bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Time, Change and Continuity in Family Life
Authors: Jerrome Dorothy 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTPersonal development through the lifespan takes place in the context of the family, which is itself changing over time. Change occurs at three different levels – the institution of the family, dyadic relationships within it, the developing individual. Change at different levels and affecting different individuals is sometimes coordinated but often unsynchronised, with consequences for family members' sense of control and well-being. Using autobiographical material from the Mass-Observation Archive it is possible to examine a range of subjective experience, some of it illuminating themes in the literature of social gerontology, some of it prompting new lines of enquiry. The use of autobiographical material is justified by its richness and capacity to illustrate the uniqueness of experience. The case study method is appropriate for the study of sensitive issues, ambiguous concepts and uncharted areas of experience.
Social and Behavioural Research on Ageing: an Agenda for the United States
Authors: Maddox George L. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTIn this commentary on recent planning for multidisciplinary research on ageing in the United States, we argue that Sir Douglas Black's pessimistic conclusion about the irrelevance of such planning is off the mark. Created by the U.S. Congress in 1975, the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) was a novelty in the National Institutes of Health. NIA was mandated to have a broadly multidisciplinary research agenda that included behavioural and social sciences and to produce periodic reports to the Congress on a consensual agenda for future research. Two previous research agendas were developed internally by NIA. The recently released third agenda, which is of interest here, was organized externally by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences. While the subagendas in ageing research for basic biology, clinical medicine, and health services research will be of interest to some, the focus here is specifically on the behavioural and social scientific agenda. High priority substantive issues were identified. Beyond the building of a consensus concerning research priorities, other functions of national research planning are identified in the field of ageing.
Intergenerational Relations in a Society in Transition: A South African Case Study
Authors: Møller Valerie 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTIn South Africa the generation gap is seen as the problem of disaffected youth. This paper discusses intergenerational relations from the perspective of the elderly whose social security and happiness in old age is dependent on the mutual family support system. Family solidarity in 300 three-generation urban households was assessed using measures based on ones developed by Mangen, Bengtson, and Landry (1988) and a single item measuring satisfication with family life used in earlier South African quality-of-life studies. Results confirmed that harmonious family living was associated with the subjective well-being of elders. The South African measure of family harmony was most closly related to the affective dimension of the Mangen et al. (1988) family solidarity construct. Good affective and consensual relationships between the middle and top generations made the most significant contributions to satisfactory family life from the viewpoint of elders. Contrary to expectations there was little evidence of strained relationships between the oldest and youngest generation. Findings intimated that the middle generation plays an important role in closing the generation gap in the more cohesive families by promoting mutual respect and understanding between old and young. Although three-generation households may, by definition, represent special cases of family solidarity during the current unrest in South African townships, it is concluded that the findings augur well for family care of the aged.
Being Old, Old People and the Burdens of Burden
Authors: Warnes Anthony M. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTBurdenis today often applied to elderly people in two senses, for the fiscal load of income support and health and social care costs, and for notions and scales of care-giving effort and stress. It does not however convey straightforward meanings for its understanding is affected by two millenia of metaphorical and rhetorical usage. The use of burden tends to simplify relationships, whether between age-groups of a population or between a carer and an elderly person, and it communicates senses of a nuisance and an excessive charge. Portentous implications are invoked from biblical senses and derogatory overtones are strengthened by association, earlier this century, with racial stereotyping. An etymological survey reveals many sources of the word's versatility and rhetorical power. Important extensions of usage towards the two contemporary gerontological applications are then studied. A bibliometric examination of the surge in the word's social science use since the early 1980s is undertaken, and the paper concludes with a discussion of current usage as evidence of current attitudes towards, and constructions of, old age on the part of politicians and policy analysts.
Living Arrangements and ‘Successful’ Ageing among Ever-Married American White Women 77–87 Years of Age
Authors: Day Alice T. , Day Lincoln H. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTData on a nationally representative sample of ever-married white American women born in 1900–1910 show living arrangements to be closely associated with the quality of the ageing experience (with, that is, whether these women were ageing ‘successfully’). The proportions ageing ‘successfully’ were highest among those living only with their husbands, and lowest among those living with kin other than their husbands. In between, but much closer in position to the women living only with their husbands, were those who were living alone. The paper looks at explanations accounting for these differences and considers some of the policy implications of these findings.
