The sense of mastery as a mediator and moderator in the association between economic hardship and health in late life.
OBJECTIVE
This study examines the ways in which the sense of mastery modifies the association between economic hardship experienced at different life stages and late-life depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms.


METHODS
Using data from a sample of 1,167 older adults, ordinary least squares regression techniques were used to estimate the main and mastery-contingent effects of economic hardship.


RESULTS
Results underscore the dual role of the sense of mastery in the stress process. First, mastery mediates the effects of both earlier- and later-life economic hardships on elders' current physical and mental health. Second, mastery moderates the health impact of economic hardship, although those patterns depend on the period of economic hardship and health outcome.


CONCLUSIONS
Integrating the stress process model and a life course perspective, the authors argue that to fully understand protective capacity of psychosocial resources, stressors encountered at different life stages should be taken into account.
Pudrovska
Tetyana
T
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 8128 Social Science Building 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1393, USA. tpudrovs@ssc.wisc.edu
Schieman
Scott
S
Pearlin
Leonard I
LI
Nguyen
Kim
K
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D003863:Depression; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological