Although social scientists have long assumed that intimate social relationships are more closely associated with women's than men's mental health, recent research indicates that there are no gender ...differences in the advantages of marriage and disadvantages of unmarried statuses when males' and females' distinct expressions of emotional distress are considered. These findings have led to the conclusion that there has been a convergence in the importance of intimate relationships for men's and women's mental health. However, these patterns may not be evident for nonmarital romantic relationships among current cohorts of young adults. In this article, we examine the associations among several dimensions of these relationships and symptoms of both depression and substance abuse/dependence in a diverse sample of young adults in Miami, Florida. We find gender differences that vary across dimensions of relationships: While current involvements and recent breakups are more closely associated with women's than men's mental health, support and strain in an ongoing relationship are more closely associated with men's than women's emotional well-being. Our findings highlight the need to consider the period in the life course as well as experiences of specific cohorts of men and women when theorizing about gender differences in the importance of intimate relationships for mental health.
•The integrative function of Awareness of Aging (AoA) for subjective aging is shown.•A systematic comparison and evaluation of concepts related to subjective aging is presented.•The role of AoA for ...models of life-span development is elaborated.•An overarching theoretical framework with AoA as a key construct is outlined.•Future research needs as well as applied implications for society, research, and clinical practice are discussed.
Humans are able to reflect on and interpret their own aging. Thus, as individuals grow older, calendar age may become increasingly a subjective variable. This theoretical paper proposes the concept of Awareness of Aging (AoA) as a superordinate construct that can serve an integrative function in developmental research on subjective aging. It is argued that the AoA construct can incorporate the theoretical components of other existing concepts by acknowledging that judgments of subjective aging tend to be made on an awareness continuum ranging from pre-conscious/implicit to conscious/explicit. We also argue that processes of AoA are inherently self-related processes and that AoA is a particular aspect of self-awareness that results in specific aging-related self-knowledge. Over time, aging individuals incorporate this self-knowledge into their self-concept and personal identity. We provide theoretical evidence showing that although all major theories of adult development and aging draw on phenomena related to AoA, the explicit incorporation of aging-related awareness processes has been missing. We also provide an overarching framework to illustrate in a heuristic way how AoA in combination and interaction with other influences affects developmental outcomes. Finally, we argue that attention to AoA-related processes has a number of societal and applied implications and thereby addresses issues of applied developmental psychology.
Few studies of widowhood's effects on psychological well-being focus on sexual minorities. Of those that do, none employ large, nationally representative samples, and none examine whether the effects ...depend on current partner status. Using the 2010 Ageing with Pride: National Health, Ageing, and Sexuality/Gender Study (n = 2,325), we examine the association between partner loss and psychological well-being, measured as depressive symptoms, loneliness, self-rated mental health, and life satisfaction. We find that partner loss is associated with psychological well-being, but only among currently unpartnered respondents: Compared with their peers who have never experienced partner death, those who have report more depressive symptoms - but also higher life satisfaction. These findings hold for women and men, as do the findings revealing positive associations between having a current partner and experiencing better psychological well-being. Applied to the clinical setting, our study highlights the importance of assessing not only current partner status but also prior experiences of loss, as both have implications for the psychological well-being of LGB women and men.
Abstract
Objectives
Dominant views of aging generate anxiety for many adults—especially women, who face greater disadvantages in later life compared with men. However, little is known about changes ...in these concerns over time and their variation across women. Employing a feminist perspective on age relations, our study examines three social contexts affecting women’s aging anxiety—social location, health, and social relationships.
Method
Using a sample of women (n = 905) from Midlife in the United States (1995–1996; 2004–2006), logistic regression models examine predictors of over-time patterns in three aging anxiety sources—declining attractiveness, declining health, and reproductive aging.
Results
Women report more declining-health anxiety, and it remains more stable over time than do declining-attractiveness and reproductive aging anxiety—both of which tend to decrease with age. The effects of social context vary across anxiety sources; however, more favorable over-time patterns are often associated with more disadvantaged social locations (i.e., older ages, non-white, lower socioeconomic status)—but better health and social relationships.