Sexuality in the Later Years
Authors: Kaye Richard A. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTMany people deny the existence and importance of sexuality among the elderly members of our population. In a time when people are increasingly tolerant of sexual self-determination for virtually every segment of our population, why do we cling to puritanical moralities and outdated ideas in our approach toward sex in ageing men and women? Reasons range from psychological conflicts to social taboos; some stem from the selfish concerns of the young, and others are rooted in the cultural stereotypes and ignorance about the sexual behaviour of elderly people. It is not easy to find research on ageing and sexuality that does not suffer from extreme sample bias or the difficulty in getting older people to speak candidly about their sexuality. This paper explores some of the issues relating to sexuality in the later years.
Differential Psychological Ageing: Profiles of the Old and Very Old
Authors: Smith Jacqui , Baltes Paul B. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTTheoretical positions which argue for age-related and individual variation in profiles of psychological functioning and patterns of predictive relationships are reviewed in the context of the three domains investigated by the Psychology Unit of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE): intelligence and cognition, self and personality, and social relationships. To illustrate the potential of BASE, we report initial data for a small set of variables from these three psychological domains for the first wave of study participants (N = 360, age range 70 to 103 years). Our analyses of these data were targeted toward three key questions about differential psychological ageing: namely, the extent of age/cohort-related differences and individual variation within each domain, possible age differences in the structural relationships between the three domains, and subgroup variations in cross-domain profiles of functioning. Within domains, individual differences in general were very large. Chronological age accounted for a sizeable proportion of the variance only in the domain of cognitive performance. The structural relationships between the domains of psychological functioning were similar for the old and very old age groups and reflected much domain independence. Examination of subgroup variations in cross-domain profiles of functioning revealed ten subgroups. All subgroups showed an uneven, that is, age-selective group membership: five subgroups included more of the very old, two more of the old, and three were age-specific. Preliminary explorations of these subgroups suggested substantial links to selected health-related variables, supporting proposals for multi-disciplinary research into differential ageing.
Alcohol and Elderly People: An Overview of the Literature for Social Work
Authors: Simpson Murray , Williams Bryan , Kendrick Andrew 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article attempts to highlight the pressing need for social work to take more account of the existence of alcohol problems being experienced by many elderly people. Surveying the available sketchy data, it would appear that perhaps as many as 15% of elderly social work clients may have alcohol related problems. The article continues by considering whether a discernable pattern of elderly drinking is identifiable, concluding that the greatest problems relate to the severity rather than numbers having alcohol related problems, also coupled with an inability to access existing treatment services. Additionally, the article contends that there are ethical pitfalls in promoting interventions which rest upon stereotypical assumptions or purely technical considerations. In conclusion some of the main implications of the survey for social work practice are drawn out.
Making Sense of Dementia: Carers' Perceptions
Authors: Askham Janet 
Published: November 2008

AbstractThis paper is about how the informal care givers of people recently diagnosed as suffering from dementia perceive and describe that condition. Data are drawn from semi-structured interviews with 106 such care givers (mainly adult children and spouses) carried out in a London Borough and a southern English market town. People's accounts of how they defined what was happening to their relative (his/her condition) could be divided into several categories; these are shown to be based on a number of different parameters: for example, normal versus abnormal; orderly versus unpredictable; simple versus complex; an illness versus not an illness. The reasons for the wide variety of understandings of dementia are examined; it is suggested that it may be due to general lack of information or poor communication with health service staff; to a need to choose a definition which accords with a particular kind of relationship with the dementia sufferer; to the kind of self-presentation favoured by the sufferer; or to the desire to achieve certain kinds of end within particular social contexts.
Interdependency and the Generational Compact
Authors: Johnson Malcolm L. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe demographic revolution has caused turmoil in public policy, leading governments to scale down their commitments to the old, more in panic than in thoughtful response. At the same time, significant changes in family patterns have placed at risk the inter-generational support older people might have expected. Together these structural shifts have stimulated a new debate about the obligations one generation has to another. This essay attempts to bring together the several discrete debates about demography, family and the generational contract. In juxtaposing gerontological evidence and discussions with those about moral order and the state of the social contract in ‘post-modern’ society; it reaffirms the need for personal and social solidarity as the foundation for trust and reciprocity between generations.
