Wellness and Mental Health Among Older Adults and Veteran Older Adults

Abstract

In the past few decades, the older adult population in the U.S. has increased in both size and age (AoA, 2024). Additionally, nearly half of all veterans have entered older adulthood (VA, 2024). A sizable segment of these populations experiences mental health challenges (Moradi et al., 2021; Wolitzky‐Taylor et al., 2010), and experience markedly high rates of suicide (CDC, 2024b), making further research on older adults' and veteran older adults' mental health an imperative. Comparatively, the counseling profession has had limited access to older adults and veteran older adults, and these populations are rarely a focus among counseling and wellness research (Field, 2017; Fullen and Westcott, 2024; Prosek and Wehrman, 2018). This study sought to examine the relationships between mental health symptoms, components of emotional/psychological and social/relational wellness, and dimension-level measures among the older adult and veteran older adult populations using two multivariate regression models. The presence of between-group differences was also assessed using a series of MANOVAs and other key demographic variables. The findings revealed statistically significant differences existed among older adults based on veteran status (F(14, 2859) = 5.701, Wilk's Λ = .973, p < .001), but this difference was not observed when other demographic variables were accounted for in the model. The multivariate regression model revealed several wellness components and mental health symptoms were significant predictors to dimension-level measures among older adults at large. Among significant predictors (p < .05), self-esteem had a relatively large effect on positive (β = .316) and negative experiences of emotional wellness (β = -.129), psychological wellness (β = .396), and social/relational wellness (β = .210). Anxiety (β = .374) and depressive (β = .263) symptoms had relatively large effects on negative experiences of emotional wellness. The veteran older adult model revealed similar results, however, differences among the models remain observable both in their number of significant predictors and relative influence. Hope was not found to be a significant predictor for any of the dimension-level measures of wellness. Self-esteem remained a significant predictor of positive experiences of emotional wellness (β = .349), psychological wellness (β = .445), and social/relational wellness (β = .215) for veteran older adults with a relatively large effect. Sense of control (perceived constraints) appeared to have a relatively large impact on experiences of negative emotional wellness (β = .266) for veteran older adults in addition to anxiety (β = .359) and depressive (β = .271) symptoms.