Psychological resilience and mental health among older Tekun men in long-term care facilities in rural China

ABSTRACT

This study examines age differences in the association of psychological resilience with mental health among older Tekun (socially and economically vulnerable) men. It analyzed the 2019 data from 718 Tekun men (≥60 years) residing in rural long-term care (LTC) facilities in Anhui Province, China. Results indicated that the oldest-old (≥80 years) reported significantly lower levels of psychological resilience than the other age groups (the young-old: 60–69 years and the middle-old: 70–79 years). Hierarchical logistic regression analyses revealed a significant negative association between psychological resilience and poor mental health among the middle-old (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.93–0.98) and the oldest-old (OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.88–0.98) groups. Psychological resilience plays a more crucial role in maintaining mental health among the oldest-old participants compared to the young-old and middle-old participants. Implications for social work practice were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Long-term care
• mental health
• psychological resilience
• older Chinese
• poverty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for this research, authorship, and publication.