bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
SOCIOLOGY AND GERONTOLOGY: NEW PERSPECTIVES AND VITAL ISSUES
Authors: Katz Stephen 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
The relationship between sociology and gerontology continues to forge dynamic pathways that cross critical thinking with innovative methodologies and radical advocacy. Sociological studies (and its specialties) have deepened understanding of aging by exploring its social contexts, life-course trajectories, intersecting inequalities, lifestyle cultures, social determinants of health, and political governance. Despite such advances, mainstream research is criticized for resisting their implications by returning ‘to the safety of traditional, individual-level explanations’ (Dannefer 2022). This trend parallels an increasing neglect of the social dimension of aging in technocratic policy-making. This symposium addresses these challenges by presenting research on the vital and everyday issues of aging, both to strengthen the sociological lens in gerontology and to explore new perspectives on social changes affecting aging societies. Stephen Katz reviews the loneliness ‘epidemic’ amongst older adults and the limitations of diagnostic approaches, suggesting instead how historical and qualitative research can formulate loneliness within diversely lived social and material environments. Chris Phillipson examines the sociological consequences of COVID-19 and its impact and consequences for different groups of older people, and discusses the role of social science in contributing to policy responses to the pandemic. Vera Gallistl and Anna Wanka explain the importance of materialist sociological theories in expanding aging relationships to include the interplay of human, more-than-human and non-human actors in digital societies. Amanda Grenier provides a critical overview of the disjuncture between professional knowledge-production and aging experiences, offering a radical proposal for an ethnographic case-study methodology to tackle issues of frailty and mobility.
THE “EPIDEMIC” OF OLDER ADULT LONELINESS: PROBLEMS OF DIAGNOSTIC INTERVENTION AND CRITICAL SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Authors: Katz Stephen 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Loneliness, more than a feeling, has become a new ‘geriatric giant’ (Freedman & Nicolle 2020) and epidemic health crisis for older adults, affecting their physical, cognitive and emotional well-being. During the COVID epidemic, the intersecting effects of loneliness and isolation (often blurred in the literature) have intensified, as varying public health measures restricted visiting, gathering, routines and activities. While technical interventions, such as digital communication technologies (DCTs), tele-health meetings, online games, robotic pet companions and simulated presence therapy (SPT) are offered as beneficial aids, even where available or co-designed they tend to individualize and universalize loneliness. Professional, recreational and prescriptive interventions can also disregard the structural relations and socio-material environments that configure everyday lonely-making experiences over time. For both residential and community dwelling older adults, such experiences include lack of affordable housing, care-giver burden and insufficient community resources and planning. This presentation, drawing upon data and examples from senior health policy, loneliness surveys, national reports and qualitative research, reflects on these troubling matters in their complexity and heterogeneity. Conclusions explore the making of an ageist emotional economy that depicts and neglects older adults as inevitably lonely, while advocating for their rights to age in safe, healthy and socially connective ways.
DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGY OF COVID-19: CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES FOR SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY
Authors: Phillipson Chris 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Much of the discussion about the impact of COVID-19 has been around its biomedical and epidemiological dimensions, with analysis focusing on the origins of the disease, the development of vaccines, and lessons to be learnt to protect against future pandemics. But the sociological issues arising from COVID-19 are important as well. Pandemics are viewed through particular social values and cultural perspectives, reflect economic and social inequalities in their development and impact, and are managed through socially organized forms of care and support. People will almost certainly view themselves and their society in a different way during and following a pandemic: diminished through the loss of partners and friends; strengthened through coming together at a time of crisis; or, conversely, weakened through a sense that some have suffered more than others. COVID-19 affected groups in different ways: by age, location, occupation, quality of housing, and ethnic group. But the highly unequal effects of the pandemic were often overlooked, or just assumed to be an inevitable part of ‘living with the virus’. The paper argues that research in social gerontology over-emphasized the impact of ageism on the experience of COVID-19, neglecting the wider social fissures and economic and racial injustices that unleashed the pandemic. The paper will review priorities for social gerontology in developing work on COVID-19, including understanding new inequalities which have emerged coming out of the pandemic, and developing a sociologically-informed public health working directly with groups in low-income communities to develop partnerships to tackle ongoing and future pandemics.
STRESSOR-RELATED PERSEVERATIVE COGNITION PREDICTS MORTALITY RISK IN MIDLIFE AND OLDER AGE
Authors: Stawski Robert , Mogle Jacqueline , Witzel Dakota 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Perseverative cognition (e.g., worry and rumination) has been highlighted as a key indicator of stress and a mechanism linking stress to health and mortality risk. Despite this, research linking daily stress to mortality has focused on affective pathways (e.g., affective reactivity), largely ignoring the role of perseverative cognition in daily stress-mortality associations during midlife and older age. We address this gap by leveraging data from the National Study of Daily Experiences Refresher cohort (2012-2014). Respondents (N=694, Mage=47.5, SD=12.6, Range=25-75; 57% women) completed telephone interviews assessing perseverative cognition, negative affect, and the daily stressors on eight consecutive evenings. Decedents (n=15) date and cause of mortality, through 2019, were obtained from the National Death Index. Multilevel models were used to derive cognitive reactivity slopes – reflecting stressor-related increases in perseverative cognition - which were subsequently used in Cox proportional hazards regression models to predict survival. Results indicated higher levels of average daily perseverative cognition (on non-stressor days) were associated with a two-fold increase in mortality risk (Hazard Ratio=2.04, p=.007), while larger stressor-related increases in perseverative cognition (i.e., cognitive reactivity) were associated with an 81% increase in mortality risk (Hazard Ratio=1.81, p=.002). Findings were robust to adjustment for age, sex, differential stressor exposure, daily negative affect, and affective reactivity to daily stressors. Discussion will focus on why daily perseverative cognition is important for understanding health and wellbeing and represents an important intervention target to reduce health and mortality risk during midlife and older age.
CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT OTHERS’ PROBLEMS: COUPLING OF DAILY SUPPORT PROVISION AND COGNITIVE INTERFERENCE
Authors: Cichy Kelly , Witzel Dakota , Stawski Robert 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
The perceived availability of social support is cited as protective against the adverse effects of stressors and curtails cognitive interference (e.g., worry and rumination) linked to anxiety and depression. Social support exchanges, however, also involve providing support to others, which has costs to emotional well-being. Although receiving support may disrupt worry and rumination, providing support may elicit thoughts of concern about the situations requiring support provision, leading to increased cognitive interference on days when support is provided and among those who provide frequent support. Using data from the third wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE 3) we examined associations among daily social support provision and cognitive interference between persons and within persons across days. Given gender differences in social networks and rumination, we also explore whether gender moderates these associations. Across eight consecutive days, respondents (N=1,236, Mage= 62.6, 57% women) reported on their affect, completed a six-item measure of cognitive interference (e.g., how often think about situations that upset you?), and indicated whether they provided emotional support. Multilevel models controlling for age and gender revealed significant within- and between-person associations, where cognitive interference was higher on days individuals provided emotional support compared to non-support days and for those who provided more support (p&lt;.001), independent of daily negative affect. Gender did not moderate the associations. Findings underscore how listening to others’ concerns confers a mental load not accounted for by negative affect, such that cognitive interference may be one mechanism underlying the costs associated with providing support.
DAILY WORK-TO-FAMILY CONFLICT AND SELF-REPORTED COGNITIVE HEALTH IN MIDLIFE
Authors: Chandler Kelly , Nichols Madeline , Stawski Robert 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Work-family conflict (WFC) is a potent stressor in midlife linked to numerous detrimental physical and mental health outcomes; however, less is known about its effects on cognitive health. Increasing research demonstrates the utility of intensive repeated measures designs to examine within-person variability in WFC and health. Therefore, the aims of the present study were (a) to examine within-person associations between daily WFC and cognitive interference and memory failures and (b) to test age and gender as moderators. The data come from 131 IT employees who participated in an eight-day daily diary in the Work, Family, & Health Study (Age M=45, SD=6.33; 45% women). We found both significant between- and within-person associations from our two-level multilevel models. On average, adults who had higher WFC experienced more cognitive interference, Est.=0.22, SE=.06, p&lt;.001, and memory failures, Est.=0.41, SE=.09, p&lt;.001. On days when adults experienced higher WFC than was typical for them, they experienced more cognitive interference, Est.=.10, SE=.03, p&lt;.01, and memory failures, Est.=0.18, SE=.06, p&lt;.01. Age moderated the association between average WFC and memory failures. Simple slopes tests showed significant positive associations for adults aged 35, Est.=0.86, SE=.20, p&lt;.001, and 45 (the mean), Est.=2.15, SE=.70, p&lt;.01, but not 55, Est.=0.11, SE=.15, p=.43. Gender was not a significant moderator. These preliminary results indicate that there is day-to-day variability in WFC and self-reported cognitive health, particularly for adults in their 30s and 40s. Learning more about days with high WFC could suggest strategies for daily interventions to minimize the impacts of WFC on cognitive health.
