PERCEIVED TYPES, CAUSES, AND CONSEQUENCES OF FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION: NARRATIVES FROM OLDER ADULTS

Abstract We investigate the perception of financial exploitation and its causes and consequences by older adults who have firsthand experience of being exploited. Thirty-one cognitively healthy older adult participants aged 50 or older were drawn from the Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elders Study. In-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using an iterative, data-driven, thematic coding scheme and emergent themes were summarized. Categories of financial exploitation included (a) investment fraud, (b) wage theft/money owed, (c) consumer fraud, (d) imposter schemes, and (e) manipulation by a trusted person. Themes emerged around perceived causes: (a) element of trust, (b) promise of financial security, (c) lack of experience or awareness, (d) decision-making, and (e) interpersonal dynamics. Perceived consequences included negative and positive impacts around (a) finances, (b) financial/consumer berhaviors, (c) relationships and trust, (d) emotional impact, and (e) future outlook. These narratives provide important insights into perceived financial exploitation and experiences.

interventions for these families are scarce. To address this gap, we conducted a randomized clinical trial (RCT) with 349 nationally recruited CGMs which compared an online social intelligence training intervention (SIT; n=185) to an attention-control (AC; n=164) condition. The SIT focused on enhancing CGMs' capacity to develop and sustain positive social ties; an important goal since working models of attachment and caregiving are challenged and re-shaped by the off-time and demanding nature of parenting a GC. To investigate initial impact of SIT, we conducted multidomain latent difference score models (Mplus 8) on a full intent-to-treat basis comparing the two RCT conditions on changes across key outcomes from baseline to immediate post-intervention. In comparison to AC, SIT yielded statistically significant improvement in CGMs' depressed affect, self-esteem, relationship quality with the GC, and attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety with GC. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found between the two conditions on outcomes indicative of social competence (e.g., perspective taking, social awareness, social information processing, social self-monitoring). We conclude that CGMs may have applied information obtained from the SIT primarily to their relationship with GC. Our findings point to the potential benefits of the self-guided SIT, given that it can be delivered online and therefore has widespread reach to a vulnerable population. [Funded by R01AG054571]

JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY SOCIAL SCIENCES: FEATURED 2021 EDITOR'S CHOICE ARTICLES Chair: Jessica Kelley
Social science inquiry on age, aging, and the life course spans many topics and methodologies. This symposium highlights papers that were selected as Editor's Choice articles in the Journal of Gerontology Social Sciences in 2021. These papers highlight methodological innovations, important advancements in our state of knowledge in an area, or emerging issues in the study of aging and older adults. Nguyen et al. discuss a qualitative study of the causes and consequences of financial exploitation of older adults. Newmyer et al. present a 31-country comparative study of measures of loneliness with their reliability and validity. Rurka et al. present a mixed-methods study of sibling dynamics and tensions when caring for an older parent. Dennison and Lee provide a novel method for studying intergenerational selection effects of education and older adult health. Lin and Brown demonstrate gender differences in the economic consequences of later-life divorce and potential impact of repartnering versus staying single.

PERCEIVED TYPES, CAUSES, AND CONSEQUENCES OF FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION: NARRATIVES FROM OLDER ADULTS Annie Nguyen, and Duke Han, University of Southern California, Alhambra, California, United States
We investigate the perception of financial exploitation and its causes and consequences by older adults who have firsthand experience of being exploited. Thirty-one cognitively healthy older adult participants aged 50 or older were drawn from the Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elders Study. In-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using an iterative, datadriven, thematic coding scheme and emergent themes were summarized. Categories of financial exploitation included (a) investment fraud, (b) wage theft/money owed, (c) consumer fraud, (d) imposter schemes, and (e) manipulation by a trusted person. Themes emerged around perceived causes: (a) element of trust, (b) promise of financial security, (c) lack of experience or awareness, (d) decision-making, and (e) interpersonal dynamics. Perceived consequences included negative and positive impacts around (a) finances, (b) financial/ consumer berhaviors, (c) relationships and trust, (d) emotional impact, and (e) future outlook. These narratives provide important insights into perceived financial exploitation and experiences. We draw from theories of identity and stress to examine the impact that siblings have on caregivers' psychological well-being. Using data collected from 404 caregivers nested in 231 families as part of the Within-Family Differences Study, we conduct mediation analyses to examine whether perceived sibling criticisms are associated with caregivers' depressive symptoms (a) directly and/or (b) indirectly through sibling tension. Qualitative data from the same caregivers give insight into the processes underlying statistical associations. We found an indirect relationship whereby perceived sibling criticisms were associated with greater sibling tension, which in turn was associated with higher depressive symptoms. Qualitative interviews show that efforts to mitigate the negative impact of sibling criticisms can lead to caregiver strategies that fuel sibling tension. These findings demonstrate how identity processes, as well as the family networks in which caregiving takes place, shape the experiences and consequences of parent care.

ADULT CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND PARENT HEALTH IN MID-AND LATER LIFE Christopher Dennison, and Kristen Schultz Lee, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, New York, United States
While intergenerational models of adult health contend that children's educational attainments influence the health of their parents, background characteristics that predict both can confound the results. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health Parent Study are used to examine how having no children who completed college influences parents' self-rated health and depressive symptoms. We use propensity scores to assess this relationship net of potential confounders and test for heterogeneity in the consequences associated with having no children who completed college. Having no children who completed college is negatively associated with parents' self-rated health and positively associated with depressive symptoms. Among parents with the highest propensity for having no children who complete college, the consequences on depressive symptoms are greatest. These findings are important given the call for investments in children's educational opportunities as a vehicle for promoting health among adults and their older parents. I-Fen Lin, and Susan Brown, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, United States Surprisingly little is known about the consequences of gray divorce (after age 50) and how women and men fare economically during the aftermath. Using longitudinal data from the 2004-2014 Health and Retirement Study, we estimated hybrid fixed/random effects models comparing women's and men's economic well-being prior to, during, and following gray divorce and subsequent repartnering. Women experienced a 45% decline in their standard of living, whereas men's dropped by just 21%. These declines persisted over time for men, and only reversed for women following repartnering, which essentially offset women's losses associated with gray divorce. Both men and women experienced roughly a 50% drop in wealth. Although repartnering seems to reverse most of the economic costs of gray divorce for women, few form new co-residential unions after divorce. This study offers insight about the financial aftermath of gray divorce, which is likely to contribute to growing economic disadvantage among older adults. The topic of older adult loneliness commands increasing media and policy attention around the world. Are surveys of aging equipped to measure it? We assess the measurement of loneliness in large-scale aging studies in 31 countries. In each country, we document available loneliness measures, examine correlations between different measures, and assess how these correlations differ by gender and age group. There is substantial heterogeneity in available measures of loneliness across countries. Within countries with multiple measures, the correlations between measures are high (range .38-.78). Differences by age and gender group are relatively small. Correlations between loneliness measures and living alone and being without a spouse are positive and similar in magnitude across countries, supporting construct validity. We establish that even single-item measures of loneliness contribute meaningful information in diverse contexts, with reliable and consistent measurement properties within many countries.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL CONSTRUCTS OF SLEEP IN OLDER ADULTS
Chair: Christopher Kaufmann Discussant: Katie Stone Innovation in Aging, 2022, Vol. 6, No. S1