative survey instrument that applies stereotype threat to the health care setting, health care stereotype threat (HCST), offers a new avenue to examine these disparities.

Terms of Engagement: Understanding the Motivations, Preferences, and Attitudes of Older Adults Toward Mobile Cognitive Assessment and Training.

Background And Objectives: The future of cognitive assessment is likely to involve mobile applications for smartphones and tablets; cognitive training is also often delivered in these formats. Unfortunately, low adherence to these programs can hinder efforts at the early detection of cognitive decline and interfere with examining cognitive training efficacy in clinical trials. We explored factors that increase adherence to these programs among older adults.

A longitudinal examination of the protective effect of resilience against anxiety among older adults with high COVID-related worry.

This longitudinal study of community dwelling older adults ( = 453) examined consequences of COVID-related worries on changes in anxiety symptoms before relative to during the pandemic. We further evaluated if pre-COVID psychological resilience (PR) buffered the impact of COVID-related worry. Pre-COVID data were collected in September 2018.

Race-Ethnic Differences in the Effects of COVID-19 on the Work, Stress, and Financial Outcomes of Older Adults.

Objectives: This study investigates race-ethnic differences among older non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic White, and Hispanic adults' financial, employment, and stress consequences of COVID-19.

Methods: We use data from the Health and Retirement Study, including the 2020 COVID-panel, to evaluate a sample of 2,929 adults using a combination of bivariate tests, OLS regression analysis, and moderation tests.

Results: Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black older adults experienced more financial hardships, higher levels of COVID-19 stress, and higher rates of job loss associated with COVID-19 relative to their Non-Hispanic White counterparts.

Productive Aging Lifestyles: A Latent Class Analysis of Work and Volunteer Patterns over the Retirement Transition.

Frank Caro and colleagues' foundational work set the stage for a broad and multifaceted productive aging (PA) literature. Recent PA research has focused on health benefits associated with work and volunteering, respectively. However, these activities are often assumed to have independent associations with health and wellbeing.

Prediction of COVID-19-related distress: the role of anxiety and resiliency.

Objectives: Among older adults, anxiety is a likely risk factor for COVID-19-related distress, whereas psychological resilience may attenuate the negative impact of the pandemic. In this longitudinal study, we hypothesized that pre-pandemic anxiety would predict higher COVID-19-related distress, whereas resiliency would predict lower distress. Further we hypothesized that resilience would moderate the association between anxiety and distress.

History of childhood mistreatment and the psychological health consequences of COVID-19 for older adults.

Objectives: We examine the associations between childhood mistreatment (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional neglect) and older adults' changes in depressive symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic (September 2018-June 2020).

Methods: Using a community-based sample of older adults in North Florida ( = 581), we used ordinary least-squares regression to estimate associations between childhood mistreatments and depressive symptoms in June 2020, controlling for baseline symptoms and demographic characteristics. Additional models tested whether emotion regulation and social support attenuated associations between childhood mistreatments and depressive symptoms.

Emotion regulation and the late positive potential (LPP) in older adults.

Emotion regulation (ER) processes in older adults may be important for successful aging. Neural correlates of ER processes have been examined using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), such as the late-positive potential (LPP) during cognitive reappraisal paradigms. The current study sought to extend this research by examining the LPP from an ER task in a sample of 47 community-dwelling older adults between the ages of 60 and 84 years, scoring either high on emotional well-being (as measured by habitual ER use and resiliency; high WB group, n = 20) or low on emotional well-being (as measured by habitual ER use, resiliency, and depression; low WB group, n = 27).

Race-Discordant School Attendance and Cognitive Function in Later Life.

Early schooling plays an important role in shaping cognitive development. This study explored benefits of cognitive functioning in later life related to attending diverse schools in early life. Specifically, we explored the effects of having attended schools composed primarily of different race peers-race discordant schools (RDS)-among Black and White older adults.

Life Satisfaction and Intergenerational Mobility Among Older Hispanics in the United States.

Objectives: To investigate the impact of intergenerational mobility-measured as the difference between one's own and one's father's education level-on overall life-satisfaction among Hispanic, White, and Black older Americans.

Methods: Data from the Health and Retirement Study were used to estimate life satisfaction by race/ethnicity using ordinary least squares regression (N = 5,057).

Results: Hispanic and Black older Americans report greater educational gains relative to their fathers compared to Whites.

