Volunteering, religiosity, and quality of life in later life: evidence from Singapore.

OBJECTIVES: We examine the association of the frequency of formal and informal volunteering with quality of life (QoL) among older adults in Singapore. We also assess if private (private prayer) or public (religious service attendance) aspects of personal religiosity moderate this association. In examining the moderating role of religiosity, we adjudicate between two competing theoretical views-the value-congruence and resource-compensation perspectives. METHODS: Ordinary least squares regression models were estimated using cross-sectional data from a national survey of older Singaporeans, aged 60 and above, in 2016. RESULTS: The frequency of both informal and formal volunteering was associated with better QoL. While private prayer did not moderate this association, religious attendance did-the positive association was stronger among those attending religious services less frequently. CONCLUSION: Volunteering is beneficial for well-being in later life, especially so for older adults with less religious service attendance. These observations dovetail with the resource-compensation perspective, underscoring that the benefits of volunteering are amplified for older adults who are less integrated into their religious congregations. Hence, targeting those with lower levels of religious attendance might be useful in maximizing the benefits experienced by older volunteers.

Do Divine Struggles Moderate the Association Between Interpersonal Conflict at Work and Worker Well-Being in Singapore?

The purpose of this study is to examine how divine struggles moderate the association between interpersonal workplace conflict and worker well-being in Singapore. Using data from the Work, Religion, and Health survey (2021), the analyses show that interpersonal workplace conflict is positively associated with psychological distress and negatively associated with job satisfaction. Although divine struggles fail to function as a moderator in the former, these moderate its association in the latter. Specifically, the negative association between interpersonal conflict at work and job satisfaction is stronger for those with higher levels of divine struggles. These findings support the idea of stress amplification, indicating that troubled relationships with God may exacerbate the deleterious psychological effects of antagonistic interpersonal relationships at work. Ramifications of this aspect of religion, job stressor, and worker well-being will be discussed.

Is the Effect Larger in Group A or B? It Depends: Understanding Results From Nonlinear Probability Models.

Demographers and other social scientists often study effect heterogeneity (defined here as differences in outcome-predictor associations across groups defined by the values of a third variable) to understand how inequalities evolve between groups or how groups differentially benefit from treatments. Yet answering the question "Is the effect larger in group A or group B?" is surprisingly difficult. In fact, the answer sometimes reverses across scales. For example, researchers might conclude that the effect of education on mortality is larger among women than among men if they quantify education's effect on an odds-ratio scale, but their conclusion might flip (to indicate a larger effect among men) if they instead quantify education's effect on a percentage-point scale. We illuminate this flipped-signs phenomenon in the context of nonlinear probability models, which were used in about one third of articles published in Demography in 2018-2019. Although methodologists are aware that flipped signs can occur, applied researchers have not integrated this insight into their work. We provide formal inequalities that researchers can use to easily determine if flipped signs are a problem in their own applications. We also share practical tips to help researchers handle flipped signs and, thus, generate clear and substantively correct descriptions of effect heterogeneity. Our findings advance researchers' ability to accurately characterize population variation.

Patterns of family support exchange and personal mastery in later life: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: The association between family support exchange and personal mastery among older adults remains unclear. The present study addresses this gap.Methods: We utilized two waves of data from the Panel on Health and Ageing of Singaporean Elderly (N = 1398). Latent class analysis was conducted to identify distinct patterns of family support exchange. Regression analysis was then used to assess whether the identified patterns predicted personal mastery four years later.Results: Four and three prevalent patterns of family support exchange emerged for males and females, respectively. Males who received monetary and material support from their kin developed lower personal mastery than those who only received monetary support. Females who provided and received monetary support developed higher personal mastery than those who lacked support exchange.Conclusion: Our latent class approach has captured the reality of family support exchange and thus provided a valid picture of the implication of such exchange for personal mastery. Our data suggest that support provision may elevate personal mastery. This observation is discussed with reference to the self-enhancement perspective and notion of valence of support provision.

Women's Work-Family Histories and Cognitive Performance in Later Life.

