Negro aged: toward needed research in social gerontology

Race Differences in Elderly Personal Well-Being

Previous research on aging among minority populations seems to indicate that racial minorities suffer double jeopardy in terms of objective conditions such as income or housing, but are at least as well off as older whites in terms of subjective well-being. In order to explore reasons for this apparent anomaly, multiple regression analysis was performed predicting life satisfaction with a variety of social interaction variables. Results indicate that frequency of contact with church-related friends is the critical factor in accounting for race differences in well-being. We suggest three plausible explanations for this finding: (1) the church is the hub of a "moral community" in a Durkheimian sense; (2) the church reflects a "community of faith" in which members sharing a common belief exert a positive impact on each other's sense of well-being; or (3) the black church in the South forms a focal point of the community, serving as a pseudo-extended family, particularly for the aged.

Black-white disparity in disability among U.S. older adults: age, period, and cohort trends

OBJECTIVES

This study delineates activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) black-white disparity trends by age, period, and cohort (APC) and explores sociodemographic contributors of cohort-based disparity trends.

METHOD

We utilized multiple cross-sectional waves of National Health Interview Survey data (1982-2009) to describe APC trends of ADL and IADL disparities using a cross-classified random effect model. Further, we decomposed the cohort-based disparity trends using Fairlie's decomposition method for nonlinear outcomes.

RESULTS

The crossover ADL and IADL disparities (whites > blacks) occurring at age 75 increased with age and reached a plateau at age of 80, whereas period-based ADL and IADL disparities remained constant for the past 3 decades. The cohort disparity trends for both disabilities showed a decline with each successive cohort except for ADL disparity among women.

DISCUSSION

We examined the role of aging on racial disparity in disability and found support for the racial crossover effect. Further, the racial disparity in disability will disappear should the observed pattern of declining cohort-based ADL and IADL disparities persist. Although education, income, and marital status are important sociodemographic contributors to cohort disparity trends, future studies should investigate individual behavioral health determinants and cohort-specific characteristics that explain the cohort-based racial difference in ADL and IADL disabilities.

Knowledge of and attitudes toward aging among non-elders: gender and race differences

Although the aging process begins at birth, fears about late adulthood can foster anxiety in younger cohorts about this time of life. This study examines the relationship between non-elderly subjects' (n = 884, 18-55 years) knowledge of and anxieties regarding personal aging and their gender and race. We hypothesized that non-elderly women and persons of color, those who will experience multiple jeopardy in their own late life, would report greater anxiety about their own aging process than did men and majority group members. Women did report lower income and education levels, less knowledge of aging, greater anxiety related to their own aging process, and more time involved in caregiving activities. People of color also differed from Caucasians in certain dimensions of knowledge and anxiety. Implications from these results include the creation of public educational strategies and the organization of women and minorities to more actively address the development and shape of age-related policies.

Psychotherapy and behavior change with the non-institutionalized aged

This literature review discusses therapy with the aged person in the community. The discussion is based on the literature published since Rechtschaffen's review in 1959 [1]. The elderly are not receiving mental health services in proportion to their representation in the population or in proportion to their estimated need for such services. Major barriers to the utilization of such services by the aged are the prejudices of care providers, the poverty of the aged, and the lack of public commitment to the provision of services to this special population. A summary of the literature on the goals, content, and techniques of psychotherapy with the elderly client is presented and supports the conclusion that this therapy is different from similar work with the younger adult only in terms of a focus on different content areas. The potential contribution of behavior therapy to treatment programs for the elderly is discussed.

Life satisfaction among black urban elderly

Previous research in white aged populations often has been derived from disengagement, activity, or personality theories. The relevance, however, of any of these conceptual frameworks to black aged is problematic because of their development in white samples and the lack of empirical data documenting their applicability to non-whites. The lack of systematic empirical research on black aged, and particularly, on the determinants of life satisfaction, provided the major impetus for the present study. Interview schedules were individually administered to 102 non-institutionalized retired men and women residing in a large urban area. A multiple regression analysis revealed a number of factors related to life satisfaction. The results are supportive of previous studies in white samples but are sufficiently distinct to raise questions regarding the applicability of these prior findings to black aged.

Are aged blacks who manifest differences in community security also different in coping reactions?

Seventy-two aged Blacks, equally divided between those residing in a high-rise public housing project and those living in the community awaiting admission were interviewed to test the theory that differences in community security would predict differences in coping reactions. Data on perceived community security and reported medical, social and mental coping reactions were colleted, using a simply and directly worded, precoded, stimulus-response instrument developed by the author. Respondents were assigned to either a high or to a low community security group by two methods: first, they were assigned a place of residence; next, they were assigned according to their obtained community security score. Results in general supported the theory. Of the two empirical indicators of community security, however, larger differences in coping reaction scores were found in the high scoring and low scoring community security groups than in the high-rise and community groups.