Research Project
10190068
PROJECT ABSTRACT Older adults are one of the populations most vulnerable to COVID-19. The unprecedented economic disruption and social isolation caused by the pandemic may disproportionately cause long-lasting and potentially irreversible negative impacts to this at-risk group. The proposed research will focus on economic circumstances and social behaviors that affect the health and welfare of over 800 older adult participants and their ~400 middle-aged adult children. We will utilize the Family Transitions Project, that originally began as a study of the rural family response to the severe recession in the agricultural economy in the U.S. during the 1980s and continues to this day. Thus, we are uniquely positioned to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals and families in the context of over 30 years of accumulated prospective data. The proposed work will assess how COVID-19-associated changes in economic and social circumstances impact the health and welfare of individuals across two generations of families. We propose to examine individual and family adjustment to economic circumstances and stressors that are affected by personal characteristics and life experiences, and make recommendations regarding new programs and social policies that increase resiliency of vulnerable populations in future crises. The goals of the parent grant are to systematically evaluate cognitive function in a normative aging population and assess its association with retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and proximal and cumulative economic and social stress, and to quantify how biological variables related to vascular risk factors (BMI, hypertension, smoking), as well as gender, moderate these associations. This supplement will enhance this work by addressing these questions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aims to be addressed using supplementary funds are: (1) Investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of older adults and their middle-aged adult children. We will evaluate the extent to which COVID- 19-associated economic and social stressors, such as financial hardship and emotional distress, have impacted individuals? health status, management of pre-existing chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes), behaviors that affect health (e.g., smoking, substance use, exercising), and cognitive functioning. (2) Investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family welfare across generations. We will assess the impact of economic and social stressors resulting from COVID-19 on social behaviors and family functioning between generations. During this time of crisis, we will examine the intergenerational transmission of economic circumstances, emotional well-being, and social behaviors (e.g. substance use) and assess the impact of COVID-19 stressors on family processes such as the quality of marital and parent- child relationships.
