Victor W. Marshall

Well-being after stroke in Canadian seniors: findings from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.

Background and Purpose— After a stroke many people continue to live with their residual impairments and disabilities in the community, which can pose a significant problem for survivors’ well-being. The purpose of this research was to investigate patterns of well-being in community-dwelling stroke survivors to identify those factors that restrict and enhance well-being. Methods— A secondary analysis was conducted on data from the second wave of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA-2). A national sample of 5395 community-dwelling Canadian seniors (aged ≥65 years) was interviewed for CSHA-2, including 339 stroke survivors (6.3%). Information was collected on health, social and demographic characteristics, and well-being. Comparisons were made between the health and functional status of stroke survivors and community-dwelling seniors who have not experienced a stroke. Multiple regression was used to examine the factors associated with well-being in stroke survivors. Results— Compared with community-dwelling seniors who have not experienced a stroke, stroke survivors report a lower sense of well-being. Stroke survivors are also more likely to be restricted in their physical and cognitive function, to report worse mental health, and to be living with a greater number of comorbid health conditions. Mental health and physical and cognitive disabilities are associated with a reduced sense of well-being in stroke survivors, but social supports and educational resources moderate the impact of functional status on well-being. Conclusions— Community-dwelling seniors who have had a stroke experience a reduced sense of well-being. However, social resources can help to alleviate the subjective burden of this common neurological condition.

Measuring Psychological Well-Being in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging

The Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CHSA) provided an opportunity to examine the positive aspects of aging. CHSA-2 included the 18-item Ryff multidimensional measure of well-being, which taps six core theoretical dimensions of positive psychological functioning. The measure was administered to 4,960 seniors without severe cognitive impairment or dementia at CSHA-2. Intercorrelations across scales were generally low. At the same time, the internal consistency reliability of each of the 6 subscales was not found to be high. Confirmatory factor analyses provide support for a 6-factor model, although some items demonstrate poor factor loadings. The well-being measures in CSHA-2 provide an opportunity to examine broad, descriptive patterns of well-being in Canadian seniors.

Restructuring Work and the Life Course

Major economic, technological and demographic forces are combining to influence the ways in which the very structures of peoples lives are changed by the work they do. The major defining features of life course, including patterns of entry to and exit from work, are shifting, as is the very nature of jobs and careers. In this multidisciplinary collection of essays, forty-eight social scientists from seven countries examine changes in the organization of work and their impact on people at various stages of the life course. In seeking to consolidate and advance life course theory, the four editors of this volume have sought out and encouraged a wide range of approaches to life course theorizing, methodologies, and research designs. The contributing scholars examine the influence of economic, technological, and demographic forces on public, corporate, and union policies concerning the organisation of work. The topics covered include: education, labour market change, and transitions in the earlier and middle stages of the working life course; later life transitions in relation to the restructuring of work, and retirement transitions; and various aspects of the relationship between individual biography and social structure, with close attention to gender and family issues over the life course.

Well being in Canadian seniors: Findings from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.

While aging is associated with increased health problems and disability, most seniors subjectively rate their health positively, and view aging as a positive period of life evaluation, increased wisdom and maturity. The somewhat paradoxical nature of these findings suggests that later life well-being is multidimensional and variable. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey, this paper describes the subjective well-being of a sample of Canadian seniors, using the Ryff multidimensional measure of well-being, and investigates the effects of various demographic, health and socio-economic conditions on reported levels of well-being. Seniors’ well-being is robust in terms of the dimension of autonomy, which is resilient to the physical and social circumstances of later life. But, as seniors age, they experience declines in their sense of purpose in life and opportunities for personal growth, in part, due to socio-economic factors. Good health and functional status are important for seniors’ sense of mastery over their surrounding world.

Later life : the social psychology of aging

Dominant and Emerging Paradigms in the Social Psychology of Aging - Victor W Marshall The Subjective Construction of Self and Society - Carol D Ryff An Agenda for Life-Span Research Socialization in Old Age - A Meadian Perspective - Neena Chappell and Harold L Orbach Some Contributions of Symbolic Interaction to the Study of Growing Old - Don Spence A Sociological Perspective on Aging and Dying - Victor Marshall The Old Person as Stranger - James J Dowd Social Networks and Social Support - Barry Wellman and Alan Hall Implications for Later Life Friendships in Old Age - Sarah H Matthews Biography and Circumstance The Social Construction of the Life Course - Martin Kohli Comparative Perspectives on the Microsociology of Aging - Vern L Bengtson Methodological Problems and Theoretical Issues

Instability in the Retirement Transition Effects on Health and Well-Being in a Canadian Study

The relationship between employment and retirement is changing dramatically in industrialized societies, with a decreasing proportion of working life being spent in stable career progression. Many who retire from long-service career jobs now seek paid employment in bridge jobs before completely exiting the labor force. There is little research about the effects of employment transitions and instability in later life on health, but limited research on instability early in the working life does show a strong and significant relationship. In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between instability in the retirement transition and health in a sample of early retirees from a major Canadian telecommunications company. Instability is found to be associated with adverse health effects, with variability by gender and type of health measure. In addition, both objective and subjective transition characteristics were related to variability in health.

Reconceptualizing the relationship between “public” and “private” eldercare

Abstract Recent changes in patterns of care provision for the elderly, including a withdrawal of the formal system and increasing reliance on family care providers, call for new conceptualization and theoretical development. Existing models of the relationship between formal and informal care are reviewed, but found wanting in neglecting the dynamic relationships between formal and informal providers as they negotiate the nature and allocation of caregiving as work. Data from a Canadian study of community nurses providing care to frail elders over the age of 65 years, and family members also providing such care, are used to illustrate the utility of a new model grounded in socialist-feminist thought. Study findings suggest a number of implications for future theory development and research.

North American research on seasonal migration.

The authors attempt to summarize U.S. research on elderly seasonal migration in the context of a recent study on the seasonal migration of elderly Canadian winter residents in Florida. (ANNOTATION)

Family, Friends, Stress, and Well-being: Does Childlessness Make a Difference?

Data from the Survey on Ageing and Independence are employed to test the relationship between stress, integration in close family and friend networks, and well-being with a particular emphasis on parent status. The dependent variables used in this analysis are, whether individuals have a close family member or a close friend, the number of reported close relatives and friends, life stress, and the affect balance scale. It is hypothesized that the zero order relationship often found between parent status and well-being may be due to (1) a fundamental difference in the social support experiences of older parents and older childless individuals, (2) different levels of stress among these groups, or (3) the potential of friends to be of greater importance in assuring well-being in older age than family. Results show that childless persons are less likely than parents to have at least one close family member and they have fewer close relatives. No parent status differences are found regarding the likelihood of having a close friend or in the number of close friends individuals have. Compared to parents, childless individuals experience less life stress and similar levels of well-being. Finally, the nature of the stress-support-well-being relationship appears to be the same regardless of parent status.

Age and Awareness of Finitude in Developmental Gerontology

In developmental theory, awareness of finitude is held to initiate processes of disengagement, self-focusing, and life-review. Age has been assumed to be inversely related to awareness of finitude, and employed in testing these conceptions. Rather then being a simple inverse function of age, awareness of finitude is an estimate based on social-comparison processes. These data demonstrate the weaknesses inherent in any attempt to substitute age as a measure of awareness of finitude. Selected aspects of reminiscence are examined in relation to awareness of finitude in illustration of the fruitfulness of a direct use of awareness of finitude as a variable in relation to developmental aspects of aging.