Covariates

Covariates included demographic variables, depressive symptomology, and global mental status. Demographic variables included age, sex, and education. Age was measured as a continuous variable. Sex was coded as a binary variable with 1 indicating female participants and 0 indicating male participants. Education was measured by self-report of the number of years of education attained. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale (Andresen, Malmgren, Carter, & Patrick, 1994; Teresi et al., 2002). The CES-D is commonly used in detecting depressive symptoms in older adults across diverse populations (Foley et al., 1995). Higher values on the total CES-D suggest greater depressive symptomology. Stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), a widely used scale of an individual’s appraisal of stressful events (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). Higher scores on the total PSS score suggested higher levels of perceived stress. The Locus of Control (LC) 12-item scale was used to measure the amount of an individual’s perceived control over life events (Rotter, 1966). Low scores reflected an individual’s perception that events are attributed to their personal control (internalized locus of control). In contrast, high scores suggested that individuals are more likely to attribute events to external circumstances (externalized locus of control). Global mental status was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975b). The MMSE is a commonly utilized measure of functioning across several cognitive abilities (i.e., memory, orientation, attention, calculation, language, and visuospatial skills), with higher scores suggesting better cognitive status.