The use of survey methods to investigate issues of adult development and aging has not addressed in any systematic manner the possibility that the meaning and interpretation of survey questions and items vary as a function of respondent characteristics. Rate and age comparative research, which is particularly susceptible to this limitation, frequently document the existence of group differences without illuminating the nature of those divergences. The proposed FIRST award investigates the validity and meaning of the survey responses of older black adults, and black adults generally, through an innovative methodological procedure to assess the congruency of different types of survey information. Quantitative and qualitative assessments of ten survey items provide information on the interpretation and meaning of those items and the nature of underlying conceptual and substantive dimensions. An indepth examination of a health satisfaction item focuses specifically on the relationships among diverse forms of health data and their relation to perceptions of subjective well-being. The second area of interest concerns the nature of subjective well-being evaluations among older blacks. The research literature on the nature of subjective well-being among minority aged remains small and primarily focused on examinations of demographic correlates. The proposed analyses will extend previous work and examine the influence of reports of subjective experiences in other domains of life including self-esteem and self-attitudes, the quality of personal relationships, life goals, perceived stress, and religion. Finally, this research proposes to use information acquired in earlier phases of work to conduct a limited set of replicated analyses in an independent dataset of black and white adults. This research will make important methodological and substantive contributions to research on aging and adult development and advance our understanding of the meaning of survey items across different age and status groups. An additional benefit accruing from this work is the development of a resource of data on the quantitative and qualitative nature of a diverse complement of survey items.
| Chatters, L M; Levin, J S; Taylor, R J (1992) Antecedents and dimensions of religious involvement among older black adults. J Gerontol 47:S269-78 |
| Thornton, M C; Chatters, L M; Taylor, R J et al. (1990) Sociodemographic and environmental correlates of racial socialization by black parents. Child Dev 61:401-9 |
| Chatters, L M; Taylor, R J (1989) Age differences in religious participation among black adults. J Gerontol 44:S183-9 |
