Do Social Ties Moderate the Association between Childhood Maltreatment and Gratitude in Older Adults? Results from the NEIGE Study

Satomi Doi, Yuna Koyama, Yukako Tani, Hiroshi Murayama, Shigeru Inoue, Takeo Fujiwara and Yugo Shobugawa
Additional contact information
Satomi Doi: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
Yuna Koyama: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
Yukako Tani: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
Hiroshi Murayama: Research Team for Social Participation and Community Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo 173-0015, Japan
Shigeru Inoue: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo 160-8402, Japan
Takeo Fujiwara: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
Yugo Shobugawa: Division of International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata 951-8510, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: Background: Childhood maltreatment can impede gratitude, yet little is known about the older population and its moderators. The aim of this study is to clarify the association between childhood maltreatment and levels of gratitude of the older population, and the moderating effect of social ties on the association. Methods: We analyzed the data of 524 community-dwelling older adults aged 65–84 years without functional disabilities in Tokamachi City, Niigata, Japan, collected for the Neuron to Environmental Impact across Generations (NEIGE) study in 2017. Using a questionnaire, the participants rated three types of childhood maltreatment before the age of 18 (physical abuse, emotional neglect, and psychological abuse), level of gratitude, and social ties. Results: We found an inverse association between emotional neglect and gratitude. Furthermore, emotional neglect was inversely associated with gratitude only for those with lower levels of social ties. Conclusions: Promoting social ties may mitigate the adverse impact of emotional neglect on the level of gratitude.

Keywords: gratitude; childhood maltreatment; emotional neglect; social tie; older population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11082/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11082/ (text/html)

Related works:
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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11082-:d:661795

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().