Long-term exposures to the stress and stimulation of different work, parenting, and partnership combinations might influence later life cognition. We investigated the relationship between women's work-family life histories and cognitive functioning in later life. Analyses were based on data from women born between 1930 and 1957 in 14 European countries, from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2009) (n = 11,908). Multichannel sequence analysis identified 5 distinct work-family typologies based on women's work, partnership, and childrearing statuses between ages 12 and 50 years. Multilevel regressions were used to test the association between work-family histories and later-life cognition. Partnered mothers who mainly worked part-time had the best cognitive function in later life, scoring approximately 0.63 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18, 1.07) points higher than mothers who worked full-time on a 19-point scale. Partnered mothers who were mainly unpaid caregivers or who did other unpaid activities had cognitive scores that were 1.19 (95% CI: 0.49, 1.89) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.20, 1.66) points lower than full-time working mothers. The findings are robust to adjustment for childhood advantage and educational credentials. This study provides new evidence that long-term exposures to certain social role combinations after childhood and schooling are linked to later-life cognition.

Marriage and Union Formation in the United States: Recent Trends Across Racial Groups and Economic Backgrounds.

Family formation in the United States has changed dramatically: marriage has become less common, nonmarital cohabitation has become more common, and racial and economic inequalities in these experiences have increased. We provide insights into recent U.S. trends by presenting cohort estimates for people born between 1970 and 1997, who began forming unions between 1985 and 2015. Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, we find that typical ages at marriage and union formation increased faster across these recent cohorts than across cohorts born between 1940 and 1969. As fewer people married at young ages, more cohabited, but the substitution was incomplete. We project steep declines in the probability of ever marrying, declines that are larger among Black people than White people. We provide novel information on the intergenerational nature of family inequalities by measuring parental income, wealth, education, and occupational prestige. Marriage declines are particularly steep among people from low-income backgrounds. Black people are overrepresented in this low-income group because of discrimination and opportunity denial. However, marriage declines are larger among Black people than White people across parental incomes. Further, most racial differences in marriage occur among people from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Family inequalities increasingly reflect both economic inequalities and broader racial inequalities generated by racist structures; in turn, family inequalities may prolong these other inequalities across generations.

Productive Activities and Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Depression: Does the Association Vary by Gender?

We examine how labor together with social participation protects against cognitive impairment and depression, with a focus on gender differences. Data are drawn from four waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (2006-2012). Both paid work and unpaid work are considered labor participation. Social participation includes the frequency of participation in formal social institutions, religious groups, grandparenting, and interactions with family and friends. Using growth curve models, we find that social and labor participation are independently associated with outcomes and effects vary by gender. Religious group activity was beneficial only for women, whereas inability to work was detrimental for men only. Informal social gatherings and labor participation, paid or unpaid, were beneficial for both genders. Findings on gender differences highlight how social identities can shape social roles and confine activity space, and productive engagement, affecting outcomes for mental health in later life.

Expressive social support buffers the impact of care-related work interruptions on caregivers' depressive symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: To assess if expressive and instrumental social support from family and friends moderate the association of care-related work interruptions (e.g. leaving work for the older adult's doctor appointment) with depressive symptoms among working family caregivers of older adults. METHODS: Data were from the Singapore Survey on Informal Caregiving (SSIC). A subsample of 662 dyads, each comprising an older care-recipient [home-dwelling Singaporean aged 75 and older receiving human assistance for at least one activity of daily living (ADL)] and his/her working family caregiver, was analysed. Caregiver depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Care-related work interruptions were scaled through the Mokken scaling procedure. Expressive social support was assessed using a scale by Pearlin and co-workers. Instrumental social support was based on the hours of ADL help provided to the care-recipient by any family member or friend, on behalf of the primary caregiver. A linear regression model, with interaction terms, assessed expressive and instrumental social support as moderators of the association of care-related work interruptions with caregiver depressive symptoms. RESULTS: More care-related work interruptions were associated with more caregiver depressive symptoms. And, this association was moderated by expressive, but not instrumental, social support. CONCLUSION: Our findings conform to previous qualitative work suggesting that caregivers' mental health may not benefit from instrumental support, but from receiving expressive support instead. Initiatives for improving the care experience of working caregivers of older adults should focus on promoting expressive support from their friends and family.

