AIM: This study is designed to examine the contribution of sociocultural, economic, and emotional variables to health, coping, and adaptation in older African Americans. Specific goals are: 1) to provide population- based norms for socioeconomic, cultural, and emotion/personality variables thought to be important in psychological adaptation, 2) to examine the contribution of these variables to psychological and physical well-being (positive affect, negative affect, physical health, functional disability), 3) to examine within-group differences among US-born and Caribbean-born African Americans, and to 4) test the relevance of several theoretical models of aging and adaptation in a minority population. METHOD: Nine hundred community-dwelling residents of Brooklyn, NY, 65 - 80 years of age, will be recruited for the study using a multi-stage area probability sampling approach (150 Afro-Caribbeans from each of the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados, 150 US-born African Americans, 150 immigrant Caucasians and 150 non-immigrant Caucasians). Respondents who agree to participate will be interviewed and will be asked to complete several questionnaires. Semistructured interviews cover adult attachment style, social network, and coping and emotion regulation styles. Paper and pencil measures include the assessment of trait emotion, financial strain, ethnic identity, physical health problems and disabilities, negative and positive life events and the presence or absence of family conflict. ANALYSIS: The above information will be used to test hypotheses from social networks theory, attachment theory, and socioemotional variables to outcome measures of physical health, functional disability, and psychological well-being.
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