Dena Shenk

Narratives and self-identity in later life: Two rural American older women

Abstract Older adults often draw on memories to construct stories about themselves that help them to retain and validate their self-identities, doing this within the cultural contexts that have shaped their lives. In this paper, we examine the life history narratives of two working class, rural American older women and the ways in which those narratives are similar despite one major difference: one has dementia. In both cases, major themes that are consistent with gender-based, working class, rural American cultural values are dominant, including closeness of family, hard work, ties to the land, and religious faith. In the first case, she reconstructs memories of her life in accordance with dominant cultural and personal values, downplaying the ways in which her experiences were “out of step” with these values. In the second case, her sense of identity remains and is expressed through her co-constructed memories although she is experiencing cognitive loss.

INCORPORATING FIELD SITES INTO SERVICE-LEARNING AS COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS

This article, which describes the service-learning program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, advocates incorporating the needs and perspectives of field sites selected for involvement in service-learning projects. Information is gathered through interviews with field site supervisors. Service-learning requires the active participation of both members of the college or university (e.g., students, faculty members, and administrators) and community partners in a collaborative process. When successful, this collaboration focuses on both mutual interests and common goals. Involving all partners throughout the process is crucial for successful collaboration. This article offers suggestions for the development of strong service-learning collaborations with community organizations. These suggestions fall into three broad categories: (a) level of site involvement throughout the project, (b) conceptualization of the project, and (c) managerial aspects of the collaboration.This article, which describes the service-learning program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, advocates incorporating the needs and perspectives of field sites selected for involvement in service-learning projects. Information is gathered through interviews with field site supervisors. Service-learning requires the active participation of both members of the college or university (e.g., students, faculty members, and administrators) and community partners in a collaborative process. When successful, this collaboration focuses on both mutual interests and common goals. Involving all partners throughout the process is crucial for successful collaboration. This article offers suggestions for the development of strong service-learning collaborations with community organizations. These suggestions fall into three broad categories: (a) level of site involvement throughout the project, (b) conceptualization of the project, and (c) managerial aspects of the collaboration.

Older rural women as recipients and providers of social support

Abstract The literature on serving the rural elderly has focused on rural elders primarily as passive recipients of care. This article views rural older women as active manipulators of the social support system within which they meet their perceived needs and the needs of others in their social network. It is based on the findings of a multi-phase qualitative study of 30 older women in central Minnesota. Data were collected through life history interviews, in-depth structured interviews, observation and network analysis profiles. The informants relationships with family, friends, neighbors and formal service providers are discussed. Implications for formal service delivery to rural elders are explored.

Intergenerational Transmission of Chronic Illness Self-care: Results From the Caring for Hypertension in African American Families Study

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY African Americans often experience early onset of hypertension that can result in generations of adults managing high blood pressure concurrently. Using a model based on the Theory of Interdependence, this study examined whether intergenerational transmission of hypertension knowledge and self-efficacy would affect hypertension self-care of older parents and their adult children. DESIGN AND METHODS We recruited 95 African American older parent-adult child dyads with hypertension. We constructed separate logistic regression models for older parents and adult children with medication adherence as the outcome. Each model included individual demographic and health characteristics, the partners knowledge, and self-efficacy to manage hypertension and dyad-related characteristics. RESULTS Parents were more adherent with medication than adult children (67.4% vs. 49.5%, p < .012). There were no significant factors associated with parent medication adherence. In adjusted models for adult children, medication adherence was associated with childs gender (odds ratio [OR] = 3.29, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.26-8.59), parent beliefs that the child had better hypertension self-care (OR = 4.36, 95% CI = 1.34-14.17), and child reports that the dyad conversed about hypertension (OR = 3.48, 95% CI = 1.18-10.29). Parental knowledge of hypertension and parents self-efficacy were weakly associated with adult childrens medication adherence (OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 0.99-1.84 and OR = 2.59, 95% CI = 0.94-7.12, respectively). IMPLICATIONS Interventions should consider targeting African American older adults to increase self-care knowledge and empower them as a primary influencer of hypertension self-care within the family.

Food for Thought: Nourishing the Publication of Qualitative Research

In recent years, journal editors have issued loud and earnest calls for high-quality manuscripts based on qualitative methods. Yet, in reviewing the past several years of gerontological journals, including the Journal of Applied Gerontology (JAG), the authors noticed that the rate at which qualitative papers are published has held steady at modest percentages of the total number of published works. This essay explores this seemingly contradictory situation by providing insights into several key questions: Why are not more research articles published that use qualitative methods? Why is it important that qualitative researchers publish their works in applied venues like the JAG? What should authors of qualitative pieces keep in mind when developing their manuscripts?

History, Memory, and Disasters Among Older Adults: A Life Course Perspective

This article is based on a review of a growing literature that examines disasters as experienced globally by older adults. The authors utilize a life course perspective that allows them to view the impact of experiencing a disaster for individuals within the context of their life experiences, memories, values, and views. The authors urge consideration of how individual and social history and memory affect the experience, coping strategies, and effects of disasters on older adults. The analysis is organized by the following four themes derived from the literature: (a) physical impact, (b) psychological impact, (c) social support issues, and (d) predictors of mental health distress. The authors highlight the challenges and issues of disasters, specifically for the aging population, including age, gender, and coping styles.

In Their Own Words: Using Narrativesto Teach Gerontology

ABSTRACT In narrative constructed in conversations, older adults often present “small stories.” These narrative fragments provide extensive information about their experiences, values, and aspects of their lives that can be used to help learners understand key concepts about aging and the life course. The authors provide an overview of approaches including exercises and activities keyed to a corpus of oral narratives, targeting graduate and undergraduate students.

Twelve Important Minutes: Introducing Enhanced Online Materials About Elder Abuse to Nursing Assistants

A pilot project introduced 12 minutes of text and video materials and a reflective online interaction about elder abuse into the online component of a hybrid course in nursing assistant training leading to certification. Didactic presentations on issues of ethics and standards had been given in two different units of the face-to-face component of the course using both the course textbook and an online module keyed to state certification standards. However, student responses suggested that their online writing to each other about the new materials brought issues of elder abuse to the forefront in ways that they could finally internalize.

Understanding the disaster experience of older adults by gender: the experience of survivors of the 2007 earthquake in Peru.

We examine the experiences of older adult survivors of the August 2007 “Southern earthquake” in Peru within the cultural context of gender roles and family relationships. The data include 24 semistructured videotaped interviews conducted in Pisco in December 2007 with survivors of the earthquake aged 60–90. The responses, experiences, and adjustments of the older adult disaster survivors will be discussed in terms of their family and social support systems and gender roles. These older adults sustain their personal identities and deal with their health concerns in the aftermath of the earthquake in the context of these cultural systems of support.

Beyond Reminiscence Using Generic Video to Elicit Conversational Language

Videos and multimedia are increasingly used to stimulate reminiscence in dementia care. However, they are also valuable in eliciting a wide range of language patterns that are not necessarily keyed to reminiscence about self. Low-technology, home-made generic and personalized videos were tested with 2 samples of persons with dementia, to increase engagement and support the retention of identity. Participants showed a slight, though not significant, preference for looking first at personalized videos and produced a wider range of conversational language topics and phrasal patterns in response to the generic videos.