Research on Aging

Using data collected from qualitative interviews in 36 households, this article examines people’s use of social relations based on gender to perform tasks associated with residential relocation in later life. Without prompting, our respondents addressed the social relations of gender in the meanings of things, in the persons of gift recipients, and in the persons of actors accomplishing the tasks. They matched gender-typed objects to same-sex recipients, reproducing circumstances of possession and passing on expectations for gender identity. The accounts of our respondents also depicted a gendered division of household labor between husbands and wives and a gendered division of care work by daughters and sons. These strategies economized a big task by shaping decisions about who should get what and who will do what. In turn, these practices affirmed the gendered nature of possession and care work into another generation.

Senior centers are ideal locations to deliver evidence-based health promotion programs to the rapidly growing population of older Americans to help them remain healthy and independent in the community. However, little reported research is conducted in partnership with senior centers; thus, not much is known about barriers and facilitators for senior centers serving as research sites. To fill this gap and potentially accelerate research within senior centers to enhance translation of evidence-based interventions into practice, the present study examined barriers and facilitators of senior centers invited to participate in a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Primary barriers to participation related to staffing and perceived inability to recruit older adult participants meeting research criteria. The primary facilitator was a desire to offer programs that were of interest and beneficial to seniors. Senior centers are interested in participating in research that provides benefit to older adults but may need assistance from researchers to overcome participation barriers.

Despite the long-held view that Latinos’ value and reliance on family leads to greater involvement of extended family in caring for sick members and reduced perception of burden, some research reports low levels of social support and high levels of distress among Latino caregivers. We explore this seeming discrepancy in a qualitative study of 41 Latino caregivers of family members with Alzheimer’s disease, interviewing them regarding the role of familism in their caregiving experience. For some it facilitates caregiving in the traditional, expected manner. Other caregivers disavow its current relevance. Yet others feel a contrast between familism, which they may value in a general, abstract way and more personal, immediate negative feelings they are experiencing from caregiving. We discuss these complex, multidimensional findings, the variation among caregivers, and present implications for practice, policy, and research.

While a number of organizations and government entities have encouraged the development of more “age-friendly” environments, to date there has been limited research linking these environment features to elder outcomes. Using a representative sample of older adults living in Detroit, this study examined the association between age-friendly environment factors and self-rated health. Results indicated that access to health care, social support, and community engagement were each associated with better self-rated health, while neighborhood problems were associated with poorer self-rated health. Moreover, individual-level income and education no longer predicted self-rated health once age-friendly environment factors were taken into account. These findings highlight the need for more research documenting the effects of age-friendly environments, particularly across diverse contexts and populations.

Falling is a major health-related risk among older adults due to injuries, disability, and even death. Although physical activity (PA) can prevent falls, most older adults are inactive due to limited motivation. The purpose was to examine a motivational framework whereby the stages of change (SOC) and PA mediated the relations between the theory of planned behavior constructs and falls risks among 172 diverse older adults (M age = 72.36). The participants were assessed using standardized scales. Based on the path analysis, the hypothesized framework fit the sample data. The SOC and perceived control had significant path coefficients for PA (.48 and .43, respectively), and PA was linked to falls risks (−.54). Subjective norm was mostly associated with the SOC followed by attitude and perceived control. The variance explained in the SOC, PA, and falls risks were 28%, 59%, and 29%, respectively. Health promoters can use the proposed framework to promote PA and decrease falls risk.

Over the last two decades, research has assessed the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic factors and individual health. However, existing research is based almost exclusively on cross-sectional data, ignoring the complexity in health transitions that may be shaped by long-term residential exposures. We address these limitations by specifying distinct health transitions over multiple waves of a 15-year study of American adults. We focus on transitions between a hierarchy of health states, (free from health problems, onset of health problems, and death), not just gradients in a single health indicator over time, and use a cumulative measure of exposure to neighborhoods over adulthood. We find that cumulative exposure to neighborhood disadvantage has significant effects on functional decline and mortality. Research ignoring a persons’ history of exposure to residential contexts over the life course runs the risk of underestimating the role of neighborhood disadvantage on health.