Department of Sociology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, 96822, USA.
Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York University, New York, USA; NYU Aging Incubator, New York University, New York, USA.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2020 May-Jun;88:104015. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2020.104015. Epub 2020 Jan 25.
A growing body of literature found that anxiety about aging is related to health and well-being of older adults. However, very few studies have been conducted on Chinese older adults residing in different countries and examined the role of resilience. Using the Pearlin's Stress Process Model, this study aims to fill in this gap by examining the relationship between anxiety about aging as the stressor and health status among Chinese older adults living in Honolulu, the United States (N = 292) and Wuhan, China (N = 532). The survey data were collected through June 2017 to September 2018, using snowball and convenience sampling strategy. The moderating role of resilience on the focal relationship is also explored. Results showed that for both samples, the negative relationship between anxiety about aging and self-rated health was significantly moderated by resilience (18 % and 13 %, respectively), implying the stress-buffering role of resilience. Although both mean levels of resilience and anxiety about aging were lower for the Honolulu sample, the moderating effect appeared to be stronger, implying that older adults in the Honolulu sample might rely more on psychological resources such as resilience in coping with stressors, compared with their counterparts in Wuhan. However, the moderating effect of resilience did not work for the association between anxiety about aging and number of chronic conditions for both samples. Our findings suggest that future research needs to take into account both social and psychological resources when examining anxiety about aging and health status among Chinese older adults residing in different cultural contexts.
越来越多的文献发现，对衰老的焦虑与老年人的健康和幸福感有关。然而，针对居住在不同国家的中国老年人，研究其适应力的相关研究却很少。本研究运用皮尔林压力过程模型，通过考察居住在美国檀香山（n=292）和中国武汉（n=532）的中国老年人的衰老焦虑（作为压力源）与健康状况之间的关系，来填补这一空白。调查数据于 2017 年 6 月至 2018 年 9 月通过滚雪球和便利抽样策略收集。还探讨了适应力对焦点关系的调节作用。结果表明，对于两个样本，衰老焦虑与自我评估健康之间的负相关关系均由适应力显著调节（分别为 18%和 13%），这意味着适应力具有缓解压力的作用。尽管檀香山样本的适应力和衰老焦虑的平均水平都较低，但调节效应似乎更强，这意味着与武汉的同龄人相比，檀香山样本中的老年人在应对压力源时可能更依赖于心理资源，如适应力。然而，适应力的调节作用并不适用于两个样本中衰老焦虑与慢性疾病数量之间的关联。我们的研究结果表明，未来的研究需要在考察不同文化背景下居住的中国老年人的衰老焦虑与健康状况时，同时考虑社会和心理资源。
