Disparities in Basic Housing Needs as a Predictor of Psychological Well-Being Among Older Adults

Adequate housing and safe environments are among older adults’ foundational needs. Prior research suggests minority older adults face significant barriers to accessing affordable and appropriate housing. However, the effects of this environmental press on their psychological well-being are rarely addressed. This project examined racial disparities between minority and white older adults’ housing and environment conditions and the differential impact on their psychological well-being. Using nationally representative data from the National Health & Aging Trends Study (NHATS), older adults' reported rating of the quality of housing conditions, financial security, neighborhood security, and the interviewer’s rating of the home environment were analyzed. A total of 4,048 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 and over were selected for analysis. The sample demographics are predominantly white (77.5%), female (61.4%), and residing in the community (82%). Results found minority older adults reported poorer housing conditions, fewer home modifications, and lower financial and neighborhood security, compared to white counterparts. The impact of housing quality was more detrimental to minority older adults’ psychological well-being, compared to white counterparts. These findings suggest a significant negative impact of home conditions on the psychological well-being of minority older adults. Home modifications are a viable option to increase or preserve functional status in the home, which could lessen the deleterious effects of environmental press on older adults’ psychological outcomes, especially minorities. This study’s findings provide information that bolsters our knowledge of housing and environment conditions, which are critical in efforts to reduce health disparities in late life.

A Commentary on Blue Zones®: A Critical Review of Age-Friendly Environments in the 21st Century and Beyond

This paper explores the intersection of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) concepts of age-friendly communities and The Blue Zones® checklists and how the potential of integrating the two frameworks for the development of a contemporary framework can address the current gaps in the literature as well as consider the inclusion of technology and environmental press. The commentary presented here sets out initial thoughts and explorations that have the potential to impact societies on a global scale and provides recommendations for a roadmap to consider new ways to think about the impact of health and wellbeing of older adults and their families. Additionally, this paper highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of the aforementioned checklists and frameworks by examining the literature including the WHO age-friendly framework, the smart age-friendly ecosystem (SAfE) framework and the Blue Zones® checklists. We argue that gaps exist in the current literature and take a critical approach as a way to be inclusive of technology and the environments in which older adults live. This commentary contributes to the fields of gerontology, gerontechnology, anthropology, and geography, because we are proposing a roadmap which sets out the need for future work which requires multi- and interdisciplinary research to be conducted for the respective checklists to evolve.

Complexities and Contradictions: Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Students’ Lived Realities across Three Urban HBCU Contexts

This qualitative study explored how Black LGBQ students at three urban private HBCUs experienced and navigated spaces that affirmed their racial identity but posed challenges to their sexual and gender identities. Drawing on Black respectability politics and environmental press as power as theoretical framing, we utilized a critical constructivist epistemology to unearth the complexities and contradictions that Black LGBQ students face in HBCU settings. Our analysis yielded three themes: (a) affirming/othering, (b) institutional pride/institutional change, and (c) safe space needed/wasted institutional efforts. Implications for higher education administrators and policymakers are offered within.

LAWTON’S THEORY OF PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR DETECTING TIPPING POINTS

Caregiving families often experience “tipping points,” changes that forever alter their lives, such as a fall with a fractured femur. Tipping points for older adults can be conceptualized as an interaction between individuals and their environments. According to Lawton’s theory of person-environment fit (Lawton, 1983, 1985), physical and social environments and the person’s behavior are shaped by one another in a dynamic, ever-changing process. For older adults, the relationship between “environmental press,” or the mismatch between the person and his/her environment, and adaptation to that environment is mediated through one’s ability to cope. When stressors in health, cognition, or caregiver availability occur, environmental press may heighten, leading to a tipping point. In this paper the authors clarify how environmental press theory provides a foundation for studying early detection of impending tipping points and facilitating decisional support of families for choosing the right long-term support services at the right time.

