@article {12261, title = {Longitudinal Examination of an Ethnic Paradox of Stress and Mental Health in Older Black and Latinx Adults.}, journal = {Clinical Gerontologist}, volume = {46}, year = {2023}, pages = {27-46}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To explain the ethnic paradox of mental health in aging, we evaluated whether Black and Latinx older adults experience (1) fewer depressive symptoms (DepSx), but more physical problems, and (2) greater psychological resilience as a result of life stressors than White older adults.

METHODS: DepSx, physical health, and recent stress were obtained biennially from 25,893 older adults (77\% White, 15\% Black, 9\% Latinx) in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, across 16~years. Psychological resilience, lifetime stress, and discrimination experiences were available for 13,655 individuals. We conducted mixed-effects and linear regression analyses.

RESULTS: For Blacks and Latinxs, experiencing more-than-usual stress events was associated with less increase in DepSx compared to Whites, although on average Blacks and Latinxs experience more DepSx. Black adults showed worse physical health than White adults and weaker effects of stress on psychological resilience despite experiencing more stress of all types. Findings were mixed for Latinxs.

CONCLUSIONS: Studying effects of time-varying stress on changes in health and multiple stressors on psychological resilience by race/ethnicity elucidates mechanisms for later-age health disparities.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Cross-sectional evaluations of stress and psychological health in a clinical setting may provide incomplete appraisals of health risks for Black and Latinx older Americans.

}, keywords = {Depressive symptoms, Health Disparities, physical functioning, psychological resilience, Race/ethnicity, Stressful Life Events}, issn = {1545-2301}, doi = {10.1080/07317115.2022.2056102}, author = {Thalida E. Arpawong and Sakuma, Kari-Lyn K and Espinoza, Lilia and Huh, Jimi} } @article {11561, title = {A longitudinal study shows stress proliferation effects from early childhood adversity and recent stress on risk for depressive symptoms among older adults.}, journal = {Aging \& Mental Health}, volume = {26}, year = {2022}, pages = {870-880}, abstract = {

We evaluated whether the effects of recent stressful life events (SLEs) and early childhood adversities (ECAs) on depressive symptoms are consistent between men and women and across older age, and whether there was evidence for the following: stress sensitization, whereby the psychological impact of SLEs is greater for individuals with ECAs compared with those without; or stress proliferation effect, whereby those with ECAs are more likely to report more SLEs than those without ECAs to effect depressive symptoms. ECAs, SLEs in the past two years, and current depressive symptoms through a modified CES-D were obtained from 11,873 individuals participating in a population representative study of older adults, yielding 82,764 observations. Mixed-effects regression models on depressive symptoms were constructed to control for multiple observations per participant and evaluate within-person effects over time, thereby reducing bias from reverse causation. Results suggest a stress proliferation effect and do not support stress sensitization. ECAs contribute to vulnerability for depressive symptoms, with a dosage effect for each additional ECA. Recent SLEs result in greater depressive symptom risk, with stable effects over age and dosage effects for each additional SLE that were smaller than the effects of ECAs among men, but not women. Belonging to an ethnic minority group, having less education, and less household income at baseline were associated with greater depressive symptom risk. Findings suggest the importance of addressing early childhood adversity and sociodemographic factors, among at-risk older adults to mitigate life-course stress proliferative processes and thereby reduce disparate risk for depression in older age.

}, keywords = {adverse child events, depression, Mental Health, stress generation, Trauma}, issn = {1364-6915}, doi = {10.1080/13607863.2021.1904379}, author = {Thalida E. Arpawong and Mekli, Krisztina and Lee, Jinkook and Drystan F. Phillips and Margaret Gatz and Carol A Prescott} }