A person’s physical and psychological resilience is often thought to underlie their response to acute and chronic stressors. All of the National Institute on Aging extramural research programs have funding opportunities for studying resilience. One area that transcends all of these announcements is the importance of considering resilience in the context of disparities. This webinar focused on the importance of taking disparities into account when studying resilience. The session featured presentations from researchers studying resilience across populations and interventions to promote resilience.

The webinar speakers discussed the following:

• NIA’s disparities framework and its application to the study of resilience
• Evaluating resilience measurements in a way that allows for better understanding of resilience in the context of health disparities
• Setting expectations for responsible use of resilience measures and data for the health of diverse populations
• Religion and spiritual coping as a source of resiliency

The presentations were followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Slides from Dr. Ejem's presentation are available here.

Slides from the presentation by Drs. Taylor and Carr are available here. References from the presentation by Drs. Taylor and Carr are available here.

Speakers:

Patricia Jones, DrPH, MPH, MS, MBA
Director, Office of Special Populations
National Institute on Aging

Dawn Carr, PhD
Director, Claude Pepper Center
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Faculty Associate, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy
Co-Director, Aging Research on Contexts, Health and Inequalities
Florida State University

Miles Taylor, PhD
Professor, Department of Sociology
Director, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy
Co-Director, Aging Research on Contexts, Health and Inequalities
Florida State University

Deborah Ejem, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Moderator:

Jay Magaziner, PhD, MSHyg
Member, RCCN Executive Committee
Director, Center for Research on Aging, University of Maryland
Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Maryland School of Medicine