There is a trend toward viewing activities as an integral part of basic care in the nursing home, although the setting is extremely challenging to the recreation service provider. This article discusses nursing home personnel, assessment of residents' needs, activities, programs, and future directions of nursing home recreation. (MT)

Suggests that the social position and value of old age are normally of little importance in the personal lives of older people, partly because of the limited salience of age within their informal networks. Factors that heighten the salience of being old may reduce well being. (JAC)

Discusses life satisfaction, happiness, and morale, three indicators of subjective well-being that have been of particular interest to psychosocial gerontologists. Two problems in the use of such indicators--usage variance and inappropriate assessment level--are examined. Potential solutions to these problems are suggested and discussed briefly.…

Discusses counseling implications and applications of several social theories of aging. Explores effects of some rather distinct perspectives on aging, beginning with conceptualizations, research studies, and criticisms of disengagement theory, activity theory, and role theory, leading up to continuity theory and liberation perspective. Focuses on…

Twelve articles on aging address the needs of older adults. Discussed are effects of physical activity on the aging process, physical assessment procedures, nutrition, dance, aerobics, fitness needs, recreation needs, and even in-home activities for seniors. A listing of resource agencies, books, records, cassettes, journals and indexes is…

Presents a 16-item quiz dealing with empirical and theoretical issues in the area of mental health and aging. Each item is documented with supporting literature. In addition, average scores, item difficulties, and item-to-total correlations are presented for two groups of undergraduate students. (JAC)

Discusses how the concept of failure to thrive can be borrowed from pediatrics and redefined for use in caring for older persons, especially institutionalized older persons. Examines issues of undernutrition, declining physical and cognitive functioning, and depression. (Author/ABL)

Discusses intimacy as a multidimensional concept with particular attention paid to love and sexuality among older women. Women's life satisfaction and psychological well-being were related to their satisfaction with their intimate relationship. Passionate and companionate love as well as sexual satisfaction were related to contentment with…

Describes four sectors comprising "the good life": behavioral competence, psychological well-being, perceived quality of life, and objective environment. Assessment approaches for each sector are described and empirical evidence is presented regarding interrelationships among them. Presented at the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting of the…

Outlines a complex research agenda for understanding the contributions of informal social support to the quality of later life. Suggests a conceptual model for investigating informal support networks and well-being for the elderly and offers suggestions for operationalizing the model. (NRB)

Reviews research on the effects of educational programs on the subjective well-being of older adults. Describes the constructs of happiness, morale, and life satisfaction by specifying their location on temporal, cognitive, and affective dimensions. Recommends outcome measures and research designs for assessing and upgrading educational…

Developed and tested a theoretical model of qualitative dimensions in relationships of older parents and adult children. Assessed the impact of these dimensions on the personal and family adjustment of the aged member. The strongest predictor of the dependent variable, the psychological well-being of older parents, was health. (Author/RC)

The future of the elderly in the People's Republic of China will be influenced by political agenda, degree to which traditional values toward the aged are preserved, degree to which eldercare support is built on the existing social structure, eldercare program institutionalization in the state budget, and the elderly's continued integration into…

Models the impact of three domains of environmental variables (ecological/architectural, psychosocial, and personal) on the mental health and well-being of 989 community-based rural elderly. Perceived environmental constriction, satisfaction with dwelling features, and satisfaction with community were the largest predictors of mental health.…

This Federal Council on Aging report contains recommendations for a national policy regarding services for the frail elderly and describes the principles on which the recommendations are based. Recommended core services are discussed and characteristics and statistics relating to the frail elderly are identified. The report describes existing…