Date of Award

8-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School

College for Community Health

Department/Program

Family Science and Human Development

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Ashley Ermer

Committee Member

Constance T Gager

Committee Member

Sara Martucci

Abstract

This research focuses on thwarted belonging (TB), its associations with the neighborhood contextual factors of social cohesion and physical disorder in older adults, and the moderating role of neuroticism. TB is a key component of the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS) that has serious implications for health and well-being (Van Orden et al., 2012). Despite these implications, TB is less frequently investigated outside of the suicide literature. Thus, the first aim of this research was to create a valid measure of TB in a sample of 5,001 older adults using data from the Health and Retirement Study using a confirmatory factor analysis. I found that a seven-factor model of TB fit the data best. The second aim was to investigate the association between neighborhood contextual factors and TB using structural equation modeling (SEM). Social cohesion had a negative association with TB and a positive association with neighborhood physical disorder. The third aim was to investigate the moderating role of neuroticism on these associations using SEM. I found that the positive association between neighborhood social cohesion and TB was strengthened by higher levels of neuroticism compared to lower levels of neuroticism, supporting moderation. However, the positive association between neighborhood physical disorder and TB did not differ based on levels of neuroticism. Findings support the notion that neighborhood contextual factors are important in mitigating older adults’ feelings of thwarted belonging and that personal characteristics such as personality traits also play a role.

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