We aimed to identify intergenerational solidarity (emotional closeness, in-person contact, phone contact, geographic proximity, consensus, and conflict) with digital communication (texting, video ...call, and social media interaction) with adult children among older parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we aimed to investigate whether intergenerational solidarity with digital communication latent classes were associated with older parents' psychological well-being. We used the 2022 survey of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG). The sample consisted of 519 older parents who reported about 1245 adult children. Two-level latent class analysis identified six classes at the child level (Level 1: distant but digitally connected, tight-knit and digitally connected, tight-knit traditional, detached, intimate but distant, and sociable). In addition, the analysis identified three classes at the parent level (Level 2: digitally connected, mixed, and intimate but distant). Results of multivariate regression showed that older parents in the digitally connected latent class had better psychological well-being than those in the mixed latent class. Consequently, our finding indicates that digital solidarity with adult children can be beneficial for older parents' psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mental illness and cognitive functioning may be independently associated with nursing home use. We investigated the strength of the association between baseline (1998) psychiatric history, 8-year ...cognitive function trajectories, and prospective incidence of nursing home use over a 10-year period while accounting for relevant covariates in U.S. adults aged 65 and older. We hypothesized that self-reported baseline history of psychiatric, emotional, or nervous problems would be associated with a greater risk of nursing home use and that cognition trajectories with the greatest decline would be associated with a subsequent higher risk of nursing home use.
We used 8 waves (1998-2016) of Health and Retirement Study data for adults aged 65 years and older. Latent class mixture modeling identified 4 distinct cognitive function trajectory classes (1998-2006): low-declining, medium-declining, medium-stable, and high-declining. Participants from the 1998 wave (N = 5,628) were classified into these 4 classes. Competing risks regression analysis modeled the subhazard ratio of nursing home use between 2006 and 2016 as a function of baseline psychiatric history and cognitive function trajectories.
Psychiatric history was independently associated with greater risk of nursing home use (subhazard ratio SHR 1.26, 95% confidence interval CI 1.06-1.51, p < .01), net the effects of life course variables. Furthermore, "low-declining" (SHR 2.255, 95% CI 1.70-2.99, p < .001) and "medium-declining" (2.103, 95% CI 1.69-2.61, p < .001) trajectories predicted increased risk of nursing home use.
Evidence of these associations can be used to educate policymakers and providers about the need for appropriate psychiatric training for staff in community-based and residential long-term care programs.
Objective: We explored associations between psychiatric history and cognitive functioning, and differences by sex and race/ethnicity (SRE) in 20,155 Health and Retirement Study (1995-2014) ...participants aged 65 or older.
Methods: Multi-level growth curve models examined cognition scores and their trajectories over time by SRE.
Results: A history of psychiatric, emotional, or nervous problems was significantly related to cognition scores and rates of decline. Hispanic and Black participants had significantly lower cognition scores at age 75 and steeper rates of decline than White females, and Black race and the Hispanic race/ethnicity-sex interaction erased the protective effects of being female.
Conclusions: Future research should include specific psychiatric diagnoses. Population level findings as reported here, along with aggregate findings from similar studies, can inform interventions and policies regarding support for populations that are vulnerable to mental illness and to subsequent cognitive decline.
Objective
We aimed to explore dyadic latent classes of intergenerational solidarity with digital communication (texting, video call, and social media interaction) among older parent and adult child ...pairs during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and whether derived dyadic latent classes were associated with older parents' and adult children's depressive symptoms.
Background
Previous studies have not considered how digital communication fits with the established intergenerational solidarity paradigm. Consequently, we know little about how the use of digital communication creates new types of intergenerational solidarity between older parents and adult children, and how they are associated with their depressive symptoms during the pandemic.
Methods
Using data from the 2022 survey of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), the analysis took a dyadic‐centered approach and applied a three‐step latent class analysis with 271 mother–child and 190 father–child dyads.
Results
Dyadic partners were consistent in their relationship evaluations for the three latent classes identified in both mother–child and father–child dyads: tight‐knit traditional (strong solidarity with frequent in‐person contact), distant‐but‐digitally connected (geographically distant but frequent digital contact), and detached (low solidarity). In mother–child dyads, mothers reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms when they were in tight‐knit traditional and distant‐but‐digitally connected relationships, than those in detached relationships. In father–child dyads, adult children reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms when they were in tight‐knit traditional and distant‐but‐digitally connected relationships, than those in detached relationships.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that digital communication was beneficial for older parents' and adult children's psychological well‐being, depending on parents' gender and generational position during the pandemic.
We investigated the strength of the association between baseline epigenetic age, everyday discrimination, and trajectories of chronic health conditions (CHCs) across 3 study waves, among adults 50 ...years of age and older. We used 2016-2020 data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Data for the PhenoAge and DNAm GrimAge second-generation epigenetic clocks were from the 2016 HRS Venous Blood Study. CHC trajectories were constructed using latent class growth curve models. Multinomial logistic regression models assessed the strength of the association between accelerated epigenetic age, everyday discrimination, and the newly constructed CHC trajectories for participants with complete data (n = 2 893). In the fully adjusted model, accelerated PhenoAge (relative risk ratios RRR = 2.53, 95% confidence interval 95% CI = 1.81, 3.55) and DNAm GrimAge (RRR = 2.79, 95% CI = 1.95, 4.00) were associated with classification into the high CHC trajectory class. Racial disparities were evident, with increased risk of classification into the high trajectory class for Black (PhenoAge: RRR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.07, 2.68) and reduced risk for Hispanic (PhenoAge: RRR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.16, 0.64; DNAm GrimAge: RRR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.17, 0.68), relative to White participants. Everyday discrimination was associated with classification into the medium-high (RRR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.00, 1.64) and high (RRR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.07, 2.16) trajectory classes in models assessing DNAm GrimAge. More research is needed to better understand the longitudinal health outcomes of accelerated aging and adverse social exposures. Such research may provide insights into vulnerable adults who may need varied welfare supports earlier than the mandated chronological age for access to federal and state resources.