Motivation to Engage in Aging Research: Are There Typologies and Predictors?

Background And Objectives: Study recruitment and retention of older adults in research studies is a major challenge. Enhancing understanding of individual differences in motivations to participate, and predictors of motivators, can serve the dual aims of facilitating the recruitment and retention of older adults, benefiting study validity, economy, and power.

Research Design And Methods: Older adults (N = 472) past and potential participants were surveyed about motivations to participate in research, demographic, and individual difference measures (e.

Social Support and Depressive Symptoms Among Men and Women With Same-Sex Experiences in Later Life.

Background And Objectives: Social support is a vital psychological health resource for well-being in later life. However, research on the associations of social support has largely excluded sexual minorities. This study compares the association between sources of social support and depressive symptoms across groups of older heterosexual and sexual minority men and women.

Cognitive reappraisal, emotional suppression, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in later life: The moderating role of gender.

Objectives: Although socioemotional selectivity (SST) suggests that people experience more positive affect as they age, symptoms of anxiety and depression persist and are often greater in older women than men. Coping strategies may influence the extent to which older adults experience these symptoms. The purpose of the current study is to examine possible gender differences in the use of an adaptive (cognitive reappraisal (CR) and a maladaptive (emotive suppression (ES) emotion regulation strategy in relation to depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Financial Hardship and Psychological Resilience During COVID-19: Differences by Race/Ethnicity.

Objectives: Research on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among older adults has primarily focused on relatively acute virus outcomes, but it is likely financial hardships during this time have eroded the adaptive capacity of older adults. It is also possible these impacts vary by race and ethnicity. We examine changes in psychological resilience (PR) among older adults before and during the pandemic to determine whether financial hardships and other stressors have altered this resource for White, Black, and Hispanic older adults.

A Brief Report on Older Working Caregivers: Developing a Typology of Work Environments.

Objectives: A growing proportion of the U.S. labor force juggles paid work with family caregiving of older adults.

Dog Walking and the Social Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Loneliness in Older Adults.

Pet ownership can provide important companionship and facilitate social connections, which may be particularly important to socially isolated older adults. Given the significant deleterious impact of loneliness on health and wellbeing in later life, many predicted that public safety measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic would greatly increase loneliness, particularly among vulnerable populations like older adults. We investigated whether dog walking buffers loneliness in the context of stressors imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gender Disparities in Life Satisfaction After Retirement: The Roles of Leisure, Family, and Finances.

Background And Objectives: Recent research on life satisfaction in retirement explores gender differences but yields inconsistent patterns and does not consider gendered sources of satisfaction. We use a gender relations framework to examine whether women and men experience different changes in life satisfaction with retirement, and whether observed differences are a consequence of different assessments of the leisure, family, and financial situations that characterize their post-retirement lives.

Research Design And Methods: We use longitudinal data drawn from men and women in the Health and Retirement Study who transitioned into retirement between ages 62 and 72 for the first time between 2008 and 2016 (N = 593).

The Impact of Military Service Exposures and Psychological Resilience on the Mental Health Trajectories of Older Male Veterans.

We examine the impact of exposure to the dead, dying, and wounded (DDW) during military service on the later-life depressive symptom trajectories of male United States veterans, using psychological resilience as an internal resource that potentially moderates negative consequences. The Health and Retirement Study (2006-2014) and linked Veteran Mail Survey were used to estimate latent growth curve models of depressive symptom trajectories, beginning at respondents' first report of resilience. Veterans with higher levels of resilience do not have increased depressive symptoms in later life, despite previous exposure to DDW.

Psychological Resilience and Health Among Older Adults: A Comparison of Personal Resources.

Objectives: Research on life course inequality and successful aging has sought to understand how events and challenges may lead to poor outcomes in later life for some individuals, while others fare well in the face of adversity. Among internalized resources, research suggests psychological resilience is protective in the face of challenges, but little is known about the predictive efficacy of this measure compared to other resources such as mastery. This paper examines connections between psychological resilience and later life health compared to other internalized resources.

More Than Selection Effects: Volunteering Is Associated With Benefits in Cognitive Functioning.

Objectives: Volunteering is a lifestyle behavior that bolsters cognitive resilience. However, previous studies have not assessed the degree to which cognitive functioning is predictive of becoming a volunteer (i.e.