Date of Award

January 2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

Becca Levy

Second Advisor

Yusuf Ransome

Abstract

Age discrimination is known to harm older adults’ mental health, yet factors that may protect against this harm have received little attention. Prior studies have focused primarily on individual-level factors rather than community-level characteristics, such as neighborhood cohesion, which may be more amenable to large-scale interventions and policies. To our knowledge, no prior study has examined whether neighborhood cohesion buffers the association between age discrimination and worse psychological well-being in older adults. Participants aged 60 years and older were drawn from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. We hypothesized that baseline age discrimination would predict worse psychological well-being 18 years later and neighborhood cohesion would moderate this association, such that individuals who experienced age discrimination would report better psychological well-being when they lived in more cohesive neighborhoods than their same-aged peers who experienced age discrimination but lived in less cohesive neighborhoods. Results supported both hypotheses. Those who did not experience age discrimination had the best psychological well-being, but among those that experienced age discrimination, neighborhood cohesion appeared to reduce its harm. These findings suggest that later-life psychological well-being is shaped by both age discrimination and the surrounding social environment.

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This is an Open Access Thesis.

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