Ethnicity & Socioemotional Functioning in Later Life

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Aims: This application addresses the NACA's Minority Aging Review Committee's call for longitudinal population-based research on minority samples and the clarification of the role of ethnicity in human development and aging. The present research involves an examination of socioemotional functioning in later life and its relation to health and resiliency. In 1996-1996 data on economic, socioemotional, and cultural variables were collected on a stratified random sample of individuals (N=1 118), ranging in age from 65-86 years and comprising four ethnic groups: US-born African Americans, African Caribbeans, US-born European Americans, and Immigrant Europeans from Eastern Europe. In the present application we propose two waves of follow-up data with two major objectives. The first objective is to examine patterns of stability and change with respect to discrete emotions, attachment styles, and social networks, and to test the relevance of, and cross-cultural generality of, theoretical models of discrete emotions theory, attachment theory, and socioemotional selectivity theory. The second objective is to determine the predictors of survival and resilience on the one hand and morbidity and mortality on the other. More specifically, the study aims to predict survival as a function of socioemotional variables, including emotion traits, emotion regulation style, attachment style, and social networks, controlling for SES, lifestyle risk factors, and health at TI, and to develop models for predicting morbidity and mortality in ethnic sub-populations of African Americans and European Americans.Method: Respondents will be re-contacted to participate in two more waves of data collection. Virtually all of the measures collected at TI will be re-administered to those who are cognitively intact. These data will be used to test formulations derived from discrete emotions, attachment, and socioemotional selectivity theories. In the fifth year of the grant, the National Data Index will provide data on time and cause of death for those respondents who have died during the interim.Analysis: Cross-lagged panel analysis will be applied to the three waves of data to assess stability and change in socioemotional functioning. Survival analysis will be applied to the mortality data