How Helping You Helps Me: A Longitudinal Analysis of Volunteering and Pathways to Quality of Life Among Older Adults in Singapore.

OBJECTIVES: Volunteering is known to be associated with well-being among older adults. However, less is known about the psychosocial pathways (e.g., personal mastery, social support) through which this occurs, with past studies tending to rely on cross-sectional data, which are susceptible to selection biases. This study, using longitudinal data, investigates how formal and informal volunteering may affect older adults' quality of life through personal mastery, perceived social support, and received social support. METHODS: Data are from 2 waves of a nationally representative study of older adults aged 60 years and older in Singapore, conducted between 2016 and 2019 (N = 2,887). We estimate indirect effects using a 2-wave mediation model, relying on bootstrapped confidence intervals for significance testing. RESULTS: We find indirect effects from volunteering to quality of life through perceived social support and personal mastery, but not through received social support. While any type (formal/informal) and frequency (regular/nonregular) of volunteering promotes quality of life through perceived social support, indirect effects through personal mastery are limited to regular volunteering in formal settings. DISCUSSION: Results provide longitudinal evidence for perceived social support as a key pathway from volunteering to quality of life. Volunteering may be an effective way to improve quality of life by helping older adults feel more supported, even if it may not affect the actual help that they receive. Further, a structured and sustainable environment may be required for volunteering to promote personal mastery (and through it, quality of life) among older volunteers.

Exploring Rural-Urban Differences in the Association Between Internet Use and Cognitive Functioning Among Older Adults in China.

OBJECTIVES: We examine rural-urban differences between internet use and cognitive functioning among older Chinese adults and the mediating role of perceived social support networks across rural and urban areas. METHODS: Data were from the 2016 and 2018 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (N = 9,591). Ordinary least squares regression and mediation analyses were used to examine the specific hypotheses. RESULTS: General internet use was significantly associated with improved cognitive functioning among older adults in the overall sample. Social support networks mediated the relationship between general internet use and cognitive functioning, but only for older adults living in rural areas. After disaggregating internet use into specific online activities, watching shows was associated with better cognitive functioning for older adults living in urban areas. For those in rural areas, chatting was positively associated with cognitive functioning, while playing games was negatively associated with cognitive functioning. DISCUSSION: We showed that social support mediates the relationship between internet use and cognitive functioning differently in rural and urban areas. Cognitive benefits derived from specific types of online activities also depend on their residence. These findings suggest that efforts aimed at improving internet use among rural older adults may be more fruitful if they focus on building social opportunities for older adults.

More than 'minority': Social tolerance and youth wellbeing at the intersection of ethnicity and neighbourhood segregation.

Social tolerance is an indicator of healthy diverse societies, and is associated with individual well-being. However, previous studies have found that social tolerance varies between groups and is experienced differently through one's immediate social context. This lends to the plausibility of ethnicity and neighbourhood ethnic composition altering one's experience of living in their neighbourhood and the impact of well-being. Relying on 6 waves of nationally-representative panel data from young adults in Singapore, we investigate how ethnicity and neighbourhood ethnic composition influences the relationship between social tolerance and well-being. We find that this relationship is moderated by both factors in ways that deviates from the conventional majority-minority dichotomy found in literature. This indicates that efforts made to improve social tolerance may lead to varying outcomes, depending on one's ethnicity and social context.

Older Adults' and Family Caregivers' Technological Arrangements on Risk of Institutionalization.

Internet-enabled resources could facilitate older adults' ability to live in the community longer, but studies have often overlooked how family caregivers utilize the internet to assist older care recipients. We examined whether different family-level arrangements of internet use may affect the risk of institutionalization among older adults. Using the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2015-2020) and National Study on Caregiving (2015), we estimated multinominal logistic regression and inverse-probability weighted Cox proportional hazard models to investigate the determinants of technological arrangements in 2015 (i.e., no internet use, only caregiver use, only care recipient use, both caregiver and care recipient internet use) and how they may affect the risk of moving to an assisted living or nursing facility between 2015 and 2020. The most prevalent technological arrangement in 2015 was the one where neither the care recipient nor their caregiver reported using the internet. Relatively disadvantaged older care recipients (e.g., people of color, fewer years of education, less income, worse cognitive functioning) and caregivers (e.g., older, fewer years of education) were more likely to be in a non-internet use arrangement. Compared to older adults in other categories, older adults who were internet users and had a family caregiver who also used the internet in their caregiving tasks had a much lower risk of relocation during the study period. Findings suggest that digital interventions aimed at serving the older adult population should assess the gap in access and utilization at a family level and consider the role of older adults' social partners.

