Correlates of Mistreatment Major correlates varied somewhat by mis- treatment type, but nearly all forms of abuse were associated with low social support, even after we controlled for the effects of all other variables that were significant in bivariate analyses. Low social support was associated with more than triple the likelihood that mis- treatment of any form would be reported. These findings are disconcertingly consonant with those of mental health epidemiological reports about this age group. Older adults who reported low social support and experienced extremely stressful events such as natural di- sasters had increased risk of suffering post- traumatic stress disorder, depression, and gen- eralized anxiety disorder.12 Of course, it may be that elderly persons who are mistreated report lower social support and that this factor results from, rather than causes, mistreatment. The most likely nature of the relationship, however, is one of reci- procity, with poor support both indicating and predicting mistreatment. Thus, this risk factor may be important not only for predicting negative outcomes in older adults but also for developing preventive interventions address- ing both interpersonal violence and psychopa- thology. Efforts to enhance social support of older adults through a variety of channels, such as reconnection with community resources, improved housing designs for older adults that maximize communal interaction, funding for familial and community programs that bring together the elderly and their neighbors or fam- ily members, or—perhaps most important— affordable transportation,13 will have the dual benefit of building mental health resilience in response to extreme stressors and lowering the risk of interpersonal violence against the senior members of our society. The centrality of social support to the health and well-being of older adults is perhaps the core finding of our study. Also consonant with the literature on mental health functioning in older adults was the finding that experience of previous traumatic events—including interpersonal and domestic violence—increased the risk for emotional, sexual, and financial mistreatment. This indi- cates that there may be some shared variance between causes of these forms of mistreat- ment and precipitants of traumatic life events. On the most obvious level, interpersonal