The Climate of Conflict: Politico-environmental Press Coverage and the Eruption of the Mexican Revolution, 1907–1911

This article combines the insights of historical climatology and analysis of press coverage to reexamine the agrarian origins of the Mexican Revolution from 1907 to 1911. Using a collection of hundreds of articles from dozens of newspapers, contemporary meteorological and agricultural bulletins, government correspondence, secondary works, and recent historical climatological data, I argue that environmental dynamics and political processes were intertwined in the four years preceding the revolution. Specifically, I contend that politico-environmental press coverage of drought and frost based on incomplete or misleading regional climatic information strongly influenced the government's relief measures and thereby exacerbated the acute economic and political crises that led to the ouster of the dictator Porfirio Díaz. By analyzing these understudied climate-society dynamics surrounding the Mexican Revolution, the article's aim is to expand understanding of the significance of these dynamics as well as to incorporate the Mexican case into the global historiography on climate and rebellion.

SETING ALAMI SEBAGAI SARANA ANAK UNTUK MENGATASI TEKANAN LINGKUNGAN DI KAMPUNG KOTA

Nowadays, the majority of Indonesian people live in the dense urban kampungs. Some of those kampungs laid on the riverside, as a marginal area -- due to their low economic value of the land. They have specific conditions especially on the limitation of infrastructures and facilities for children activities in the settlement area. This research is a part of my dissertation paper, which aims to gain how children (mainly school-age children) coping with such condition. This study is a qualitative exploratory research, meanwhile, observation and interview were used as collecting data methods. Kampung Ngampilan in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, was chosen as a case area, because of its unique characteristics: located on the riverside of Winongo River, had a high density, and most people have low economics. As the result, this study found that natural setting, especially river area and its surrounding vegetation, is a focus location for children to release live stress in their settlement, due to two space aspects: thermal comfort and visual comfort. This condition was triggered by the limited area of their house so that the children prefer to go out from their house especially after attending school in the afternoon. This results will be useful as a reference for urban kampung planning, especially in riverfront area.Keywords: children, kampung, environmental press, natural settingAbstrak: Mayoritas penduduk kota Indonesia tinggal di kampung berkepadatan tinggi. Sebagian dari kampung -kampung berada di bantaran sungai sebagai salah satu area kota yang dianggap marginal karena nilai ekonomi lahan rendah. Kampung-kampung umumnya berkondisi khas dan memiliki keterbatasan infrastruktur termasuk fasilitas untuk kegiatan anak-anak di permukiman. Studi ini merupakan bagian dari disertasi penulis, yang bertujuan mengetahui bagaimana anak-anak (terutama anak usia sekolah dasar) menghadapi tekanan lingkungan. Kampung Ngampilan dipilih karena merupakan kampung kota yang sangat padat, terletak di tepi sungai, berkontur curam, dan warganya termasuk kelompok ekonomi menengah ke bawah. Kajian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif eksploratif, dan penggalian data dilakukan dengan metode observasi lapangan dan wawancara. Penelitian menemukan, seting alami kampung, khususnya sungai dan vegetasi di sekitarnya, merupakan area pilihan utama anak bermain, karena memiliki dua aspek kenyamanan, yaitu kenyamanan termal dan kenyamanan visual. Pilihan anak-anak dipicu oleh kondisi rumah mereka yang sempit, sehingga mereka lebih memilih keluar rumah sepulang sekolah atau sore hari. Temuan ini dapat menjadi acuan bagi pengembangan kampung kota Indonesia yang lebih kondusif untuk anak, khususnya kampung tepi sungai.Kata kunci: seting alami, tekanan lingkungan, kampung kota, anak

Types of Aging Depending on the Mode of Life: Foreign Experience

Aging well is one of the key issues of modern gerontopsychology, health and environmental psychology. In ecological psychology, late adulthood is considered as the most sensitive to the physical and organizational environmental settings stage in human life due to exhausted physical and social resources in the elderly and increasing environmental demands (Environmental press–competence model). The article is devoted to the modern researches of two types of aging – aging in place and institutional care, in terms of its beneficial effects on psychological health and quality of life of elderly people.