Summary
The project explores identity associated with place based on matrilineal heritage in Kansas. This interdisciplinary collaboration between Sociology and Dance faculty, students, and older women in assisted living facilities is an innovative attempt to meld oral history, social science research, and dance. Ten undergraduate female students interviewed 17 older women residing in Wichita, Kansas area assisted living homes. The interviews were transcribed and entered into qualitative data software to find recurring themes. Students will create dance movement phrases inspired by the discovered themes. An approximately hour-long dance will be choreographed and filmed, which will be shared with all the interview subjects and students. This project should sustain cognitive and social wellbeing of older adults by utilizing reminiscence and oral history techniques along with the intergenerational contacts aspect. We expect this project can provide a model adaptable to other locations.

Objectives

• To combine interview data with choreography to create a social history project.
• To discover shared themes of identity and place.
• To include undergraduates in interdisciplinary research.

Subject Codes: aging, identity, education
Population Codes: older adults, undergraduate students, cisgender female (those whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity)
Method and Approach Codes: transdisciplinary, qualitative methodology,

Summary
While research demonstrates that greater perceived control is associated with better cognitive performance among older adults, less is known about the interplay of perceived control with SES, cognition, and depression.Using 3,783 participants from the Health and Retirement Study, we explored whether perceived control moderated the relationship between a) SES and cognition and b) SES and depression. R-squared was .238 in the model with cognition as the outcome variable and .199 in the model with depression as the outcome variable. Perceived control moderated the relationship between SES and cognition (but not between SES and depression) such that individuals with lower SES had better cognition in the presence of higher perceived control. As such, perceived control may play a larger role in cognitive outcomes relative to affective ones, and feelings of personal mastery and constraints may influence one’s engagement with cognitive tasks in the presence of particular contextual/SES factors.

Objectives

• Understand how perceived control can moderate the relationship between structural factors and affective or cognitive outcomes.
• Differentiate between mastery and constraints as individual components of perceived control.
• Discuss how a quantitative approach gives a unique perspective on the relationship between socioeconomic status, perceived control, cognition, and depression among older adults.

Subject Codes: aging, marginalization, health
Population Codes: older adults, cognitive (dis)ability, emotional (dis)ability
Method and Approach Codes: mediation/indirect effects models, research, general, secondary data analysis

Summary
Maintaining social connections with family members, staff, and residents improves well-being and is an important element when adjusting to assisted living. Residents that had relocated to assisted living were interviewed about their adjustment to the move, and their relationships before and after moving. We compare a subsection of these participants that answered either positively (n=13) or negatively (n=11) to a survey question, “My relationships are satisfying”. Quantitative data and Qualitative interviews were analyzed to identify commonalities or differences about their relationships since moving to assisted living. Early quantitative results show a stark difference in feelings of isolation (23%, positive group vs 81%, negative group). Early qualitative results indicate participants in the positive group share more stories about seeing family members and friends from outside the facility. By purposively sampling the extremes from our survey we compare how relationship adjustment after moving may impact feelings of relationship satisfaction.

Objectives

• To compare outcomes concerning well-being for residents reporting high vs low relationship satisfaction after moving into assisted living.
• To describe the strategies used in daily life by residents in high vs low relationship satisfaction groups to adjust to moving into assisted living.
• To create a list of potential factors that help or hinder adjustment for residents to be shared with Assisted Living facilities.

Subject Codes: aging, aging health, socialization
Population Codes: older adults, ,
Method and Approach Codes: qualitative methodology, ,

Summary
We examine how filial elder-care norms expressed in early adulthood and midlife are associated with intergenerational solidarity with older parents as a multidimensional typology. We used data derived from the 1985 and 2005 waves of the Longitudinal Study of Generation. A three-step latent class approach, culminating with a multinomial logistic regression, was conducted on a sample of 198 mother-son, 279 mother-daughter, 155 father-son, and 209 father-daughter dyads. Intimate-but-distant and detached intergenerational types were identified in all gender subsamples. However, a tight-knit intergenerational type was uniquely identified in mother-daughter relations, whereas a social-unsupportive type was uniquely identified in father-son and father-daughter relations. Daughters expressing stronger filial norms in early adulthood were more likely in middle adulthood to belong to a tight-knit relational type with mothers and a social-unsupportive and intimate-but-distant relational type with fathers, compared to a detached relational type; these effects were fully explained by contemporaneously measured filial norms.

Objectives

• To identify intergenerational solidarity between middle age children and their older mothers and fathers by establishing a typology of intergenerational relationships based on structural, affectual, consensual, associational, and functional dimensions of solidarity.
• To examine how filial norms reported by children in early and middle adulthood predict the intergenerational solidarity with parents as perceived by children in midlife.
• To address parent’s and child’s gender differences in the association between filial elder-care norm and types of intergenerational solidarity across 20 years.

Subject Codes: aging, family gerontology, caregiving
Population Codes: middle adulthood, intergenerational, diverse but not representative
Method and Approach Codes: latent variable modeling, longitudinal modeling, regression: logistic (binary, ordinal, or multinomial)

Summary
The current study examined pathways consistent with the Family Stress Model (FSM) to understand associations among economic pressure, emotional distress, and harsh couple interactions in middle adulthood, with cognitive functioning 30 years later in older adulthood. Cognition was assessed by the Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (m-TICS) from a preliminary sample of rural participants (Caucasian, 64% female). Economic pressure in early middle adulthood was related to both male and female emotional distress in middle adulthood. For females, emotional distress was related to harsh couple interaction, and economic pressure was related to cognition. For males, emotional distress and hostility from their spouse in middle adulthood were related to cognition. Findings shed light on how economic pressure can impact emotional distress, conflict between spouses, leading to poor cognitive health over 30 years later.

Objectives

• To understand how economic pressure impacts cognition 32 years later for rural Caucasian older adults
• To examine how emotional distress and couple conflict may be related to earlier economic pressure and later cognition
• To understand how the m-TICS can be used as a marker of cognitive decline in older adults in a preliminary sample of rural Midwestern participants

Subject Codes: aging health, stress, economics
Population Codes: cognitive (dis)ability, older adults, Caucasian/White
Method and Approach Codes: longitudinal research, quantitative methodology,

Summary
Marital transitions may confer an increase or loss of informal support, economic resources, or health, potentially prompting, or deterring, formal care. The current study examines marital histories and marital transitions as they unfold, and their immediate and long-term associations with formal healthcare use among older adults. Nine waves (2000 - 2016) of the Health and Retirement Study and multilevel models were used. No changes occurred for those who transitioned to divorce, widowhood, or marriage on hospital nights and home health use. Those who separated or divorced experienced decreases in the number of doctor’s visits;this association diminishes over time. Those who transitioned into widowhood spent more nights in a nursing home; this is not an immediate effect. Those who transitioned into marriage experienced fewer nights spent in a nursing home. Over time, this association weakens. Consideration should be given to relational transitions influencing health behavior and subsequent health care usage.

Objectives

• To understand how marital histories are associated with formal care use among older adults
• To understand how marital transitions are associated with formal care use among older adults
• To demonstrate how marital histories and transitions may be considered a predisposing factor for health care use.

Subject Codes: aging health, gerontology, relationships
Population Codes: romantic partners, older adults,
Method and Approach Codes: multilevel modeling, longitudinal research,