Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Association between Neighborhood Environment and Perceived Control in Older Adults: Findings from HRS.

Sunwoo Lee

doi:10.3390/ijerph182111344

Abstract

The current study examined how neighborhood environments are related to older adults’ perceived control over time. A longitudinal study design was employed using data sampled from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2014 and 2018. In total, 3170 older adults, whose age ranged between 60 and 99 years at the baseline, were followed up with a 4-year lag. Measures included two domains of neighborhood characteristics: social cohesion and physical disorder (at baseline and follow-up) and perceived control (at follow-up). Path coefficients between the latent factors were examined using structural equation modeling. Results showed that there was a significant cross-sectional and longitudinal association between neighborhood social cohesion and older adults’ perceived control, while neighborhood physical disorder was cross-sectionally associated with perceived control. Study findings provide evidence for promoting social integration and social capital in their neighborhood that might contribute to older adults’ perceived competence and beliefs in control.

Highlights

It was hypothesized that neighborhood social cohesion and physical disorder at the base and terminal year are significantly associated with perceived control at follow-up
Measures of the perceived neighborhood environment indicated an acceptable degree of internal consistency; Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.869 and 0.874 for social cohesion at times
Results indicated that individual differences in perceived neighborhood social cohesion and physical disorder were relatively stable over the 4-year lag

Summary

Introduction

The existing literature in and beyond environmental gerontology has provided empirical evidence for the significant role of residential setting or neighborhood environments in older adults’ active and healthy aging [1,2,3,4,5,6]. (neighborhood) environmental correlates of older adults’ mental health outcomes and psychological well-being have been greatly examined [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. These previous studies suggest several pathways of how neighborhood environments may determine older adults’ physical health and psychological well-being. Socially inclusive neighborhoods can promote older adults’ positive affect and subjective well-being and thereby enhance psychological resilience and personal coping strategies for managing aging-related declines and losses

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion