AGE AND THE SENSE OF CONTROL AMONG OLDER ADULTS

Older adults ore expected and frequently found to report less control than younger adults. In this study, we decompose this negative relatio nship between age and sense of control using nested multivariable line ar regression models that serially introduce sociodemographic characte ristics, socioeconomic factors, health status, and subjective religios ity and religious beliefs in a sample of 1,051 older adults attending the general medicine clinics of a major medical center. The results in dicate that the effect of age is suppressed in the bivariable model. I n the final multivariable model, educational attainment has the larges t relative effect (i.e., beta; .253), followed by age (-.210), mental health (.174), subjective religiosity (.113), being an African America n (-.100), perceived health (.082), and being Catholic (.068). Future research should focus on the inflection point in the relationship betw een age and the sense of control that apparently occurs al about 50 ye ars of age.