title: The sense of mastery as a mediator and moderator in the association between economic hardship and health in late life.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 8128 Social Science Building 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1393, USA. tpudrovs@ssc.wisc.edu
authors.forename: Tetyana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pudrovska
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schieman
authors.forename: Leonard I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Pearlin
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nguyen
mesh_terms: 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