Resilience in aging: characterizing social and emotional pandemic stress with age in a multi‐ethnic sample of middle‐aged and older adults

Background COVID‐19 pandemic stress differentially affects older adults and persons from minoritized, underrepresented populations (URPs; e.g., Black, Latinx), yet potential protective factors are not well understood. This study aimed to evaluate whether pandemic‐related social and emotional stressors negatively affect functional capacity, mental health, and cognitive outcomes in an ethnoculturally diverse sample of middle‐aged and older adults. Method Cross‐sectional data were obtained from adults (55± years) participating in SALUD, an ongoing study examining risk and resilience factors for dementia in diverse populations. Participants completed a well‐validated, comprehensive battery of questionnaires and cognitive assessments. Aggregate scores of social and emotional pandemic stressors (e.g., more anxiety, loneliness) from Item 3 of the Pandemic Stress Index (PSI‐3) were examined in association with demographics, Patients Assessment of Own Functioning Inventory (PAOFI; self‐reported functional status measure), and Patient Health Questionnaire‐2 (PHQ‐2; self‐report depressive symptomatology measure). Demographically‐adjusted norms were used to compute Global Neurocognition (NC) and eight domain‐specific NC average T‐scores (e.g., learning, memory). Spearman’s correlations, Kruskal‐Wallis, Mann‐Whitney U‐tests were used for non‐normal variables. Result The sample included 110 adults (37.3% Non‐Latinx Black [NLB], 33.6% Latinx, and 29.1%, non‐Latinx White [NLW]; 63% female; M age = 65.27 [SD = 7.11]; M ed = 13.89 [SD = 3.07]). Age was negatively correlated with the PSI‐3 (rs = ‐.25, p