Laurie Russell Hatch

Informal Support Patterns of Older African-American and White Women: Examining Effects of Family, Paid Work and Religious Participation

In this study of informal support patterns of older African-American and White women, a particular focus is the examination of potential interaction effects between race and variables representing three major areas of life experience: family, paid work, and religious participation. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Household, results from regression analyses show statistically significant interaction effects between race and religious participation. Specifically, for four dependent variables measuring dimensions of giving and receiving help, attendance at religious social events was more important in predicting the informal support patterns of older African-American women than those of older White women. These results provide support for Taylors recommendation that formal service providers use the organizational structure of churches to more effectively provide services to African-American elderly. Results from this study also raise questions concerning whether the hierarchy of primary care providers reported in the caregiving literature is applicable to members of different racial or ethnic groups.

Does Long-Term Marriage Bring Less Frequent Disagreements? Five Explanatory Frameworks

Studies of marital conflict have concluded that the frequency of disagreements between spouses declines over time in a marital relationship. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households, the authors examine the frequency of marital disagreements concerning household tasks, money, sex, and spending time together reported by married women and men age 20 to 79. The study results refute a developmental explanation for marital disagreement, which posits that disagreements decline as marital partners accommodate themselves to one another over time. The results indicate, however, that increased marital duration may bring increased marital disagreements, depending on family life course stage (particularly, the presence of children in the home), and potentially also depending on spouses’ages and birth cohorts. The results also suggest a limited role of selective attrition in explaining the frequency of marital disagreements, in that couples who disagree more frequently are more likely to divorce or separate, particularly respondents of younger ages/birth cohorts, who have been married for relatively briefer periods of time.

Antecedents and Consequences of Remarriage in Later Life

Using the Retirement History Study (RHS), respondents were identified who entered the study widowed or divorced, and then remarried. Respondents were also identified who entered the study as married, became widowed or divorced, and then remarried. In the latter case, because of limitations of the RHS, only males were observed. With some matching relevant to the types of analyses carried out, comparison groups were selected, providing an opportunity to examine both antecedents and consequences of remarriage.

Peer and Faculty Mentoring for Students Pursuing a PHD in Gerontology

The Graduate Center for Gerontology at the University of Kentucky incorporates three levels of mentoring in its PhD program. This project assessed satisfaction with peer and faculty mentoring and explored their perceived benefits and purposes. Core and affiliate faculty and current and graduated students were surveyed. Participants seemed satisfied with the mentoring they were giving and receiving, although all groups discussed limitations. Peer mentors were seen as social support and advice givers, while faculty mentors were viewed as responsible for direction and skill-building. These results can contribute to the development of new mentorship programs and the modification of existing ones.

Lifestyle and Aging.

Publisher Summary Lifestyle is a defining attribute of social life and a key concept in social gerontology. It is viewed as both the cause and consequence and is used as a construct to explicate preferences, as modes of living, and as an indicator of social standing. Psychological conceptualizations of lifestyle focus on an array of individual-level attributes, activities, or behaviors underpinning patterns of experience. The three dimensions of lifestyle are cognitions, conditions, and change. Cognition is commonly conceived as mental schema or thinking patterns used to make, justify, or rationalize choices. Conditions influencing lifestyles are defined in two ways: intra- and inter-individual. The first is conceived in terms of internal states, including heredity, intelligence, or personality factors influencing how individuals engage the ebb and flow of events. The second facet of conditions refers to external circumstances—physical or interpersonal—including family, interaction partners or social relations that undergird an individuals propensity to engage in one or another patterned form of behavior. The third dimension of lifestyles is concerned with change, and it, too, derives from a combination of internal psychological characteristics and in situ factors that may destabilize an individuals actual or perceived competence.

Unraveling the Effects of Multiple Life Changes A Reanalysis

A previous article demonstrated the importance of considering life changes that occur at or near the time of retirement when examining the effects of retirement. Specifically, it was shown that failing to take changes in marital status into account will confound interpretation of the effects of retirement. In the present article, an alternative method of analysis is used. The analysis reveals that social interaction may be differentially important in influencing the happiness of divorced versus widowed retirees.

A Note on Longitudinal Data Presentation

An example of presenting longitudinal data is provided using a subsample drawn from the Retirement History Study. A progression of age groups through the years of follow-up is examined in tabular form with respect to the number of parents and parents-in-law reported living. Comparisons are made between information that may be inferred from longitudinal and cross-sectional data.