Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Loneliness Links Adverse Childhood Experiences to Mortality Risk Across 26 Years.","authors":"Aisling Curtis, Emma M Kirwan, Martina Luchetti, Ann-Marie Creaven, Nicholas Turiano, Máire McGeehan, Eileen K Graham, Páraic S O'Súilleabháin","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf016","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with increased mortality risk. Individuals with a history of certain adversity during childhood tend to report higher levels of loneliness in later life. In our preregistered study, we examined whether loneliness mediates the ACEs to mortality risk relation.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Participants were from the Midlife in the United States Survey (N = 4,963; M [SD] = 46.44 [12.52] years, 53.3% female). Follow-up period spanned 26 years. A comprehensive measure of ACEs was employed consisting of 20 ACEs from 5 categories: physical abuse, emotional abuse, socioeconomic disadvantage, adverse family structure, and poor health at age 16 years.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>ACE was a significant predictor of mortality risk. Loneliness mediated the ACEs-mortality risk relation. In other words, loneliness in adulthood accounted for the relation between ACEs and future death. These effects withstood a range of sensitivity checks and adjustments for important factors, such as social isolation.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Loneliness appears to be a central mechanism in the long-term impact of ACEs on longevity, such that, for adversity during childhood, loneliness experienced during adulthood may be a toxic pathway to future death.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067061/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143460940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Causal Effects of Schooling on Memory at Older Ages in Six Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Nonparametric Evidence With Harmonized Datasets.","authors":"Vikesh Amin, Jere R Behrman, Jason M Fletcher, Carlos A Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D Stites","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf057","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf057","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Higher schooling attainment is associated with better cognitive function at older ages, but it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We estimated causal effects of schooling on performances on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) word-recall (memory) test at older ages in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used harmonized data (n = 30,896) on older adults (≥50 years) from the World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health. We applied an established nonparametric partial identification approach that bounds causal effects of increasing schooling attainment at different parts of the schooling distributions under relatively weak assumptions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>An additional year of schooling increased word-recall scores by between 0.01 and 0.13 SDs in China, 0.01 and 0.06 SDs in Ghana, 0.02 and 0.09 SDs in India, 0.02 and 0.12 SDs in Mexico, and 0 and 0.07 SDs in South Africa when increasing schooling from never attended to primary. No results were obtained for Russia at this margin due to the low proportion of older adults with primary schooling or lower. At higher parts of the schooling distributions (e.g., high school or university completion), the bounds cannot statistically reject null effects.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Our results indicate that increasing schooling from never attended to primary had long-lasting effects on memory decades later in life for older adults in 5 diverse low- and middle-income countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12084832/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143677424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Overconfidence and Financial Risk Tolerance in Older Age.","authors":"Colleen C Frank, Gary R Mottola, Meiru Chen, Lei Yu, Patricia A Boyle, Gregory R Samanez-Larkin, Kendra L Seaman","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf032","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf032","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Excessive financial risk-taking in older age can have harmful consequences as opportunities to recover lost wealth are limited. Understanding financial risk-taking in older age is important for identifying vulnerabilities and developing interventions to empower aging investors to make wise financial choices. In this paper, we explore how overconfidence in financial knowledge affects financial risk-taking among older adults.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We examine this research question in older adults aged 58-101 (N = 1,242) using data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>After controlling for demographics, overconfidence was associated with self-reported financial risk tolerance such that those who were more overconfident reported tolerating more financial risks. Moreover, this relationship emerged for both healthy older adults and those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. However, overconfidence did not predict performance on a behavioral measure of risk aversion.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The present results suggest that overconfidence may partially contribute to financial risk-taking in older adults, regardless of cognitive status. Thus, interventions aimed at calibrating confidence to actual levels of financial knowledge could be an impactful target for intervention.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067059/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143451056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Association Between Social Engagement Frequency and the Risk of Depression in South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom: Multinational Evidence From Longitudinal Studies of Aging.","authors":"Jaehyeong Cho, Tae Hyeon Kim, Jiyeon Oh, Sooji Lee, Kyeongeun Kim, Jaeyu Park, Hyesu Jo, Yi Deun Jeong, Seoyoung Park, Yejun Son, Nicola Veronese, Guillermo F López Sánchez, Louis Jacob, Selin Woo, Dong Keon Yon, Lee Smith","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf036","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf036","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Although a greater social engagement is often associated with a reduced risk of depression, longitudinal studies that account for diverse social structures and cultural contexts among middle-aged or older are limited.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study utilized cohort data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (n = 11,174; 2006-2020) in South Korea (KR), the Health and Retirement Study (n = 42,405; 2004-2019) in the United States, and the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (n = 28,624; 2002-2019) in the United Kingdom, including a total of 29,378 individuals from the population aged ≥45 years. Social engagement frequency was categorized into infrequent, intermediate, and frequent, with changes classified as unchanged, increased, or decreased. The primary outcome was the onset of depression, assessed using the CES-D scale. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using a Cox proportional hazards regression model.