Yan Zhang

East Carolina University | ECU · Department of Sociology

While parity is a significant factor influencing parental health, its relationship with dementia remains underexplored. This research note advances the literature by conducting a well-powered analysis of associations between parity (i.e., number of children) and Alzheimer's disease and dementias (AD/D) status in large-scale population data. The dat...

Objectives Guided by a life course perspective and fundamental cause theory, this study aims to visualize co-trajectories of health between partners and examine how changes in one spouse’s cognitive status can cohesively impact the health of the other spouse along three dimensions (functional, mental, and cognitive). Methods Drawing longitudinal d...

Traditional life course studies often focus on how one predictor influences one health outcome that may not be able to capture the interdependence of two or more health trajectories very well. Objectives: (1) demonstrate an innovative method to create a 3-dimensional health profile cube that presents physical, mental, and cognitive health and the c...

While much previous work linking fertility history with late-life cognition has focused on a narrow set of cognitive measures and/or has used modest sample sizes in the analysis, our paper expands the size and scope of these linkages by analyzing cognitive function across five domains and precisely estimating gendered patterns between men and women...

This study uses a large-scale dataset of half a million respondents aged 39–73 from the UK Biobank to examine how parity (i.e., number of children) may influence parents’ risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia (AD/D). We use respondents’ (i.e., children’s) reports of their parents’ dementia status as the outcome variable. 38,040 respondents in th...

Objectives Guided by Finkelhor and Browne’s traumagenic dynamics model, the current study examines: 1) the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on older adults’ sexual and marital satisfaction, 2) the mediating role of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization in the association betwee...

Background and Objectives Guided by the life course perspective and traumagenic dynamics theory, the current study examines: 1) the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on older adults’ sexual and marital outcomes, 2) the mediating role of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization in t...

Objectives I work from a gendered life course perspective to examine the association between older parents’ fertility history (i.e., timing and parity) and their risk of cognitive impairment in the United States. Method I analyze nationally representative data from 9 waves over 16 years of the Health and Retirement Study (2000–2016). The sample in...

Objectives This study examines the association between age at marital loss (i.e., divorce or widowhood) and cognitive function in later life and whether the association differs by gender. Methods We used mixed-effects models, drawing on longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2016). The analytical samples included older adults...

Parental status can influence parents’ well-being in significant ways, but little research has examined its impact on older adults’ cognitive health in the U.S. Using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) 2011–2019, this study examines whether parental status is related to the risk of cognitive impairment among older adults i...

We provide one of the first national longitudinal studies of the association between trajectories of marital quality and cognitive functioning among older adults, with close attention paid to gender differences. Data were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2006–2016. Marital quality trajectories were assessed at three waves: 2006/2008...

Gender ideologies encompass normative beliefs about how men and women should behave in certain contexts. Although many studies have examined factors predicting individuals’ gender ideologies, little research has focused on the implications of gender ideology on individuals’ subjective well-being, especially in Asian contexts. Using the pooled cross...

We examine the relationship between social integration and cognitive impairment and dementia among older adults using longitudinal data from Waves 1-8 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). The sample includes 7,492 respondents age 65 and older at baseline. We test multidimensional measures of social integration and cognitive well-b...

Objectives We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive disparities among same-sex and different-sex couples in the United States. Method We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016). The sample included 23,669 respondents (196 same-sex partners and 23,473 different-sex partners) aged 50 a...

Purpose: We provide population-based longitudinal evidence of marital status differences in the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in the United States. Methods: Data were from the longitudinal National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2011-2018. The sample included 7508 respondents aged 65 years and older who contributed 25,897 person-year...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how sexual orientation in adolescence and young adulthood was linked to diabetes risk. Methods: Data were drawn from the 1994-2008 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The baseline sample included 4330 girls and 3510 boys ages 12-18. Guided by the life course approach, we cons...

Objectives: We worked from a life course perspective to examine the relationship between partnered sex and older adults' trajectories of mental health as well as the potential mediating role of relationship quality in this association. Method: We analyzed nationally representative data from three waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Ag...