Discussion
Our study, the first to examine over-time patterns in aging anxiety, illustrates women’s multiple “old ages”—a reality manifesting in not only objective conditions of later life but also perceptions of aging. It provides insight on social and cultural processes shaping aging perceptions.
Relatively little is known about how social relationships affect later life planning. Our study focuses on an underexamined aspect of social relationships, frequency of contact - not only with family ...members but also with friends. Using data from a survey of Floridians aged 50 and older conducted between December 2020 and April 2021 (n = 3,832), we examine the association between frequency of contact and five planning types: finances, health care, living arrangements, driving retirement, and end-of-life. We found that more frequent contact was associated with greater likelihood of planning, and this result was largely consistent across types of relationships and types of planning. Our findings suggest that contact with family members and friends may encourage more planning, which could reduce the stress that can accompany later life transitions. Our study offers further evidence of social relationships' centrality to later life well-being and points to the many benefits of enhancing them.
One of the strongest and most consistent predictors of self-regulated driving is gender, with women more likely than men to limit their driving in situations like bad weather or at night. However, ...studies have focused more on documenting these gender patterns than on explaining the processes underlying them, which may vary in their implications for transportation, health and ageing policy. Our study addresses this issue by examining two potential explanations for women's greater likelihood of self-regulated driving: their greater health limitations and use of driving alternatives. Using a nationally representative sample of older Americans (2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study, N = 4,842), we conducted logistic regressions predicting driving under four limitations: alone, at night, in rain or other bad weather and on highways. Our results provide stronger support for the driving alternatives explanation, especially women's greater reliance on rides from family and friends. Health limitations do contribute to explaining one of the self-regulated driving behaviours – avoiding driving alone. Our findings suggest that willingness to use driving alternatives is part of transitioning from driving. However, the relatively low use of all the alternatives we examined points to the importance of better understanding older adults’ transportation needs and preferences, including their gendered dimensions.
•Tick infestations were documented on 332 cats from 18 states in the United States.•Adult and immature stages of Ixodes, Amblyomma, and Dermacentor were recovered.•Molecular assays documented ...infection with at least one pathogen in 17.1% of ticks.•One in 5 cats with ticks spent ≤30% time outdoors; 10 were reportedly indoor only.•Results show cats at risk of tick infestation and exposure to tick-borne pathogens.
Ticks are an important but under recognized parasitic threat to cats in many areas of the United States. To characterize the species and stages of ticks most commonly recovered from cats and determine the prevalence of disease agents in the ticks, we conducted a survey of ticks removed from cats at veterinary practices in 18 states from April 2016–June 2017. A total of 796 ticks were submitted from 332 cats from 41 different veterinary practices. A single tick was submitted from the majority of cats, with a mean infestation intensity of 2.4 (range 1–46). The most common tick was Ixodes scapularis, accounting for 422/796 (53.0%) ticks submitted, followed by Amblyomma americanum (224/796; 28.1%) and Dermacentor variabilis (131/796; 16.5%); a few I. pacificus, I. banksi, D. occidentalis, A. maculatum, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, and Otobius megnini were also submitted. A majority of ticks were adults (593/796; 74.5%); females predominated in all adult tick submissions including I. scapularis (277/327; 84.7% female), A. americanum (66/128; 51.6% female), and D. variabilis (75/126; 59.5% female). Immature ticks included 186 nymphs and 17 larvae and were primarily I. scapularis and A. americanum. Adult I. scapularis were most reported to be attached to the dorsal head and neck; A. americanum to the abdomen and perianal region; and D. variabilis to the back and ear. Ticks were collected in every month; the largest number of submissions were in May and June (42.5% of ticks) and October and November (35.9% of ticks). Adults of I. scapularis were most commonly submitted October through December, A. americanum March through June, and D. variabilis May through July. Cats with ticks were predominantly male (58.8%) and altered (76.2%), and most reportedly spent >30% of time outdoors, although 64/294 (21.8%) for which lifestyle estimates were provided were reported to live primarily (≤30% of time outside; n = 54) or entirely (100%; n = 10) indoors. Assay of ticks removed from cats revealed I. scapularis were infected with Borrelia burgdorferi (25.7%) and Anaplasma phagocytophilum (4.4%); A. americanum were infected with Ehrlichia chaffeensis (1.3%); and D. variabilis were infected with spotted fever group Rickettsia spp. (3.1%). No ticks in this study tested positive for Cytauxzoon felis. Pet cats, including those that live primarily indoors, are at risk of tick infestation, potentially exposed to tick-borne disease agents, and would benefit from routine tick control.
