Doctoral Dissertation Research: Interactions among socio-demographic characteristics and identity in shaping aging

根据个人和社区属性，个体对衰老的体验是不同的。然而，这些因素如何相互作用，影响老年人的健康，仍然知之甚少。本项目利用科学文化人类学的理论，在不同身份和社会经济特征的个体中测试多种可能的老年生活过程，以了解特定因素是否在预测老年人的老龄化和福利方面表现得特别突出。除了培养研究生的科研能力外，该项目还培养本科生，向学术界和非学术界广泛传播其研究成果，并开发本科课程。对衰老的研究主要集中在对个人身份的单一方面的分析。这项研究通过调查一些社会人口特征如何与身份的各个方面相互作用来影响个人的生活和衰老经历，从而补充了这一重点。本项目采用人种学方法，包括参与观察、半结构化访谈和焦点小组，调查不同老年人口的老龄化和福利问题。它通过调查个体身份和生活的多个层面的预测因素，提高了对人类衰老过程和结果的认识，为试图揭示人类衰老的模式和后果的研究提供了急需的细微差别。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Individuals experience aging differently according to both individual and community attributes. How these factors interact to affect well-being in old age, however, remains poorly understood. This project uses theory from scientific cultural anthropology to test among multiple possible life courses in old age among individuals of varying identities and socio-economic characteristics to understand whether specific factors emerge as particularly salient in predicting aging and welfare among older individuals. In addition to training a graduate student in scientific research, this project trains undergraduate students, disseminates its findings broadly to academic and non-academic audiences, and develops undergraduate curricula. Research on aging has principally concentrated on analyses of a single aspect of an individual’s identity. This study complements this focus by investigating how a number of socio-demographic characteristics interact with aspects of identity to affect an individual’s life and aging experiences. This project employs ethnographic methods, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups, to investigate aging and welfare within a diverse senior population. It advances knowledge of human aging processes and outcomes by investigating predictive factors at multiple levels of an individual’s identity and livelihood, providing much-needed nuance to studies attempting to unravel how patterns and consequences of human aging.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.