Blacks at Middle and Late Life: Resources and Coping

An analysis of national data collected in 1957 and 1976 reveals that older black Americans' use of their informal support networks and prayer in times of distress is distinct from that of older white Americans. Black-white disparities in income, education, and widowhood were large and appeared to widen from middle to late life. Blacks, in coping with distress, drew from a more varied pool of informal helpers than whites, both in middle and late life, and were more versatile in substituting these helpers one for another as they approached old age. Whites, in contrast, were more likely to limit help seeking to spouses in middle life and to replace spouses with a single family member as they approached old age. Blacks were much more likely than whites to respond to worries with prayer, but prayer, as a coping reaction among blacks, declined between 1957 and 1976. The role of the special help-seeking model of older blacks in their adaptation to old age is discussed.