Social and personal coping resources, functional impairment, and perceived health status among Mexican-origin elders

This study explores the contributions of social and personal coping resources to self-reported health among Mexican-origin elders. While these resources have been studied previously in the general population, less is known about how they operate in Mexican-origin Americans. The authors used data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiological Study for the Elderly (H-EPESE), a longitudinal survey of 3,050 Mexican Americans to examine the effects of social and personal coping resources on self-reported health two years later. The results of the ordered logistic regression analysis indicated that personal coping resources were a significant predictor of better self-reported health. Social coping resources approached significance. Neither of these resources, however, mediated or moderated the considerable relationship between functional impairments and perceived, self-reported health. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.