Public Health

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Sociology

Background:

• Historical discrimination and persecution in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) create intergenerational adversity.
• Long-term effects of these experiences on older adults' cognitive function, specifically memory, are under-researched.
• Adversity can impact socioeconomic status (SES) and health outcomes across generations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between an intergenerational index of discrimination, persecution, and dispossession and memory performance in older adults from CEE countries.
• To explore how parental and personal experiences of historical adversity influence cognitive function in later life.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 21,989 respondents (mean age 67.1) in wave 7 of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) across 11 CEE countries.
• Developed a categorical index for intergenerational exposure to discrimination (none, parental only, personal only, both).
• Employed linear regression models, adjusting for demographic factors, early life conditions, and educational attainment to assess memory performance (z-score of immediate and delayed recall).

Main Results:

• 36.7% of respondents reported some experience of discrimination or persecution (parental, personal, or both).
• Parental exposure to discrimination/persecution was associated with lower memory scores (-0.03).
• After adjusting for early life factors, only the negative association between parental persecution and memory persisted (β=-0.04).

Conclusions:

• Parental exposure to discrimination and persecution is linked to diminished memory performance in older adults.
• These findings suggest that historical adversity can exert a transgenerational negative influence on cognitive function.
• Intergenerational transmission of adversity may represent a significant factor in cognitive aging.