THEORIZING FORTITUDE: PERSPECTIVES FROM GSA’S ARTS, HUMANITIES, AND CULTURAL GERONTOLOGY ADVISORY PANEL
Authors: McKiddy Sarah , Ritchey Katherine , Kriebernegg Ulla 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
This symposium explores the impact of arts and humanities on cultural narratives of aging. Through the lens of theory-based examples, the authors argue for reaching beyond orthodox engines of gerontological exploration, such as medical research and the social sciences, to develop a more nuanced gerontology. However, moving beyond the arts-as-intervention model is not without pitfalls. Here, theoretical explorations challenge conventional ways of knowing by offering new insights into how cultural narratives of aging can be interpreted and shaped through the lens of the arts and humanities from a theoretical standpoint. Ultimately, the symposium suggests that fortitude, that is, courage in the face of adversity, resonates both as we travel through life facing our own challenges, and as the field of gerontology seeks to understand diverse human experiences of aging.
AESTHETIC PATHWAYS IN GEROTRANSCENDENCE
Authors: McKiddy Sarah 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
This presentation aims to enrich and expand the discourse on aging by exploring overaps and areas for exploration within Tornstam’s theory of gerotranscendence and the tenets of Rowe & Kahn’s successful aging model, with a focus on aesthetics as a mechanism for exploring and expressing the aging process. Gerotranscendence involves a shift in cognitive and emotional paradigms, marked by a reevaluation of purpose, interconnectedness, and self-awareness. Gerotranscendence augments the potential for well-being and health promotion by cultivating increased and meaningful engagement with the world and an evolution in perceptions and consciousness as individuals age. Encompassing diverse artistic expressions such as visual arts, music, and creative activities, aesthetics provide an individualized medium for introversion and self-expression. This multipronged approach to aging considers how individuals navigate senescence and nurture a connection with their inner selves alongside chronic conditions, diseases, limitations, or age-related changes. Engaging in aesthetic experiences offers depth and cognitive consonance in addressing feelings of loss, nostalgia, or existential questions related to aging. Aesthetics, then, emerge as a compelling conduit to convey the transitions and shifts described in the process of gerotranscendence. Integrating gerotranscendence and aesthetics within the context of traditional aging notions both illuminates and deepens the understanding of successful aging by accentuating the psychological, emotional, and creative dimensions, promoting a more holistic and arguably more incisive perspective on aging.
CONCEPTUALIZING A NEURO-ETHNOMUSICOLOGY OF AGING
Authors: Colverson Aaron 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
This presentation accounts for disciplinary similarities and differences between ethnomusicology and neuropsychology in the context of a project on rhythm perception, learning and performance, and cognitive functioning in healthy young and older adults. It draws from Judith Becker’s Deep Listeners (2004) and “Ethnomusicology and Empiricism in the 21st-century” (2009) to characterize many of the challenges present in building bridges between humanists and scientists studying music. Becker cites Ann Harrington in this regard, regarding what it might mean to teach an attitude of thinking neurobiologically about culture and ethnomusicologically about the brain. Applied to brain and social health in older adults, two notable scholars’ work extends from Becker’s and Harrington’s within the domain of ethnomusicology: Jennie Gubner and Theresa Allison. Building from these prior influences, my work forged a collaboration between neuropsychologists interested in the cognitive and brain health of older adults, with ethnomusicologists interested in contributing to new directions for the field, such as cognitive and medical ethnomusicologies. Through this collaboration, important questions were raised in the execution and evaluation phases of the project, namely: what counts as knowledge; what counts as evidence; how do we gather information; and how do we draw conclusions? By entering these conceptual domains/discussions between these disciplines, this work exemplifies a bridge toward a neuro-ethnomusicology of aging, prolonging the pioneering works of Becker, Harrington, Gubner, and Allison. The conclusions direct attention to more fluidly include both disciplines’ traditions in research design, to promote more collaborative work between humanists and scientists studying music and health.
UNION-DRIVEN PROGRESS IN WASHINGTON STATE: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE
Authors: Scales Kezia , Glickman Adam , Morante Mariana 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Recruitment and retention challenges related to direct care workers across long-term services and supports continue. Policy and practice at the federal, state, community and organizational level has the potential to improve retention, widen recruitment pipelines and create new person-centered models that attend to both the needs of workers and people who receive services and their care partners. With input from SEIU 775 leadership, this presentation will provide an overview of union reach in Washington state within the LTSS sectors, review some of the interplay between city-based living wage laws and wage improvements for direct care workers, and talk about successes in improving access and affordability of health insurance for workers and increased access to paid-time off. Panelists will ask questions related to agenda setting and co-design of solutions related to both research and policy. Policy and practice levers at the federal, state and community levels will be identified and discussed using a co-design framework.
