The Lifelong Effects of Exposure to Violence on Multiple Dimensions of Healthy Aging

• In Event: Health Inequities Across the Life Course: System Contact from Youth to Old Age

Abstract

Prior research implicates the disproportionate exposures to violence among Black youth as a key contributor to subsequent deterioration of health and mortality. An understudied area of inquiry is the relationship between exposures to violence among older Black adults and a range of both physiological (e.g., physical and mental health) and non-physiological (e.g., perceptions of aging, sleep functioning, cognitive health, social well-being) aspects of healthy aging. In this study, we draw on self-report data on exposures to violence and healthy aging among a community cohort of Black adults who have been prospectively followed from first grade (in 1966) to later life (modal age 62). Among the 531 participants who completed the Age 62 follow-up, 80% were exposed to at least one type of violence (i.e., current exposure to community violence, lifetime exposure to direct violent victimization, or lifetime indirect exposure to violence) with close to 20% exposed to all three types. Multivariate regression estimates show that exposure to direct victimization and community violence but not indirect violence significantly diminish one’s aging experiences, including perceptions of healthy aging, physical and mental health, and non-physiologically-related indicators. The implications of these findings on life course and health criminology scholarship will be discussed.

Authors

• Elaine Eggleston Doherty, University of Maryland, College Park

• Kerry M. Green, University of Maryland

• Brittany A. Bugbee, University of Maryland