Racial Differences in Depression Indicators Before and After 2008 Financial Crisis in a Sample of Older Adults

The present study was designed to examine patterns of mental health outcomes in older Black
and White adults after the national 2008 financial crisis. The data was acquired from the
University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a publicly available dataset. This
longitudinal study has obtained data from a representative sample of approximately 20,000 older
adults in America, aged 55 and older. The hypotheses were (1) rates of mental health indicators
related to symptoms of depression will increase after the 2008 financial crisis and (2) that
increase will be significantly higher in Black respondents compared to White respondents. The
analysis revealed that Black participants displayed higher levels of the indicators of depression.
However, the financial crisis had no significant influence on indicators of depression in this
sample of older adults. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of highlighting
discrepancies in mental health for Black individuals.