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Social Conditions and Distress in Elderly Persons

Findings From the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging

^a Health and Social Behavior and
^b Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
^c Division of Geriatrics, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California

Laura D. Kubzansky, Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115-6096 E-mail: lkubzans{at}hsph.harvard.edu.

Decision Editor: Toni C. Antonucci, PhD

The purpose of this study was to determine separate and joint associations of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) with psychological distress among older high-functioning adults and to examine 2 psychosocial resources that may explain these associations. Participants were 70–79-year-old individuals (n = 1,189) participating in the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging program, a 3-site study of community-dwelling men and women. Participants represented the top third of their peers in terms of functional ability in 1988. Additive and interactive models were used to examine cross-sectional associations among race/ethnicity, SES, and distress. Although decreases in distress generally occur with aging, findings suggest that social structural factors can influence distress even among elderly people. Blacks were less distressed than Whites when SES was controlled. There was a gradient between education and distress among Whites but not among Blacks. Measures of social support and control did not mediate effects of race/ethnicity on distress. These results differ from those of previous studies and indicate that age and functional status should be considered in examinations of relationships among race/ethnicity, SES, and distress.