Kenneth Ferraro

About

Kenneth Ferraro is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Purdue University and the founding Director of the Center on Aging and the Life Course. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Akron in 1981. His research focuses on aging, health, and life course analysis, with a particular emphasis on aging, health inequality, and the development of cumulative inequality theory for the study of aging, stratification, and health. Ferraro uses a life course perspective to study health inequality and has contributed to understanding racial/ethnic disparities, obesity, and the early origins of adult health. He has authored over 135 refereed journal articles in prominent publications such as the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and American Journal of Public Health. Several of his former students hold faculty positions at research universities including Case Western Reserve, Johns Hopkins, Minnesota, Nebraska, Toronto, Wayne State, and Chung-Ang (South Korea). In 2008, he was named a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Purdue University.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Developmental psychology
• Gerontology
• Chemistry
• Engineering physics
• Engineering
• Demography
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• Digital technology use and depressive symptoms among older adults in Korea: beneficial for those who have fewer social interactions?

  Aging & Mental Health · 2020 · 74 citations

  OBJECTIVES: Our study examines the relationship between digital technology use and depressive symptoms among older Koreans and whether social interaction moderates the relationship. METHODS: The data were drawn from the 2017 Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons, a nationally representative survey. Digital technology use was measured by the number of digital functions that respondents perform with their electronic devices. Social interactions were measured by the…

  DOI

• Early Social Origins of Biological Risks for Men and Women in Later Life

  Journal of Health and Social Behavior · 2020 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  We investigate whether childhood exposures influence adult chronic inflammation and mortality risk via adult health characteristics and socioeconomic status (SES) and whether gender moderates these relationships. Analyzing a longitudinal national sample of 9,310 men and women over age 50, we found that childhood SES, parental behaviors, and adolescent behaviors were associated with adult chronic inflammation via health characteristics and SES in adulthood. The process of disadvantage initiated b…

  DOI

• Early-Life Parental Affection, Social Relationships in Adulthood, and Later-Life Cognitive Function

  Journal of Aging and Health · 2024-12-04 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Objective Although research has demonstrated the long-term health consequences of childhood adversities, less is known about the long-term impact of positive childhood experiences, such as parental affection. Method Using longitudinal data (1995–2014) from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, we analyze structural equation models estimating direct and indirect pathways from early-life parental affection to changes in later-life cognitive function through relationship quality in adulth…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Race, everyday discrimination, and cognitive function in later life

  PLoS ONE · 2023-10-25 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Discrimination is pernicious in many ways, but there are inconsistent findings regarding whether it is harmful to cognitive function in later life. To address the inconsistency, we use two closely related concepts of everyday discrimination to predict cognitive trajectories in a diverse sample. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we examine whether the frequency of discrimination, measured at baseline with six questions, is related to poorer cognitive function and change in fu…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Disparities in Stress Exposure and Later-Life Disability

  Innovation in Aging · 2024-04-25 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background and Objectives: Drawing from cumulative inequality theory and the weathering hypothesis, this study examined the relationship between life-course stress exposure (measured cumulatively and by domains) and the onset of disability in later life among White, Black, U.S.-born Hispanic, and foreign-born Hispanic older adults. Research Design and Methods: = 11,483). We used logistic regression models to examine associations between stress exposure and Wave 1 disability (i.e., occurrence), a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Enduring Effects of Early Adversity on Adult Health?

  NIH · $526k · 2009–2012

• NIH Grant R23AG006045

  NIH · $49k · 1988

• Childhood Misfortune and Adult Health Among Black, White and Hispanic Americans

  NIH · $587k · 2014–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Markus H. Schafer

  Baylor University

  22 shared

• Madison R Sauerteig-Rolston

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  22 shared

• Patricia M. Morton

  Wayne State University

  16 shared

• Jessica A. Kelley‐Moore

  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  14 shared

• Patricia A. Thomas

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  13 shared

• Sarah Mustillo

  University of Notre Dame

  13 shared

• Tetyana Shippee

  Minnesota Department of Health

  12 shared

• Lindsay R. Wilkinson

  University of Nebraska at Omaha

  11 shared

Education

• PhD, Sociology

  University of Akron

• MA, Sociology

  Duquesne University

• BA, Sociology

  Saint Vincent College

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Professor of Sociology (2008)

Similar researchers at Purdue University

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• Scott Feldh-44
• Joshua Doyleh-39