Dawn Carr, Ph.D., is the director of the Claude Pepper Center and Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. Dr. Carr was the lead author of a recently published article titled “The Protective Effects of Psychological Resilience on Fall Risk.” The study was a collaborative effort with Shekhar Chauhan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow; Miles G. Taylor, Ph.D., director of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy and professor of sociology; Matthew Lohman, Ph.D., of the University of South Carolina; and Amanda Sonnega, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan. In this research news spotlight, Dr. Carr discusses their findings and her recommendations for future research. This summary was co-authored by FSU students Shannon Ray (M.S. Media and Communication Studies ‘26) and Ariel Li (B.S. Media and Communication Studies; B.S. Sociology).
Director of the Claude Pepper Center, faculty associate with the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, and professor of sociology at Florida State University, Dawn Carr, Ph.D., is the lead author of “The protective effects of psychological resilience on fall risk.” The study, published in Aging & Mental Health, highlights the importance of psychological resilience (PR) in older adults and how it helps them stay vigilant against repeating physical injuries.
“Our research highlights the importance of psychological resilience as a protective factor for older adults,” Dr. Carr said. “By showing that PR helps reduce the risk of repeat falls, our findings suggest that PR may be an important risk factor that should be considered in fall-prevention programs. Strategies to support both physical and psychological health may help older adults stay safer and more independent.”
Aging & Mental Health is an international peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the biological, psychological, and social effects of aging on mental health. By publishing their work in this journal, this study team joins a leading international forum that investigates the relationship between the aging process and mental health, with topics including, but not limited to, therapy, aging, psychology, pathological aging, and psychiatric problems.
“The protective effects of psychological resilience on fall risk” investigated the relationship between psychological resilience (PR) and fall risk in older adults. The authors define PR as “an individual’s internalized capacity to navigate stressors through adaptation in a manner that protects health and well-being” and consider it essential to the psychological and physical health of older adults. Data from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study (HRS) was utilized to focus on a nationally representative sample of adults aged 70 and above.
The authors used a measure developed and validated by members of the study team over the past decade for use in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which enabled the evaluation of PR in a representative U.S. population. Utilizing a longitudinal study design, they followed the same group of older adults over time to observe how resilience and fall occurrences evolved with aging.
Findings indicate that although PR does not reduce the likelihood of an initial fall, it is associated with fewer recurrent falls, indicating that resilient individuals may engage in adaptive coping strategies after experiencing a fall. However, repeated falls and significant injuries were found to erode PR over time, undermining an individual’s confidence in recovery. The authors conclude that while psychological resilience provides support for coping with setbacks, its protective measures may weaken under persistent challenges.
“We found that people who experience major injuries or more falls experience an erosion of PR over time, suggesting that falls may be particularly detrimental to our beliefs in our ability to handle hard things and recover,” Dr. Carr said. “That is, resilience may help us get back up again after we fall down once, but if we keep falling down, we stop feeling as confident that we can get ourselves back up again.”
Dr. Carr emphasizes the need for future research to explore why PR reduces the likelihood of repeat falls and how it may influence the success of fall-prevention programs. She hypothesizes that individuals with higher levels of PR may be more likely to adhere to fall-reduction interventions and maintain health-promoting behaviors as they age. This hypothesis is grounded in her previous research, which demonstrates that PR is a strong predictor of a wide range of health outcomes as individuals age. Dr. Carr also notes that PR tends to be a relatively stable trait by mid to late adulthood, underscoring the importance of identifying strategies to facilitate the development of PR in young individuals to have a healthier older adult population in the future.
Click on the following links to learn more about Dr. Carr, the Claude Pepper Center at FSU, or the Sociology Department at FSU.
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