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In the KR cohort, increased social engagement significantly reduced depression risk only in the infrequent group (KR: HR, 0.20 [95% CI: 0.14-0.28]). However, decreased social engagement elevated depression risk in both the intermediate group (KR: 6.92 [3.73-12.83]; United States: 1.44 [1.16-1.79]) and the frequent group (KR: 1.50 [1.30-1.74]; United States: 1.24 [1.13-1.38]). Conversely, in the UK cohort, increased social engagement raised depression risk in the infrequent group (UK: 1.35 [1.01-1.79]) and intermediate group (UK: 1.63 [1.17-2.27]), whereas decreased engagement lowered depression risk only in the frequent group (UK: 0.80 [0.71-0.90]).</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>We observed notable national variations in the association between social engagement and depression risk, influenced by cultural and political differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143477261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Offspring Educational Disadvantage and Parents' Dementia Onset: Does the Educational Success of One Child Moderate the Educational Disadvantage of Another?","authors":"Jenjira J Yahirun, Jaycob S Applegate, Krysia N Mossakowski, Mark D Hayward","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>A growing body of research examines how adult children's education influences older parents' cognitive health. Whereas prior studies tend to focus on educational advantage, this study seeks to understand how various measures of educational disadvantage are associated with parents' dementia likelihood. In addition, we ask how the risks associated with one child's educational disadvantage are shaped by a sibling's educational success.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2000-2018) and event history analyses, comparisons are made between measures of offspring educational disadvantage and their relationships with parents' risk of dementia onset. In addition, analyses are conducted to understand whether the link between one child's educational disadvantage and parental dementia onset is influenced by a sibling's educational advantage.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Educational disadvantage is associated with an increased risk of parental dementia onset, with a threshold measure for whether a parent had at least one child without a high school education providing the best model fit for the data. Moreover, the heightened risks associated with one child's educational disadvantage are not offset by another sibling's educational success.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Children's educational deficits are a hidden source of health disparities among older parents. Although scholars in recent years have rightly focused on the importance of offspring education, more attention should be paid to conceptualizing how educational disadvantage matters for parents and how the educational attainment of each child shapes parents' cognitive health.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12079380/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143477286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aging and Mentorship in the Margins: Multigenerational Knowledge Transfer Among LGBTQ+ Chosen Families.","authors":"Angela K Perone, Lindsay Toman, Beth Glover Reed, Tré Coldon, Ashlee Osborne, Justice Cook","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf027","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf027","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>For LGBTQ+ communities, learning often happens among chosen families, including older adults. Building on Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical concepts of capital (e.g., economic, social, cultural, symbolic) and queer theory of sexual capital, this article examines how LGBTQ+ chosen families share expertise to build knowledge and power across the life course.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using a transformative sequential mixed-methods design from a larger project, this subproject includes data from 6 intracategorical focus groups with multigenerational and multiracial LGBTQ+ participants (n = 37), including older adults, in a Midwestern community to center their voices, understand their experiences within and outside LGBTQ+ communities, foreground experiences of LGBTQ+ aging, and explore challenges and supports.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We identified 3 ways in which LGBTQ+ chosen families shared knowledge about various forms of capital: latent mentorship, bi- or multi-directional mentorship, and transgressive mentorship. We call these 3 types of knowledge sharing \"mentorship in the margins,\" in which knowledge is shared within and among communities whose intersecting positionalities both limit and expand ways to imagine mentorship for navigating structural barriers and social, economic, and political inequities, especially regarding shared housing, family formation, and marriage equality.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The breadth and depth of multigenerational transfers of knowledge across the life course demonstrate the centrality of multigenerational chosen families for LGBTQ+ communities as they age, especially among multiply-minoritized communities (e.g., transgender women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [BIPOC] same-gender-loving communities). Knowledge shared among chosen families also reflects how \"mentorship in the margins\" builds individual and collective power that helps LGBTQ+ communities survive and thrive as they age.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067074/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143426805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Association Between Disability Status of the Caregivers and Their Perceived Mental Strain: Hong Kong Population-Based Study of Caregivers of Older Adults With Disabilities.","authors":"Shan Mao, Tarani Chandola, Vivian Weiqun Lou, Dara Kiu Yi Leung","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf044","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf044","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study investigated the association between caregivers' disability status and their mental strain when caring for family members with disabilities. Moreover, we examined the moderating roles of caregiving time and the presence of additional caregivers in this association.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data were selected from a territory-wide survey of people with disabilities in Hong Kong, which included 85,700 family caregivers of people with disabilities. Logistic regression was adopted to test the study hypotheses. Weights were applied for all analyses to ensure the sample was representative of the population.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Caregivers' disability status was associated with higher levels of mental strain among family caregivers of people with disabilities (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58, p < .001). More caregiving hours per week predicted higher risks of caregiving mental strain (20.0-39.9 hr: OR = 3.38, p = .005; 40.0-59.9 hr: OR = 5.01, p = .001; 60.0 hr or more: OR = 9.08, p < .001). The presence of additional caregivers did not reduce the mental strain of primary caregivers. Additionally, no significant moderating effects were observed. However, the results suggest that caregivers with disabilities were more sensitive to the adverse effect of more caregiving time on mental strain.