Choose a recently published research article related to adult development and aging

Choose a recently published research article related to adult development and aging and write a 1-2 page summary of the article. a. The research article: 1) must come from a peer-reviewed journal and 2) must be published on or after the year 2000. b. I recommend you choose a topic that is of most interest to you. You may use the power point slides to find topics.

2. What should be included in the summary: a. Summary of the introduction of the article, taking into consideration:i. The purpose of the studyii. The importance of the studyiii. Did the authors have any hypotheses? If so, what were they?

b. Summarize the methods and results section. i. Identify the sample size, participants, and measures used.ii. What were the findings of the study? iii. Did the findings confirm the study hypotheses?

c. Summarize the discussion section, particularly focusing on:i. Limitations of the studyii. Suggestions made by the authors for future research

d. Finally, discuss what you found most interesting in the study; what did you learn?

Additional Information:

It is very important that you follow APA style when writing your summary. You will not receive full credit if you do not. The APA publication manual (6th edition) is available in the library. The body of your paper should be 1-2 pages (not including the title page).
Material Hardship and Self-Rated Mental Health among Older Black Americans in the National

Survey of American Life Gillian L. Marshall, Roland J. Thorpe Jr., and Sarah L. Szanton

This article examines the association between material hardships and self-rated mental health (SRMH) among older black Americans and determines whether the effect varies by race and ethnicity. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, multiple logistic regression models were specified on a sample of older white Americans (n = 289), African Americans (n = 1,135), and black Caribbean Americans (n = 377). Material hardship was measured as an index of seven items that occurred within the past year. Material hardship (odds ratio = 0.48; 95 percent confidence interval = 0.29–0.79) was associated with SRMH for both groups. None of the interactions were significant. The study concludes that mater- ial hardship may contribute to poorer SRMH among older African Americans and black Caribbean Americans. Future studies should examine these associations by using longitu- dinal designs, which may be better designed to confirm these results.

KEYWORDS:African Americans; black Caribbean Americans; material hardship; mental health

Although federal agencies such as theNational Institutes of Health [NIH], theNational Academy of Medicine [NAM] (formerly the Institute of Medicine), and the Admin- istration on Aging (AoA) have goals of reducing or eliminating mental health disparities across the life course (AoA, 2001; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], AoA, 2008), significant racial, ethnic, and economic disparities in mental health persist. This is particularly true among older adults (AoA, 2001). One of the goals set out by NIH and NAM has been to better understand and reduce socioeconomic and racial health disparities.

Earlier work suggests that socioeconomic status (SES), in part, is one mechanism by which health dis- parities exist (Williams & Collins, 1995; Williams, Yu, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997). The impact of SES as a risk factor resulting in poor health outcomes has been well documented (Braveman, Cubbin, Egerter, Wil- liams, & Pamuk, 2010; Farmer & Ferraro, 2005; Lantz, House, Mero, & Williams, 2005). Although the con- tribution of SES is important in that it has been a ma- jor source for understanding health disparities, it still does not fully explain the gap in health that remains or the pathway by which low income affects health (Whitfield, Thorpe, & Szanton, 2011). SES indicators other than education, income, and occupation may

be worth exploring. Some evidence suggests that the differences in the relationship between low SES and poor health outcomes may be attributed to eco- nomic hardships (Kahn & Pearlin, 2006; Krause, 1987; Szanton et al., 2008; Szanton, Thorpe, & Whitfield, 2010; Thorpe, Szanton, Bell, & Whitfield, 2013). Material hardship, for example, complements mea- sures of SES in an attempt to capture hardships ex- perienced related to unfavorable economic situations and vulnerabilities due to limited resources (Beverly, 2001;Mayer, 1997;Mayer & Jencks, 1989; Ouellette, Burstein, Long, & Beecroft, 2004).

