The 1978 amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) provide older workers with the option of extending their worklives as a means of meeting the financial requirements of their later years. As part of a larger study funded by the Administration on Aging, DHEW, the degree to which inflation and ADEA was expected to impact…

Employees (N=685) of SUNY at Buffalo, about equally divided among faculty, non-teaching professional and Civil Service workers, were questioned concerning planning for retirement. As campared to male respondents, higher percentages of females in all occupations indicated that they had taken more steps to prepare for retirement, and rated 12 of 19…

The problems facing older adults when coping with mandatory retirement are discussed. Existing programs, volunteer and government sponsored, are briefly described. Specifically emphasized is the need to recognize the importance of regular physical exercise to maintain health and widen horizons. (JD)

A task force from a high technology company recently conducted a nine-month study to determine the attitudes of older workers toward work, management, technological change, and productivity. Data were gathered from personnel files; an age audit was undertaken, and 4,000 employees were randomly interviewed. The workers were asked to offer opinions…

Social scientists have traditionally assumed that marriage and widowhood are the crucial life events for women, and that retirement has no effect on women's social relationships. To explore the relationship between women's work status and perception of peer and power relationships, a thematic apperceptive procedure was used. A sample of 1,428…

An amended form of the Older American's Status and Needs Assessment Questionnaire assessed the prevalence of adjustment, as measured by the Bradburn Affect Scale, in a random stratified sample of 301 female and 140 male elderly rural residents in Allegany County, New York. The relationship between adjustment and biosocial, demographic, social, and…

This document contains eight papers presented at the 1981 White House Conference on Aging. Each paper begins with a statement of a Congressional finding relevant to the topic under consideration, followed by a presentation and discussion of important issues related to each topic. The first paper, "Research on the Aging Process," explores…

Demographic data suggest that alcohol abuse among the elderly will increase in proportion to the population growth of that group. Four factors which may cause the elderly to be a highly susceptible group for alcohol problems are: (1) retirement and its boredom, role changes, and financial problems; (2) increased concern with death and losses of…

Some research suggests the existence of differences in characteristics between older adults who are continuing to earn money through employment and those who have retired from gainful employment. Data on a national random sample of men and women (N=1000) between 68 and 73 years of age were examined to contrast the characteristics of employed and…

The persistence of the nuclear family as the primary social unit in the United States and most all other societies, especially complex ones, is a fact. Values shape the definition of family, especially the "good family," and the "great debate" of this period on family failure, family corruption and the family's near demise originates in…

The last decade has seen an increase in the number of organized pre-retirement planning programs. An exploratory model for examining such programs utilizes Warren's division of the community into five sectors to provide a conceptual community framework by which pre-retirement development can be analyzed. In the first sector,…

Most governmental or organizational efforts to influence the retirement decision have used financial incentives. The extent to which job attitudes are predictive of early retirement decisions beyond the predictions by income, health and demographic characteristics is an important consideration. Michigan Civil Service employees (N=379) who were…

Many factors are contributive to a rise in the rate of remarriage among older adults. Statistical and survey data on the condition of the elderly suggest that: (1) the number of elderly marriages has increased dramatically in recent years; (2) improved health status allows older adults greater socialization and mobility which greatly enhance the…

Most of the people who are involved in higher education recognize that corporate interest in developing significant, job-related educational opportunities is growing. The motivation to provide corporate educational programs ranges from the need to improve skills to an interest in responding to legal and social responsibilities by expanding…

This paper questions whether there is sufficient evidence, as presented in the popular press, to support special action to increase the supply of college and university faculty. The higher education popular press has published several forecasts of faculty shortages due to the mass retirement of expansion era faculty and the forecasted low numbers…