Receiving Social Support From Diverse Helpers: Associations With Quality of Life.

More older adults now live in non-family-based households, even as the provision of support to older adults within the domestic setting becomes more salient. This study examines the determinants of having non-immediate family or non-coresident helpers in older adults' received social support networks, and its associations with quality of life. Data were from a nationally representative study of Singaporeans aged 60 and above (N = 2248) who did not live alone. Findings show that those who received help solely from persons other than their spouse or child report a lower quality of life compared to other kinds of networks. However, those who had more non-coresident helpers than co-resident helpers experienced a higher quality of life compared to those who relied mainly on co-resident helpers. We suggest that policymakers should consider supporting a wider range of informal social support arrangements and providers, as networks of received social support become increasingly diverse.

Older Adults With Functional Limitations and Their Use of Telehealth During COVID-19.

We investigated the association between functional limitations and telehealth use among older Medicare beneficiaries in 2020. We use logistic regression models to estimate associations between functional limitations and the use of technological tools (i.e., computers, Internet, telehealth). We consider Internet use and informal technological support as moderators for telehealth use. Respondents (N = 3151; Mage = 78.31) with more functional limitations were more likely to use video-based telehealth. Net of functional limitations, those with a consistent Internet use were more likely to use emails/texts/portal messages to communicate with a healthcare provider. Further, more functional limitations were associated with a higher probability of using emails/texts/portal messages, but only among respondents who received informal technological support. Healthcare access may have been more difficult for older adults with functional limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for those with little prior experience with the Internet, or those without friends/family to provide technological support.

Changing Relationships Between Social Contact, Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Given the longstanding consensus that social contact can promote older adult well-being, many have focused on how social contact changed during the pandemic. Less is known, however, about whether the link between social contact and health changed during the pandemic. This study sought to understand how associations between social contact, social support, and depressive symptoms changed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: Data from 2 waves of the Health and Retirement Study were used. Respondents reported both virtual and in-person social contact, as well as perceived positive and negative social support. Path models were used to estimate relationships between social contact, social support, and depressive symptoms. Bootstrapping was used to estimate the change in associations between 2016 and 2020. RESULTS: Estimates show that associations between positive social support and depressive symptoms, as well as between in-person social contact and depressive symptoms, attenuated during the pandemic. Virtual social contact played a relatively minor role in determining outcomes such as social support and depressive symptoms, compared to in-person social contact. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that researchers and policymakers should not only focus on the changing quantity of social interactions when events such as the COVID-19 pandemic happen, but also the changing content and efficacy of the social interactions that remain.

Internet use and cohort change in social connectedness among older adults.

Social connections are an integral part of living in society, and trends in social connectedness are thus closely scrutinized. The phenomenon of networked individualism argues that densely knit communities organized around formal social groups such as households and workplaces are becoming less common. Due to advances in technology, individuals are able to develop personalized communities that are more diverse and less geographically-bound. The objective of this study was to determine how both average levels and the variability of social connectedness have changed across cohorts, and how much of this is due to increased internet use. Data from 2006, 2008, 2016, and 2018 waves of the Health and Retirement Study were used to investigate cohort changes in various indicators of social connectedness. The analytical sample consisted of older adults aged 58-69 from the Silent Generation (born 1920-1947) and Baby Boomers (born 1948-1965). Heteroscedastic regression models and decomposition methods were used to investigate the role of increased internet use in driving some of these changes. Findings suggest that increases in internet use was associated with increases in the variance of social participation (i.e., contact with friends and family) in the United States. However, evidence around more subjective measures of social connectedness (i.e., social support, loneliness) was less clear. Future research should seek to understand how cohort change in technological use may affect objective and subjective aspects of social connectedness in different ways.

The filial piety paradox: Receiving social support from children can be negatively associated with quality of life.

