Background and Objectives Framed within Conservation of Resources theory, this study addressed race–ethnic differences in the relationships between emotional distress and current and expected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic stressors. Research Design and Methods The study employed data from the Household Pulse Survey, a large national survey collecting weekly data to understand the experiences of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic (age 55 and above; N = 94,550). Emotional distress included depression and anxiety symptoms. COVID-19 stressors included current and expected income, housing, health care, and food insecurities. Results Older persons of color reported higher rates of stressors and emotional distress than their White counterparts. In relation to current stressors, older Black persons responded with less emotional distress and older Latino persons responded with more emotional distress than older White persons. In addition, older persons of color were more likely to expect future resource losses related to COVID-19, and the association between these expectations and emotional distress varied by race–ethnic group. Discussion and Implications The findings reflected the disproportionate negative impact of COVID-19 stressors on emotional distress among older persons of color, providing a baseline for future studies to further examine the impacts of the pandemic among diverse older adult populations.
Objectives Older parents’ previous support exchanges with adult children could influence which child currently provides care, or which child they expect to provide care in the future. Distinguishing between support and care, we investigated how different types of past support exchanges with children were associated with care receipt and expectations from the parent’s perspective. Methods Older parents (N = 190; Mage = 79.98) reported on exchanges of tangible and non-tangible support, and provision of childcare support with each of their adult children (N = 709; Mage = 52.69) in two waves of the Family Exchanges Study (2008 and 2013). Multilevel, within-family, logistic regression models were estimated to examine how past patterns of support exchanges were associated with which child the older parent receives or expects to receive care from. Results Parents with functional limitations at Wave 2 were more likely to receive care from children whom they received more tangible support from at the prior wave. Parents without current limitations more likely named children whom they previously provided childcare support to and received more tangible support from as their expected future caregiver. Discussion This study distinguished different types of support to examine unique pathways to received and expected care within families. Taking the older parent’s perspective, these findings endorse previous studies that emphasize continuity in the transition from receiving tangible support to receiving and expecting care from adult children. The findings also suggest the importance of older parents’ childcare support given to adult children, highlighting reciprocity in intergenerational care exchanges.
Fostering ways for older residents to be civically engaged is one dimension of an age-friendly community. While research on civic engagement among older adults often focuses on volunteering, this study focuses on advocacy and political involvement as another important form. The Age-Friendly Boston Initiative developed the Senior Civic Academy (SCA) program as a self-advocacy course that simultaneously educates older residents about policy-making processes and engages them in advocacy training to incorporate their voices in local policy and planning. This study details the formative evaluation of the SCA, and utilizes mixed methods to evaluate the program’s impact on the participants ( N = 49). Lessons learned from the SCA serve as a guide for other communities to develop programs that encourage civic engagement and advocacy among older adults.
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