Objective
This study employs multiple religious dimensions and a developmental perspective to identify distinct classes of religiosity among young adults in early and middle adulthood, and to ...describe how transition patterns in religiosity classes are associated with filial elder‐care norms in midlife.
Background
There is a broad consensus that religiosity is associated with strong intergenerational ties, including the willingness to provide support and care for older parents. Less is known regarding how transitions in religiosity from early to middle adulthood predict filial eldercare norms in midlife.
Methods
The sample consisted of 365 young adults participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in 2000 (mean age = 23 years) and 2016 (mean age = 39 years) waves. We conducted latent class and latent transition analyses to address study aims.
Results
Analyses indicate three latent classes of religiosity in both 2000 and 2016 waves: strongly religious, weakly religious, and doctrinally religious. Those who remained weakly religious and who declined in religiosity between 2000 and 2016 held weaker filial elder‐care norms in 2016 compared to those who remained strongly religious.
Conclusion
Our findings add a developmental perspective to the literature on religion and filial norms and suggest that trends toward irreligion and increased secularly may portend weakening responsibility for aging parents among middle‐aged adults.
This study investigated whether patterns of religious change from early to middle adulthood is associated with patterns of change in filial norms from midlife to later life. Tracking change across 45 ...years of the adult life span, we link developmental processes occurring at two stages of life using midlife as the point of inflection. Respondents consisted of 436 individuals in the Baby Boom generation who participated in the Longitudinal Study of Generations from Waves 1 (1971) to 9 (2016). We conducted latent class and latent transition analysis to identify religious classes and their transitions over several decades, and latent growth curve modeling to identify change in filial norms. We identified three religiosity classes in Waves 1 and 5-strongly religious, weakly religious, and moderately religious-and five patterns of religious transitions. These transitions were then used to predict change in filial norms between Waves 5 and 9. Respondents who remained weakly religious from early to mid-adulthood reported weaker filial norms in midlife, compared to those who became more religious, and declined more rapidly in their strength of filial norms after middle age. Those who stayed weakly religious also declined more rapidly post-middle age. Our findings link dynamics in religiosity and filial norms across disparate stages of the adult life span and suggest that religious orientations earlier in adulthood are linked to filial norms at time of life when responsibilities for eldercare become a concern for one's parents as well as oneself.
Studies indicate LGBTQ youth are at higher risk of homelessness (2–13 times) than their heterosexual cisgender counterparts and that they represent a substantial portion of youth utilizing housing ...and shelter services. Some authors have provided anecdotal (rather than empirical) examples of LGBTQ youth experiencing abuse or mistreatment in shelters; most studies focusing on LGBTQ homeless youth have been conducted in large cities and have rarely collected data from both youth and providers. Using an exploratory, grounded theory approach, this study utilized data from interviews with LGBTQ youth with a history of homelessness as well as service providers working with this population in a mid-sized Northeastern city. Findings suggest youth experience multiple challenges, barriers, and mistreatment in the shelters; further, data suggests several ideas about how to transform shelters to better meet the needs of LGBTQ youth.
•Grounded theory exploration of experiences of LBGTQ youth in homeless shelters•In-depth qualitative interviews with seven youth and nine service providers•Shelters not experienced as LGBTQ-affirmative•Identifies challenges and keys accessing shelter services•Ideas for transforming shelters to be safe for LGBTQ youth
Although researchers have focused on adult children's intergenerational solidarity with their parents following the transition to adulthood, less is known about continuity and change in the multiple ...dimensions of solidarity as children transition from emerging to established adulthood. Therefore, we focused on reciprocal longitudinal associations between dimensions of latent forms of solidarity (normative and affectual solidarity) and manifest forms of solidarity (associational and functional solidarity) as reported by young adults at three stages from emerging to established adulthood. Data were derived from young adult children participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations who reported about 260 daughter-mother, 214 son-mother, 244 daughter-father, and 205 son-father relationships in 2000 (18-29 years old), 2005 (23-34 years old), and 2016 (34-45 years old). Multigroup autoregressive cross-lagged models prospectively predicted reciprocal influences among the dimensions of solidarity across four parent-child gender groups. Results showed that young adults' perceived intergenerational solidarity with parents was stable across three-time points. In addition, young adults' perceived associational solidarity with parents in emerging adulthood (2000 survey) predicted functional solidarity with parents (receiving support from parents and providing support to parents) in intermediate young adulthood (2005 survey), and in established adulthood (2016 survey). However, parents' and children's gender differences were not identified in the above associations. The study concludes that frequent contact with parents in emerging adulthood is a key factor in establishing intergenerational solidarity with parents from early-to-middle stage of adulthood regardless of parents' and children's gender.
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