RATIONALE: Despite strong norms of filial obligation in Asian countries, little is known about whether child-provided support promotes older adults' well-being. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to examine whether and how the source (e.g., child/non-child providers) and the form (e.g., financial, instrumental) of received social support are associated with older adults' quality of life. METHODS: Data are from two waves of a longitudinal survey of older adults in Singapore (N = 2887). Two-wave mediation analyses were conducted to determine associations of the source and form of received social support with quality of life, and the extent to which personal mastery mediated these associations. RESULTS: We find that, although receiving financial assistance from more children promotes older men's quality of life, older women's quality of life is eroded when receiving housework help from more children. These relationships are partially mediated through increase (for men) or decline (for women) in personal mastery. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that both the form and source of help provided to older adults matter. Receiving social support from children may not always benefit older adults - more attention is needed on how best to support older adults while giving them sufficient control to maintain a high quality of life.

Your friends, my friends, and our family: Informal social participation and mental health through the lens of linked lives.

RATIONALE: Social participation is an important predictor of individual health outcomes, but few studies have examined it in the context of marriage relationships, even though the social lives of spouses are inextricably linked. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether individuals' mental health is associated with their spouse's contact with friends and family. METHODS: Using dyadic data from adults aged 50 and above in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 5030 couples), I examine whether individuals' mental health is associated with their spouse's contact with friends and family (i.e., partner effects) through a longitudinal actor-partner interdependence model. In addition, I test for the presence of gender differences in these effects. Both depressive symptoms and binge drinking are used as measures of mental health to account for the different ways in which men and women may express psychological distress. RESULTS: Results show partial evidence that spousal contact with friends and family are associated with one's own mental health outcomes, and that within-dyad discrepancies in informal social participation may be detrimental to mental well-being. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of understanding the dynamics between social participation and health through the lens of "linked lives", especially for married couples.

Fear of crime is associated with loneliness among older adults in Singapore: Gender and ethnic differences.

Fear of crime is a complex perception and has underlying psychological, social and health repercussions. The influence of fear of crime on psychosocial outcomes, however, may be moderated by various social factors. This study examined how fear of crime influences loneliness among low-income older adults attending a Senior Activity Centre (SAC) in multiethnic Singapore. In addition, we tested whether these associations were moderated by gender and ethnicity. We analysed cross-sectional data (N = 1,266) from The SAC Study, a survey conducted with older adults who were attending a SAC between March 2015 and August 2015. Multilevel models were used to test whether fear of crime was associated with loneliness; and whether the association was moderated by gender and ethnicity. We found that fear of crime was positively associated with loneliness, and that this association was stronger among men than women, but ethnicity did not moderate this relationship. Findings from our study suggest that fear of crime may have a stronger negative effect on men's psychological well-being, even though they report lower fear of crime. This highlights the importance of sociocultural context when examining the psychosocial implications of fear of crime in the population.

Health-Related Difficulty in Internet Use Among Older Adults: Correlates and Mediation of Its Association With Quality of Life Through Social Support Networks.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Internet use is increasingly a necessity. However, older adults may not use the internet due to either nonhealth reasons (e.g., lack of digital literacy or internet access) or health-related reasons (e.g., visual impairment or movement difficulties). While researchers have studied internet use among older adults, most do not discriminate whether nonuse is due to health-related reasons or otherwise. We therefore examine the key correlates of health-related difficulty in internet use among older adults, and how it may affect the quality of life (QoL) through their perceived social support networks. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were from a national survey of older Singaporeans (N = 3,966) conducted in 2016-2017. Multinomial logistic regression and mediation analysis were used to identify older adult subgroups more likely to experience health-related difficulty in internet use, and whether such difficulty affected older adults' QoL through their social support networks. RESULTS: Those of male gender, of Malay ethnicity, with less education, and with more instrumental activity of daily living limitations were more likely to experience health-related difficulty in internet use. Social support networks mediated the relationship between health-related difficulty in internet use and QoL. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Disparities in internet use are not just shaped by access or skill, but also health. Health-related difficulties in internet use are related to older adults' social support networks and quality of life. As social connections become increasingly based around networked individuals due to technological advancements, more attention should be given to addressing these health-related difficulties.