Dr. Qian Song Researches How the Living Arrangements of Asian American and Latin American Adults May Affect Their Cognition

How do living arrangements affect the cognitive health of Asian American and Latin American older adults? Is there a relationship between the cognitive aging of older adults and whether they live alone or with others?

These questions are at the heart of the research pursued by Qian Song, PhD, an assistant professor and the undergraduate program director of the Gerontology Department at University Massachusetts Boston. She’s focusing this research on two groups that are among the fastest-growing populations in the United States: older Asian American and Latin American adults. Both populations are more likely to have strong family connections, as well as barriers to non-familial support, than other older adults in the U.S.

“Professor Song’s research on the link between living arrangements and cognitive function among Asian and Latin American older adults is timely and highly innovative,” says Jeffrey A. Burr, PhD, professor of gerontology at UMass Boston and Song’s faculty mentor for this project. “Comparing these groups is essential from a public health perspective. Healthy aging has become an increasingly relevant research topic, especially in times of uncertainty regarding federal support for independent investigations of the well-being of minority groups. I expect Professor Song’s research to have a significant impact on our field for years to come.”

Currently, not much literature exists that compares these two groups in this regard; Song’s study will fill this gap. She’ll study a diverse group of older Asian and Hispanic Americans and compare their cognitive function, using standardized scores from the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, as well as their living arrangements: living alone, living with a spouse, living with adult children, living with a spouse and adult children, and living with others. Song’s hypothesis is that older adults who live with others may be more protected cognitively than those who live alone. Yet, she believes, living in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods may mitigate the negative effects of living alone.

“A lot of Asian older adults may have an expectation that their adult children will care for them and also live with them,” Song says. “Many cultures may have this preference, but Asian culture places a higher emphasis on looking to adult children for support. If adult children fail to meet these expectations, these older adults may be more likely to feel depressed or deal with other compromised health outcomes as well.”

Song’s previous research has focused on immigration and the living arrangements of Chinese older adults in rural China. This is the first time she’s examined Asian American older adults in a similar study.

“I hope this improves our understanding of how family plays a role in the cognitive aging process of older adults,” Song says. “I hope these findings may help extended families as they discuss and negotiate the prospects of where to live, where to work, and how their older parents’ health may enter into these equations.”