Gender, Age and Attitudes to Retirement in Mid-Life
Authors: Ginn Jay , Arber Sara 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTBritish research on exit from the labour market has been mainly concerned with men, but US research shows retirement for women is equally salient. Gender differences in attitudes to employment and reasons for early exit are relevant to employment and pension policy.In this paper, we use data from the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative survey to examine gender differences in attitudes to employment among over 2,500 British women and men aged 40 to 59. A key concern was to discover whether the decline in mid-life women's employment through their fifties could be explained by a change in attitudes with age, or was more likely to be due to age-related barriers in the labour market.Analysis shows that among mid-life people who were not employed, financial considerations were the predominant influence on men's job-seeking whereas for women psychosocial aspects of having a job were also important. Mid-life women showed no decline in their motivation towards employment with age, indicating that women's early exit cannot be explained by reduced desire for employment with age. However, there was evidence of perceived age barriers to employment or promotion which were likely to have affected behaviour and attitudes.
‘William’ and The Old Folks: Notes on Infantilisation
Authors: Hepworth Mike 
Published: November 2008

AbstractCritical concern with infantilisation practices—i.e. the tendency to treat older people as if they are dependent children—has for the most part concentrated on the negative associations between infantilisation and dependency in later life. Infantilisation is usually defined as an unwelcome imposition on older men and women who are often portrayed as relatively powerless to resist. Whilst the negative consequences of enforced infantilisation must not be ignored there are also occasions when infantilisation may be regarded as a voluntary or chosen mode of resistance on the part of older people to the decrements and external impositions of later life. The concept of infantilisation may therefore be enlarged to include modes of resistance involving processes of mutual identification of the old with the young; in certain instances even as a form of conspiracy between these two age groups against the wider society. This paper therefore pursues fictional images of such rapport as they occur in a selection of the ‘William’ stories written by Richmal Crompton during the period from 1919 up to her death in 1969, and with an appeal which continues up to the present day. The argument is that these stories of alliances between boyhood and ‘elders’ may be regarded as vivid examples (a repository of positive images) of what may be described as ‘positive infantilisation’: that is to say, of consciousness of the independence of subjective selfhood from the ageing body in the face of the misperceptions and misleading stereotypes of the ‘mature’ adult world.
Public Attitudes and Concerns about Population Ageing in Japan
Authors: Clark Robert L. , Ogawaf Naohiro 
Published: November 2008

AbstractJapan is the most rapidly ageing developed country in the world. Economic, political, and social changes will be necessary in the next 20 years as Japan attempts to adjust to the rapid ageing of its population. This paper examines survey responses by Japanese men and women regarding their attitudes toward the ageing of their country's population, concerns about the impact of anticipated demographic changes on their economic well-being in retirement, and preferences among alternative policy options for changes in the Japanese social security programme. Responses to a nationally representative survey, conducted by Mainichi Newspapers in 1992, were analysed. Key findings indicate that: (1) the Japanese are concerned about the impact of population ageing on their economic well-being in retirement, (2) most Japanese anticipate that earnings will be an important source of their retirement income, but they are worried about employment opportunities, (3) they favour increasing social security taxes instead of cutting retirement benefits, and (4) they favour raising the age of eligibility for social security benefits.
The Ideology of ‘Age/Race Wars’: Deconstructing a Social Problem
Authors: Minkler Meredith , Robertson Ann 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTEfforts in the United States to encourage divisiveness within the working class have been widely recognised as a key strategy in the war on welfare. This paper examines one aspect of this overall strategy, namely the creation of an ideology based on generational equity and ‘age/race wars’ thinking, which blames the old for poverty and economic hardship in the young. Attempts to frame problem analysis and policy deliberations within such an ideological framework are seen to be based on spurious assumptions concerning the relative financial well-being of the old, the role of elderly entitlements as a cause of poverty in minority children, and growing resentment of programmes for the old among minorities and youth.This paper examines recent attempts to de-legitimate the claims of the elderly through the advancement of an ideology of age/race wars. The assumptions underlying this approach to policy are critiqued, and a case is made for developing an alternative framework which would stress the interdependence of generations, rather than age/race group competition.
On the Treatment of Population Ageing in Economic Theory
Authors: Jackson William A. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTPopulation ageing is often thought to have adverse economic consequences, and economics therefore has a responsibility for contributing to an understanding of ageing. This paper discusses the treatment of population ageing in economic theory and argues that mainstream economics is too narrow and restrictive to provide an adequate representation of ageing. An alternative to mainstream economic theory is a more pluralistic view of ageing, drawing from non-neo-classical economic theory and from the theorising of the other social sciences.
