American Older Adults in the Time of COVID-19: Vulnerability Types, Aging Attitudes, and Emotional Responses. A new GLO Discussion Paper by GLO Fellow Xi Chen and colleagues.

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A new GLO Discussion Paper concludes that positive aging attitudes might be helpful for older adults to have better emotional well-being.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 1054, 2022

American Older Adults in the Time of COVID-19: Vulnerability Types, Aging Attitudes, and Emotional Responses – Download PDF
by Fu, Mingqi & Guo, Jing & Chen, Xi & Han, Boxun & Ahmed, Farooq & Shahid, Muhammad & Zhang, Qilin

GLO Fellow Xi Chen

Author Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to emotional well-being of individuals. With 1582 respondents from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), this study investigates the heterogeneity in older adults’ vulnerability and examines the relationship between vulnerability types, aging attitudes and emotional responses. International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short-form (I-PANAS-SF) and Attitudes toward own aging (ATOT) were used to assess the emotional experiences and aging attitudes, and 14 types of pandemic-related deprivations evaluated individuals’ vulnerability. Latent class analysis was used to explore the vulnerability types, and weighted linear regressions examined the relationship between vulnerability, aging attitudes and emotional responses. Results showed that the proportion for individuals with mild vulnerability (MV), health care use vulnerability (HV), and dual vulnerability in health care use and finances (DVs) was 67%, 22%, and 11%, respectively. Older adults aged below 65, Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks, and those not eligible for Medicaid were more likely to have HV or DVS. The relationship between vulnerability and positive emotions was insignificant, yet individuals with HV (beta=0.10, SE=0.16) or DVs (beta=0.09, SE=0.28) were likely to have more negative emotions than their mildly vulnerable counterparts. Furthermore, aging attitudes moderated the relationship between vulnerability and emotions. Encouraging positive aging attitudes might be helpful for older adults to have better emotional well-being, especially for those with DVs.

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GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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