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>This study highlights the significant impact of caregivers' disability status on mental strain, underscoring the need for targeted social services and policies to reduce caregiving burdens and protect caregivers' health, especially for those with disabilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067062/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143558913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Parent-Child Disconnectedness and Older European Adults' Mental Health: Do Patterns Differ by Marital Status and Gender?","authors":"Lisa Jessee, Deborah Carr","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf024","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Disconnectedness from one's adult child(ren) can undermine older adults' well-being. However, the psychological consequences of disconnectedness may differ across marital contexts and by gender. Drawing on stress and normative violation frameworks, we examine the association between parent-child disconnectedness and European older adults' depressive symptoms, and the extent to which these patterns differ by marital status (married, remarried, cohabiting, divorced, widowed, and never married) and gender.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used pooled data from 8 waves (2004-2022) of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, n = 216,469) and multivariable pooled ordinary least squares regression to evaluate whether marital status and gender moderate the association between disconnectedness and depressive symptoms. Analyses were adjusted for socioeconomic, health, survey year, and contextual covariates.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Disconnectedness rates range from 1% among older adults in their first marriages to 13%-14% among divorced and remarried men and 17% among never-married men. Men have consistently higher rates of disconnectedness than women. Parent-child disconnectedness is associated with heightened depressive symptoms in many marital and gender categories. However, moderation analyses show the strongest associations in marital contexts in which disconnectedness is rare (first marriage, especially among women). Disconnectedness also is associated with heightened depressive symptoms among widowed and divorced persons, yet has negligible effects among remarried persons.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>We discuss the implications of disconnectedness for older adults' socioemotional and caregiving needs. We encourage interventions that focus on engaging older adults' supportive familial or nonfamilial ties rather than reestablishing potentially distressing ties with a disconnected child.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067067/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143434413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Depressive Symptoms in Mid- and Late Life: Parenting Styles as Mediators.","authors":"Shiqi Lin, Jiajia Li, Xiaojin Yan, Sheng Lin","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf078","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf078","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The life course perspective on mental health suggests the link between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and depression in later life, yet current pathway models can't fully explain the link. The present study explored the relationship between childhood SES and depressive symptoms in mid- and late life and the mediation role of parenting styles among the Chinese population.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2011-2020, a prospective cohort study including 7,632 participants was performed. The outcome was depressive symptoms. Parenting styles included parental responsiveness and parental demandingness. Cox regression models and the multiple mediation analysis approach were applied.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Lower childhood SES was associated with a higher hazard of depressive symptoms in mid‑ and late life compared to higher SES (hazard ratios, HR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.06-1.24); higher parental responsiveness was associated with a lower hazard of depressive symptoms (HR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.88-0.96), while higher parental demandingness was associated with a higher hazard (HR: 1.08; 95% CI: 1.04-1.12). Gender- and residence-specific associations between parental responsiveness and depressive symptoms were observed. Parenting styles explained 8.1% of the total effects of childhood SES on mid‑ and late-life depressive symptoms.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Parenting styles may be an important mediator in the association between childhood SES and depression in mid- and late life. This study suggests that depression prevention strategies should be taken from a life course perspective and that more focus should be put on the promotion of parenting, especially for those with low SES.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144059580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"Kinlessness,\" Social Connectedness, and Subjective Well-Being in Europe.","authors":"Marco Tosi, Thijs Van den Broek","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf055","DOIUrl":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf055","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study examines the association between family structure and subjective well-being by focusing on the moderating effects of social connectedness across genders and country contexts. We compare the well-being of older adults across 4 family types: those with both a partner and children, those with a partner but not children, those with children but no partner, and those without a partner and children (\"kinless\").</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We use data from 6 waves of the European Social Survey (2012-2024) and estimate ordered logistic regression models of happiness and life satisfaction among middle-aged and older Europeans aged 50-104 (62,687 men and 73,323 women). We include interactions in the analysis to test whether social connectedness mitigates the well-being differences between kinless adults and partnered parents.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results show that middle-aged and older adults, especially men, without a partner exhibit lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction compared with their partnered counterparts, regardless of the absence of children. The subjective well-being gap between partnered and unpartnered men diminishes according to their level of social connectedness, a moderating effect primarily observed in Nordic and Western European countries.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Contrary to the notion that \"kinlessness\" leads to aging alone, middle-aged and older men in less family-centered countries are able to alleviate the detrimental impact of partnerlessness on subjective well-being through increased social connectedness. In contrast, in countries where family ties are more emphasized, particularly in Eastern Europe, un-partnered adults face greater well-being challenges that are harder to offset with social connectedness.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12070265/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143674943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}