Church support networks of African Americans: The impact of gender and religious involvement

We examined the sociodemographic and religious involvement correlates of church support networks in a nationally representative sample of African Americans across the adult life span. Data from the National Survey of American Life was used for analysis. Ordinary least squares regression was conducted to identify correlates of frequency of contact, subjective closeness, provision and receipt of overall support, receipt of emotional support, and negative interactions with church members. We also investigated differences in church support networks separately for men and women. Religious involvement was positively associated with church support network indicators (i.e., frequency of contact). Church support network indicators also varied by age, gender, education, family income, marital status, and region. The findings indicate that for many African Americans, church members are an integral component of their support networks and underscore the importance of social integration in church networks for social support exchanges. Moreover, these church support network characteristics are patterned by sociodemographic characteristics.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149714/1/jcop22171_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149714/2/jcop22171.pd

Facing the music or burying our heads in the sand?: Adaptive emotion regulation in mid- and late-life

Psychological defense theories postulate that keeping threatening information out of awareness brings short-term reduction of anxiety at the cost of longer-term dysfunction. By contrast, Socioemotional Selectivity Theory suggests that preference for positively-valenced information is a manifestation of adaptive emotion regulation in later life. Using six decades of longitudinal data on 61 men, we examined links between emotion regulation indices informed by these distinct conceptualizations: defense patterns in earlier adulthood and selective memory for positively-valenced images in late life. Men who used more avoidant defenses in midlife recognized fewer emotionally-valenced and neutral images in a memory test 35-40 years later. Late-life satisfaction was positively linked with mid-life engaging defenses but negatively linked at the trend level with concurrent positivity bias

Social network types and functional dependency in older adults in Mexico

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Social networks play a key role in caring for older adults. A better understanding of the characteristics of different social networks types (TSNs) in a given community provides useful information for designing policies to care for this age group. Therefore this study has three objectives: 1) To derive the TSNs among older adults affiliated with the Mexican Institute of Social Security; 2) To describe the main characteristics of the older adults in each TSN, including the instrumental and economic support they receive and their satisfaction with the network; 3) To determine the association between functional dependency and the type of social network.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Secondary data analysis of the 2006 Survey of Autonomy and Dependency (N = 3,348). The TSNs were identified using the structural approach and cluster analysis. The association between functional dependency and the TSNs was evaluated with Poisson regression with robust variance analysis in which socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle and medical history covariates were included.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified five TSNs: diverse with community participation (12.1%), diverse without community participation (44.3%); widowed (32.0%); nonfriends-restricted (7.6%); nonfamily-restricted (4.0%). Older adults belonging to widowed and restricted networks showed a higher proportion of dependency, negative self-rated health and depression. Older adults with functional dependency more likely belonged to a widowed network (adjusted prevalence ratio 1.5; 95%CI: 1.1-2.1).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The derived TSNs were similar to those described in developed countries. However, we identified the existence of a diverse network without community participation and a widowed network that have not been previously described. These TSNs and restricted networks represent a potential unmet need of social security affiliates.</p

Does Michelangelo care about age? An adult life-span perspective on the Michelangelo phenomenon

Humans are motivated to expand their actual self toward an ideal self. Known as the Michelangelo phenomenon, movement toward the ideal self can be facilitated through an affirming romantic partner and is linked to positive life outcomes. Yet, research on the Michelangelo phenomenon has primarily focused on young adult samples, and it remains unknown whether the framework generalizes across the adult life-span. The authors addressed this shortcoming by examining the Michelangelo phenomenon in a three-generation sample of 505 adults aged 18–90 years (M = 47.2 years). Multilevel analyses revealed one age effect on the framework, showing that being seen by the partner in a manner congruent with one’s ideal self (i.e., partner perceptual affirmation) becomes more important for relationship satisfaction with increasing age. Otherwise, age did not affect the Michelangelo phenomenon, suggesting life-span generalizability of the framework. By highlighting personal-growth processes that continue across the life-span, the present findings add to theories of successful aging

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Adult Children's Problems and Successes: Implications for Intergenerational Ambivalence

Ambivalence theory suggests that parents experience ambivalence due to conflicting desires to help children in need and to launch children into adulthood. This study examined parents' reports of their adult children's problems and successes and implications for ambivalence. Participants aged 40--60 years (302 men and 331 women from different families) reported on up to 3 of their adult children (N = 1,251). Men and women differentiated among children in ratings of problems, successes, and ambivalence. Men and not women reported greater ambivalence regarding children with more physical--emotional problems and less career success. Men and women reported greater ambivalence regarding children with less relationship success. Consistent with ambivalence theory, individuals feel more ambivalent regarding problematic and less successful children but men's ambivalence appears to be more sensitive to their children's problems and successes than women's ambivalence. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Divorced yet still together: ongoing personal relationship and coparenting among divorced parents

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.This study examined the ongoing personal and emotional involvement between former spouses and its association with perceptions of the quality of the coparenting relationship. Dyadic analysis of 54 formerly married couples revealed that both men and women rate their coparenting relationship as better when they also report ongoing personal and emotional involvement with their former spouse. Furthermore, when men reported ongoing involvement, their former wives reported better coparenting. The opposite effect was not found. This pattern held for both Black Americans and White Americans. Clinical implications of the findings of this study are also discussed.National Institute of Child Health and Human Developmen