American Older Adults in the Time of COVID-19: Vulnerability Types, Aging Attitudes, and Emotional Responses
Mingqi Fu,
Jing Guo (jing624218@163.com),
Xi Chen,
Boxun Han,
Farooq Ahmed (farooq.ahmad@skema.edu),
Muhammad Shahid and
Qilin Zhang
Additional contact information
Mingqi Fu: Wuhan University
Jing Guo: Peking University
Boxun Han: Wuhan University
Farooq Ahmed: University of Washington
Muhammad Shahid: University of International Business and Economics Beijing
Qilin Zhang: Wuhan University
No 15092, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Abstract:
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.
Keywords: emotion; aging attitudes; vulnerability; older adults; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 I14 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2022-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
Published - published in: Frontiers in Public Health, 2022, 9:778084
Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15092.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
Working Paper: American Older Adults in the Time of COVID-19: Vulnerability Types, Aging Attitudes, and Emotional Responses (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15092
Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
library@iza.org
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte (hinte@iza.org).