Women have navigated the world with much less freedom than men—with restrictions particularly great for their solo, or independent, travel. Although much research documents women’s experiences of ...these constraints, less is known about travel media’s framing of women as solo travelers—with online media an especially neglected research area. Drawing on a leisure constraints perspective, our study examines differences in online travel articles (n = 100) targeting solo women versus men. Resonating with this perspective, as well as the findings of studies examining women’s actual travel experiences, our findings reveal a framing of women as “bounded explorers,” constrained in their solo travel by the emotional, social, and behavioral burdens imposed upon them, hinging on their perceived vulnerability and men’s perceived dangerousness. We find two processes through which women are constructed in online travel articles as bounded explorers—creating negative expectations and encouraging vigilant risk avoidance. As one of the first studies to examine cultural representations of solo travelers in online media, our research provides further evidence of gendered constraints in leisure by revealing the framing in travel articles of women as more bounded than men—a framing that may, in turn, have implications for women’s experiences in the realm of leisure and perhaps beyond.
Studies of the link between housework and sex sometimes reach divergent conclusions—partly resulting from varying perspectives on this relationship. We identify three perspectives found in prior ...studies of housework and sex—temporal, distributional, and fairness—each reflecting a different view of the processes linking these two domestic realms. To contribute to this literature, we examine housework measures reflecting each perspective. Negative binomial and OLS regression models using data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS 2, 2004–2006) reveal that housework measures reflecting the fairness and distributional perspectives are significantly associated with sexual satisfaction but not frequency. Lower sexual satisfaction is associated with wives’ greater investment in housework than husbands’ and the view of housework arrangements as unfair to wives. These findings, which held for wives and husbands, suggest that the inequitable, and gendered, housework arrangements of many heterosexual married couples may negatively affect their sex lives. Measures reflecting the temporal perspective are associated with neither sexual satisfaction nor frequency. Our findings are derived from an older sample than those used in most prior studies of this topic, raising the possibility that some processes linking housework and sex change as individuals age and their relationships lengthen.
Pets influence evacuation decisions, but little is known about pet-friendly emergency shelters' availability or older adults' need for them. Our study addresses this issue, focusing on the most ...densely populated area of Florida (Miami-Dade)-the state with the oldest population and greatest hurricane susceptibility.
We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based methodology to identify the shortest paths to pet-friendly shelters, based on distance and congested and uncongested travel times-taking into account the older population's spatial distribution. Logistic regression models using the 2013 American Housing Survey's Disaster Planning Module examine anticipated shelter use as a function of pet ownership and requiring pet evacuation assistance.
Thirty-four percent of older adults in the Miami-Dade area have pets-35% of whom report needing pet evacuation assistance. However, GIS accessibility measures show that travel time factors are likely to impede older adults' use of the area's few pet-friendly shelters. Logistic regression results reveal that pet owners are less likely to report anticipating shelter use; however, the opposite holds for pet owners reporting they would need help evacuating their pets-they anticipate using shelters.
High pet shelter need coupled with low availability exacerbates older adults' heightened vulnerability during Florida's hurricane season.
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