Examines the meaning of work for older adults in a sample of 146 older job seekers. Proposes four factors to the meaning of work: financial, personal, social, and generativity. Indicates ethnic and employment differences regarding the meaning of work. Jobs providing opportunities for transfer of knowledge and experience to younger generations may…

This study examines relationships among three measures of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, happiness and depressive symptoms), and two global measures of productive activity (number of activities and time commitment). We argue that participation in multiple productive activities should increase subjective well-being because these…

BreastScreen (a free breast cancer screening service) has been implemented in Australia since 1991. Surveys conducted overseas consistently report that women of Chinese ancestry have low participation rates in breast cancer screening. Although Chinese women's use of breast cancer screening services has been investigated abroad, to date there are…

This article examines a subset of acculturation items pertaining to language fluency and use and to interpersonal relationships. This study included 3,050 Mexican American elders aged 65 to 99, randomly sampled from five states in the southwestern United States. A standard acculturation inventory was used as the source for two factor-derived…

Social support has been found to be positively related to well being in elderly individuals. To examine the effects of social integration (social resources, social interaction, and perceived adequacy of resources), and health, age, marital status, and socioeconomic status (SES) on mental health among urban elderly individuals, 1,727 persons from…

Evidence concerning the contributions of social networks to the subjective well-being of older persons is inconsistent, reflecting the conceptual complexity of social networks and supports. In order to investigate the relative importance of different types of social ties and supports, the distinction between objective and subjective dimensions of…

The Elder Abuse Awareness Project was developed to determine the incidence of abuse and neglect of elderly people in several rural counties in central Illinois. A primary purpose of the study was to survey service providers as to their actual encounters with elder abuse and neglect. Each provider was asked about warning signs or cues that were…

The purpose of the study was to increase staff awareness of negative attitudes and decrease patronizing statements emitted during a geriatric day treatment community meeting. Tape recorded pre and posttest patterns of staff and client patronizing statements were measured. The intervention consisted of staff training involving awareness of the…

Personal intent and discourse considerations play an important role in understanding the nature of a conversation between a youth and an elderly person. Each participant makes assumptions about the listener's knowledge and ability to communicate effectively. The way a speaker reacts to the other participant depends upon the speaker's own…

While utilization of senior centers has increased for the older population as a whole, participation rates have been low among the poor and minority elderly. The impact of the neighborhood senior center (NSC) on the black elderly was investigated in terms of disengagement potential, acceptability to others, commitment to become involved in senior…

This curriculum guide was developed for use in Edison State Community College's (ESCC's) Community Pre-Retirement Training Program. The first of the guide's seven modules provides a brief look at retirement, retirement planning, and the ESCC program. The second module focuses on relationships, considering issues such as communication, finances,…

One important role performed by the hospital nurse is that of health teacher to elderly patients. Often nurses teach elderly patients the techniques of self-injection, how to monitor their dietary regimens, specialized hygiene techniques, and how to detect the physiological changes they may expect as a chronic disease advances. From the nurse's…

The interactional aspects of support within social networks of the elderly were investigated with a particular focus on the role which reciprocal exchanges play in defining the nature of the support channeled along the links in the network. The sample consisted of 50 adults, 55-83 years of age, living in an urbanized region of North Carolina.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the most important physical and social discriminators of loneliness among 418 rural adults aged 65 to 99 years. A multiple stepwise discriminant analysis which incorporated 18 classifying variables was used to determine the best classifiers of adults into three levels of loneliness. Two significant…

The paper examines that phenomenon of widowhood, which has become a natural attribute of a woman's old age because of her greater life expectancy when compared with her husband. Researchers have discovered that, although problems of widowhood have attracted little serious inquiry, one of every five women who face conjugal bereavement need outside…