Older and feeling unsafe? Differences in underlying vulnerability, anxiety and life satisfaction among older adults.

Objectives: Feeling safe in the daily environment is important in late life. However, research on configuration of vulnerability factors for perceived unsafety in older adults is scarce. The current study aimed to identify latent subgroups of older adults based on their vulnerability for perceived unsafety.Method: We analyzed the data from a cross-sectional survey of residents in senior apartments in a mid-sized Swedish municipality (N = 622).Results: The results of the latent profile analysis based on frailty, fear of falling, social support, perceived neighborhood problems, and trust in others in the neighborhood indicated the presence of three profiles. These profiles were labelled as compromised body and social networks (7.2%), compromised context (17.9%) and non-vulnerable (74.9%). Profile membership was statistically predicted by age, gender, and family status and profiles differed in perceived unsafety, anxiety and life satisfaction.Conclusion: Overall, the study findings suggested the existence of latent subgroups of older people based on patterns of vulnerability.

Presence of Meaning in Life in Older Men and Women: The Role of Dimensions of Frailty and Social Support.

Presence of meaning in life is an important component of eudemonic wellbeing while aging. While subjective health and interpersonal relationships are among important sources of meaning for older adults, less research has explored the gender differences in the potential contribution of these sources to the presence of meaning in late life. The current study aims to examine the associations of frailty dimensions (daily activities, health problems, and psychosocial functioning) and social support with the presence of meaning in late life, and whether these associations differ for older men and women. The study employs the data from the 65+ and Safe Study - a cross-sectional survey of residents of senior apartments. The data were collected in 2019 in a mid-sized Swedish municipality (N=618; age range from 64 to 106years, 60.5% female). Results showed significant associations of health problems, psychosocial functioning, and social support with the presence of meaning in life. Further, the results demonstrated no statistically significant gender differences in the associations between frailty dimensions, social support, and presence of meaning. However, since the interaction between health problems and gender approached statistical significance, this association was further explored indicating a more detrimental role of health problems in relation to the presence of meaning in life among older men than among older women. Overall, the study highlights the importance of physical and psychosocial health and social support for the presence of meaning in life among older adults and warrants further research on possible gender differences in the relation between health problems and meaning in late life.

Affective Fear of Crime and Its Association with Depressive Feelings and Life Satisfaction in Advanced Age: Cognitive Emotion Regulation as a Moderator?

Fear of crime is a substantial problem for older adults and is associated with reduced subjective well-being. However, less is known about factors that could moderate the associations between fear of crime and mental health problems and well-being in advanced age. Cognitive emotion regulation could serve as a potentially buffering factor for adverse health outcomes related to fear of crime due to its potential importance in managing feelings when facing threatening situations. The current study investigated the associations between affective fear of crime with depressive feelings and life satisfaction and examined whether adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies moderated these associations in a sample of older adults (age 64-106) in Sweden (N = 622). The results showed that affective fear of crime was associated with more depressive feelings, less life satisfaction, and more frequent use of such maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies as rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others. Moreover, rumination and self-blame moderated the associations between affective fear of crime and life satisfaction. Adaptive emotion regulation strategies were not associated with affective fear of crime and did not decrease the strength of its association with depressive feelings and with life satisfaction. These findings allow us to conclude that maladaptive emotion regulation could be considered a vulnerability factor in the association of fear of crime with life satisfaction.

Young Adults Victimized as Children or Adolescents: Relationships Between Perpetrator Patterns, Poly-Victimization, and Mental Health Problems.

Child and adolescent victims of violence are often exposed to more than one kind of physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment. Both individually and cumulatively, such victimizations have significant ramifications on mental health. Yet little is known about the relationships in which these different kinds of victimizations occur and how the relationship between the victim and perpetrators may influence later mental health. This retrospective, self-report study of a nationally representative sample of 2,500 young adults in Sweden examines associations between different types of victimization (including poly-victimization), the victim's relationship to the perpetrator, and how these factors are related to current mental health. Results indicate differential patterns of abuse based on the perpetrator; parents were most likely to use physical aggression, whereas siblings typically perpetrated property crimes and partners committed sexual assault. Peers were the most likely perpetrator of both physical and verbal victimizations and also most often committed poly-victimization by subjecting youth to multiple forms of violence. While males were more likely to be victimized by peers, females were more likely to be victimized by parents, siblings, and partners. Significant positive relations were found for the amount of victimization by peers and mental health problems among both males and females. In addition, for females, higher amounts of youth victimization by parents and partners related to higher levels of mental health problems during young adulthood. Taken together, these results suggest that peer victimization presents the greatest risk for males, whereas dysfunctional family relationships are most detrimental to victimized females.

Cyberbullying and Psychological Well-being in Young Adolescence: The Potential Protective Mediation Effects of Social Support from Family, Friends, and Teachers.

In the current study, we tested the relations between cyberbullying roles and several psychological well-being outcomes, as well as the potential mediation effect of perceived social support from family, friends, and teachers in school. This was investigated in a cross-sectional sample of 1707 young adolescents (47.5% girls, aged 10-13 years, self-reporting via a web questionnaire) attending community and private schools in a mid-sized municipality in Sweden. We concluded from our results that the Cyberbully-victim group has the highest levels of depressive symptoms, and the lowest of subjective well-being and family support. We also observed higher levels of anxiety symptoms in both the Cyber-victims and the Cyberbully-victims. Moreover, we conclude that some types of social support seem protective in the way that it mediates the relationship between cyberbullying and psychological well-being. More specifically, perceived social support from family and from teachers reduce the probability of depressive and anxiety symptoms, and higher levels of social support from the family increase the probability of higher levels of subjective well-being among youths being a victim of cyberbullying (i.e., cyber-victim) and being both a perpetrator and a victim of cyber bullying (i.e., cyberbully-victim). Potential implications for prevention strategies are discussed.

After a childhood with a parent in prison - relationships and well-being as a child and young adult.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore whether young adults who had a parent in prison while growing up in Sweden are disadvantaged in terms of parental support, school well-being and functioning, and socioemotional and/or behavioral problems, compared to young adults whose parents were not in prison when they were a child. Design/methodology/approach Retrospective self-report information about parental imprisonment and childhood and adulthood welfare was collected from 2,500 Swedish young adults as part of the RESUME project. Of these, 52 who had had a parent in prison during their childhood were compared to the young adults who had not had a parent in prison, by measuring differences concerning their family relations, school well-being, and well-being as adults, and the risk of some events occurring later in life. Findings Having had a parent in prison was significantly related to feeling less loved during childhood, and having less contact and support from both parents during adulthood, in comparison with other young adults. In school they experienced lower well-being and were more often placed in special education than other children. They were at greater risk of not attending higher education, of planning or attempting suicide, and of being hospitalized for mental health problems than the rest of the young adults. Research limitations/implications Taking into consideration the complexity of childhood conditions and the limitations of retrospective data, prison, and social-services, professionals should pay special attention to the fact that a child has a parent in prison. Originality/value This is a unique study of young adults' experiences of a childhood with parent in prison.