Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Mobility Limitations Among Community-dwelling Older Americans: The Mediating Roles of Depressive Symptoms and Mastery

Abstract

Neighborhood environment plays an important role in late-life health; yet, the social aspect of neighborhood environment and its impact on mobility limitations have rarely been examined. This nonexperimental, cross-sectional study examines the relationship between neighborhood social cohesion and mobility limitations and the potential mediators (i.e., depressive symptoms, mastery) of this relationship. A total of 8,317 Americans aged 65 years and older were selected from the Health and Retirement Study. Using ordinary least squares regressions, this study shows that neighborhood social cohesion was negatively associated with mobility limitations (B = -0.04, p < .01). A Sobel test of mediation indicated that this relationship was significantly mediated by depressive symptoms (z = -9.10, p < .001) and mastery (z = -8.86, p < .001). Findings suggest that neighborhood cohesion can reduce mobility limitations through mitigating depressive symptoms and increasing mastery. Future research should disentangle the temporal ordering of the mediators.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; mastery; mobility limitations; neighborhood social cohesion; social capital.