Fordham University's Hispanic Research Center (HRC) proposes to conduct a study of stress, mental health and coping in a sample of New York area Puerto Rican elderly. The primary aim of the study is to test a general theoretical model linking stressors and social and psychological resources to the mental health and coping outcomes of this group. A corollary aim is to explore the model refinements necessary to account for the unique experience of social, economic and demographic subgroups of Puerto Rican elders. The model will be tested with data drawn from a representative cross-section of 1000 Puerto Rican adults aged 55 and over residing in households in a nine county area of metropolitan New York. The model encompasses both chronic and acute stress. We examine chronic stress in the areas of economics, interpersonal relations, health and acculturation, and acute stress in the form of recent undesirable life events. The conditioning as well as direct effects of both psychological and social resources will be examined. Psychological resources include self-esteem and personal efficacy, while social resources refer to the giving and receiving of emotional and/or instrumental aid. The affective mental health outcomes of depressed mood, feelings of anxiety and morale will be explored as will cognitive and behavioral coping outcomes. The study is intended to further our understanding of the stress process both generally and in this culturally distinctive population. Little is known about the stressors, resources or mental health and coping outcomes of elderly Puerto Ricans, nor is the configuration of these variables well understood, either in the elderly Puerto Rican population as a whole or in specific subgroups of Puerto Rican elders. In addition to these conceptual contributions, the sheer descriptive findings on stress, mental health and coping should be of value to those charged with developing policies and/or delivering services to the Puerto Rican elderly.
| Mahard, R E (1988) The CES-D as a measure of depressive mood in the elderly Puerto Rican population. J Gerontol 43:P24-5 |