Intergenerational Discourse: Contextual Versions of Ageing and Elderliness
Authors: Coupland Justine , Coupland Nikolas , Grainger Karen 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTMicro-analyses of talk in context can expose people's activation and evaluation of age categorisations, as personal and social identities, during interactional exchanges. In this paper, we briefly overview our own discourse analytic research, which has been concerned with the management of age and health identities in across- and within- generation talk. In the body of the paper, we then document the operation of identity-management processes in a single-case analysis, from a video-recorded corpus. We focus on one elderly woman's participation in two conversations, in the course of which vividly contrasting age identities are constructed for and by her, conversationally. This qualitative perspective on real-time interaction offers clear evidence of social practices (here, simply talk) being constitutive of ageing itself.
Psychiatric Morbidity and Service Use Among Elderly People
Authors: Bowling Ann , Farquhar Morag 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThere is some evidence in the literature of increased demand on health services by adults with psychiatric morbidity. Among people over retirement age these associations appear weaker. Results from three independent, but comparable, surveys of elderly people living in London and Essex are presented in relation to their use of health and social services. Psychiatric morbidity was found to be a poor predictor of service use. Level of functional ability and, in some cases, age were both stronger predictors of use of a selection of these services among the two samples from the urban area. Age was a stronger predictor of use of home help and meals on wheels services among the younger urban sample aged 65–85. The model had little explanatory power in relation to use of general practitioner services. The study also indicated that the semi-rural sample had better reported health status and functional ability than the samples in the urban area. Use of health and social services was also lower in the semi-rural areas.
Customary Physical Activity, Psychological Well-being and Successful Ageing
Authors: Morgan Kevin , Dalleosso Helen , Bassey E. Joan , Ebrahim Shan , Fentem P. H. , Aire T. H. D. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTProfiles of customary physical activity (CPA) and psychological wellbeing were obtained from a random community sample of 1,042 individuals aged 65 years and over. Activities were assessed with regard to their estimated minimum energy cost and/or their assumed contribution to functional capacity. The structure of CPA, and associations between activity levels, morale and mental health were then investigated. Women and men showed clear differences in the organisation of their activity patterns, and these differences were reflected in activity–affect relationships. For men, factor scores derived from the first principal component of CPA emerged as significant, though modest, predictors of well-being in regression and discriminant analyses. For women, however, activity factor scores failed significantly to predict levels of morale or mental health when medical and demographic factors were controlled. The results indicate that, among the present cohort of retired and elderly people, relationships between customary physical activity levels and psychological well-being are weak, indirect and gender-specific.
The Elders: A New Generation
Authors: Jones Sidney 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTDrawing upon evidence from Britain, this paper advances the proposition that new generations of older people are experiencing a healthier, materially better off and more satisfying old age. It is argued that both popular and scientific images of later life are out-dated and unduly negative. In advancing this analysis, attention is given to key areas of personal experience and social life: education, leisure and holidays, retirement, voluntary activity, spirituality, economic status, health and political involvement. A re-construction of the societal position of older people is indicated.
The Well, the Mentally Ill, the Old and the Old Old: a Community Survey of Elderly Persons in London
Authors: Copeland J. R. M. , Kelleher M. J. , Smith A. M. R. , Devlin P. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTA random sample of 396 elderly people living at home in the Greater London community was interviewed by psychiatrists using standardised assessments. The sample was divided into the old (aged 65–74) and the old/old (aged 75 and over). The proportions with mental illness were identified and excluded from the sample in order to allow comparison of mentally normal elderly persons between these age groups. Surprisingly few differences emerge. No difference in educational attainment appeared, but there was a small diminution (P < 0.01) in intellectual function to clinical testing, in the old/old. Leisure interests were maintained and high level life satisfaction, health and happiness were claimed.
The Role of Senior Citizens in Crime Prevention
Authors: Fattah Ezzat A. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTElderly people have a relatively low likelihood of becoming a victim of crime, compared with other age groups. Theft rather than violence constitutes the bulk of offences against them. Criminological research indicates that it is not vulnerability but lifestyle and the amount of time spent out of the home which are pre-disposing factors. However, when offences occur they have a disproportionately high personal impact. Ways of reducing both exposure and impact are discussed. These include (1) Hardening the targets (2) Creating more protective environments (3) Encouraging self-help (4) Entrancing awareness of crime and prevention techniques (5) Risk avoidance.