ASSESSING MINDFULNESS FACETS TO INTERROGATE THE “WELL-BEING PARADOX” IN NIGERIA
Authors: Amanambu Peace , Allard Eric 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
The role of mindfulness for explaining the well-being paradox in aging has been examined within Western samples. However, whether this association exists cross-culturally has not been previously addressed. Furthermore, investigations on the role of mindfulness facets on the associations between age and well-being is limited. The present study assessed whether distinct mindfulness facets (i.e., observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judgment, and non-reactivity) mediate the relationship between age and positive and negative affect in an adult lifespan sample in Nigeria. Participants were 242 (95 women, age range = 18-75 years, Mage = 41.79; SDage = 13.58) adults, affiliated with the University of Nigeria-Nsukka, who completed the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Increased age was associated with diminished negative affect (NA) but unrelated to positive affect (PA). In terms of mindfulness facets, older age was significantly related to increased endorsement of the Describing, Acting with Awareness, and Non-Reactivity facets. Separate mediation models were conducted with these three facets in predicting NA. Here, diminished age-related NA was mediated by the Describing facet. No significant mediating relationships were observed for Acting with Awareness and Non-Reactivity. The present findings suggest some cross-cultural coherence in mindfulness as an arbiter of the well-being paradox in aging, further specifying aspects of the mindfulness construct contributing to this relationship.
ADVANCING THE SCIENCE OF SENSORY HEALTH AND COGNITION: FROM EPIDEMIOLOGY TO INTERVENTION
Authors: Nieman Carrie , Deal Jennifer 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Sensory health and cognition are at the intersection of two major public health challenges facing an aging global population. Sensory impairments are among the most common and disabling comorbidities among individuals at risk for cognitive impairment and those already aging with cognitive impairment. Sensory impairments may also serve as key biomarkers in dementia and may worsen the trajectory of decline. Although prevalent, sensory impairments frequently go unrecognized and unaddressed. Importantly, sensory impairment has been identified as modifiable risk factors for dementia. Optimizing sensory function may be an important yet overlooked approach to reducing the risk of cognitive decline as well as providing potential nonpharmacological interventions to aid in the management of neuropsychiatric symptoms, improve quality of life for persons living with dementia, and reduce burden for care partners. This symposium presents the latest evidence from epidemiology to intervention in advancing our understanding and approach to sensory health and cognition. The symposium begins with a focus on the epidemiology of sensory function among individuals with or at risk for cognitive impairment and then moves to a focus on intervention, understanding the potential impacts of optimizing sensory function on brain structure, barriers to addressing sensory function in clinical settings, and envisioning how to optimize interventions by learning directly from individuals aging with cognitive impairment, their care partners, and experts. This symposium features leaders in the field of sensory health and cognition from diverse career stages, disciplines, and settings.
HEARING AND OLFACTORY LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH ALTERED BRAIN STRUCTURE AND CONNECTIVITY IN DEMENTIA RISK
Authors: Phillips Natalie , Best Tristin , Grant Nicole , Kabir Ameera , Pichora-Fuller M Kathleen , Campos Jennifer , Mick Paul , Wittich Walter 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Sensory loss in hearing, vision, and olfaction is highly prevalent in older adults and each is associated with higher risk of developing dementia. We sought to identify whether these sensory factors are associated with alterations in brain function and structure in older adults with or at risk for dementia. Our groups included those with low risk (normal cognition, no cognitive complaints (NC=128; mean age=69 years; mean education=16 years)), and those with higher risk, namely 135 individuals with subjective reports of cognitive decline (SCD) but normal cognition (age=70; education=17), and 241 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI; age=72; education=16), and 93 with Alzheimer’s disease (AD, age=75; education=15). We used data from the COMPASS-ND study (Release 7). Hearing loss was assessed with pure-tone screening, vision with contrast sensitivity, and olfaction with the Brief Smell Identification Test. Normal sensory performance was observed in a minority of participants and decreased across the dementia risk spectrum groups (e.g., NC: 29%; SCD: 29%; MCI: 11%; AD: 2%). Olfactory deficits were the most frequent, followed by hearing impairment, and then deficits in visual contrast sensitivity. Deficits in multiple sensory domains were highly prevalent, with 37% of participants with AD having deficits in two or more domains. Preliminary analyses indicate that hearing loss is associated with altered connectivity in the default mode network and olfactory loss is associated with reduced hippocampal volumes in SCD. Thus, sensory loss is highly prevalent and co-morbid in persons with or at risk for dementia and has implications for cognition and brain function.