Rurality, Residential Mobility, and Mental Health Among Older Adults in the U.S.

• In Event: Aging and the Life Course Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 2: Life course Approaches to Mental Health and Well-being

Abstract

Older age is often associated with declines in health and subsequent changes in residential locations–in many cases, but not always, from independent living into shared or assisted living arrangements. This pattern of health-deterioration and subsequent residential mobility has been well-researched. Less well understood is whether residential mobility itself is a risk factor for developing mental health problems among older adults. While residential instability has been linked with poor health, its relationship with mental health among older adults remains underexplored. Older age is a life stage when individuals exit the labor force, trim their social networks, and have more difficulty creating and maintaining new social ties. Residential mobility may undermine older adults’ social support networks and lead to increases to isolation, loneliness, and depressive symptoms. Yet, there are almost no studies that examine residential change and its implications for older adult mental health in rural communities. Given systematic differences in housing stock, availability of assisted living facilities, and geographic scale, we expect the determinants, dynamics, and consequences of residential mobility for older adults to be distinct for rural-resident older adults compared with urban- or suburban-resident older adults. Using nationally representative, longitudinal, geographic and health data from the 2000-2022 Health and Retirement Study we seek to address the following questions: a) How often do older adults in the U.S. move, and what type of residential mobility is most common among older adults both overall and between rural and urban-resident older adults? b) What are the effects of residential change on older adult mental health outcomes, accounting for pre-move mental health? c) Does the relationship between residential mobility and depressive risk depend on the nature of the change in living arrangements (e.g. a change from living alone to living with others or an assisted living facility, etc.)?

Authors

• Chantel Ferreira Pheiffer, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Jeffrey E. Stokes, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Meghan Zacher, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University