Financial and Health Resources, good protectors from but bad predictors of resilience

Poster to be presented at the  Longitudinal Studies: Maximising their Value for Ageing Research conference, 21-23 July 2015 Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK.

This paper uses an index of financial and health-related resources for people initially aged 50-64 to predict resilience to widowhood, onset or worsening of disability, or becoming retired during the period under study.

We conceptualise resilience as a) undergoing a negative event and b) bouncing back to the previous level  (or better) in terms of functioning. The index we propose is a latent variable arising from a combination of financial and health-related resources.

Our hypothesis is that this index is associated with a successful response to adversity. 

We found that the index of financial and health resources reduced the probability of adverse or stressful life events occurring during the time period. However, financial and health resources were not associated with bouncing back or flourishing following the adverse or stressful life event.

Financial and health resources would be good protectors against the occurrence of adverse effects of negative or stressful life events but bad predictors of functional adaptation to adversity (or resilience) in middle later life.

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