With the rapid growth of the older adult popula- tion (AoA, 2001; U.S. Census Bureau, 2004), it is expected that the diversity already in this demo- graphic will become even more obvious as the numbers increase within each subgroup. It is esti- mated that between 2007 and 2030, the number of white Americans 65 years and older will increase by 68 percent, compared with African Americans (184 percent); Latinos (244 percent); American Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts (126 percent); and Asian and Pacific Islanders (213 percent) (HHS, 2008). This suggests that the number of older adults of color will surpass that of the older white population. There- fore, to avoid obscuring potential differences in health within a racial group, ethnic group affiliation

doi: 10.1093/hsw/hlx008 © 2017 National Association of Social Workers 87

should be considered with a national sample ( Jackson, Torres, et al., 2004).

RACE AND ETHNICITY African Americans and black Caribbean Americans have long been assumed to belong to the same racial group (black); in fact, they are ethnically distinct and display considerable heterogeneity when compared with respect to history, culture, life experience, con- text, status dimensions, beliefs, and cultural norms. The term “African American” refers to people who are U.S.-born black people from the African diaspora who self-identify as Negro, black, Afro-American, or African American. Black Caribbean Americans are those who self-identify as people who trace their ethnic heritage to a Caribbean country but who now reside in the United States. The term “black” is often used to describe groups of black people who are either U.S.-born citizens or foreign-born immigrants.

Although African Americans and black Caribbean Americans share commonalities such as phenotype, vulnerability to discrimination, and a history of enslavement by white people, black Caribbean Americans also share similarities with Europeans in their experience of migration and maintaining ties with their country of origin (Rogers, 2006).

These distinct differences have been largely ig- nored (Bryant, 2003; Lincoln, Chatters, Taylor, & Jackson, 2007; Lyons, 1997; Thorpe et al., 2013; Whitfield, Allaire, Belue, & Edwards, 2008;Williams et al., 2007). In spite of the growing numbers of both older African Americans and older black Caribbean Americans in the United States, the empirical research regarding the similarities and dif- ferences in mental health status between these groups is lacking (Williams et al., 2007). Therefore, it is worth considering that these factors may have a bearing on how members of each group perceive material hardship and rate their mental health status.

Prior work in this area has demonstrated that eco- nomic measures are an important predictor of men- tal well-being and strongly associated with mental health outcomes (Alley & Kahn, 2012; Lee & Brown, 2007; Savoy et al., 2014). Yet few studies have used a national sample of older black Americans to investigate the effects of material hardship on self- rated mental health (SRMH) among all older black Americans (African Americans and black Caribbean Americans). Despite the growing interest in the

mental well-being of adults in late life, little is known about how material hardship affects well- being. Furthermore, it is not known whether differ- ences in ethnicity within race can serve as a potential explanation for why there is variation in SRMH.

Using a nationally representative sample of older white Americans, African Americans, and black Caribbean Americans, this study examines the association between material hardship and SRMH status, while controlling for key covariates such as age, income, marital status, and education and de- termines whether this relationship varies by ethnic group. We hypothesize that after adjusting for cov- ariates, material hardship will be positively asso- ciated with SRMH and that this relationship will vary by ethnic group.

METHOD Study Sample Data for these analyses were obtained from the National Survey of American Life: Coping with Strain in the 21st Century (NSAL). This is a cross- sectional survey study of inter- and intragroup racial and ethnic differences with respect to mental disorders, psychological strain, help seeking, and the use of informal and formal health services ( Jackson, Neighbors, Nesse, Trierweiler, & Torres, 2004). Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a total of 6,082 adults in the United States, age 18 years and older, consisting of 3,750 African Americans, 1,621 black Americans of Caribbean descent, and 892 non-Hispanic white Americans.

This is a nationally representative, probability complex sample for which primary data were col- lected from 2001 through 2003 ( Jackson, Neigh- bors, et al., 2004) by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research Survey Center, which is part of the National Institute of Mental Health Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys initiative. People ineligible for the study were those institutionalized in prison or jail, psychiatric facil- ities, nursing homes, and other long-term medical or dependent care facilities. Also excluded were those who had been homeless or were in the military.

The analytic sample for this study was composed of 1,801 men and women age 50 years and older who self-identified as African American (n = 1,135), black Caribbean American (n = 377), or white American (n = 289).

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Measures Dependent Variable. SRMH was assessed using a…