Attitudes of Adult Children Whose Aged Parents are Members of a Sheltered Workshop

Responses to items on a questionnaire returned by children of parents employed in a sheltered workshop were evaluated to determine childrens' attitudes about their parents' participation, how they would feel about entering such a facility themselves, and whether changes were recognized in their parents as a result of the vocational therapy. Respondents studied were groups of children of aged men and women who were physically and mentally well, men and women who were mentally impaired, and aged women who were mentally intact but suffering some physical impairment, to determine effects of parents' condition on children's attitudes. While respondents viewed the therapy as favorable, their parents' participation in the workshop did not appear to alter children's feelings about the aging process.

Satisfaction with Retirement Housing: Attitudes, Recommendations and Moves

This paper reports on the satisfaction of 600 persons who had chosen to live in special group housing for the well-elderly. Six widely varying types of housing facilities comprised the choices: retirement hotel, urban high-rise, life-care home and retirement villages appealing to three different socioeconomic groups. Responses were compared to those given by matched controls who lived in conventional housing. Satisfaction was measured in three ways: a direct global question; a series of projective questions; and the behavioral measure of moves away from the site: both those that had already taken place and those that were being contemplated. All satisfaction criteria were combined into a summed satisfaction score as well as analyzed separately. The elements related to satisfaction with retirement housing were concluded to be: proximity, security, balance of independence-dependence, proper amount of age-segregation, degree of financial commitment, psychological readiness, provision of creature comforts, reference group and relative satisfaction, and alienation or integration.

Social Structure and Status of the Aged: Toward Some Valid Cross-Cultural Generalizations

Through an examination of social structural elements in Meso-American peasant communities, six “structural determinants” of status of the aged are derived. These are almost identical with determinants proposed independently by Cowgill, derived from a number of cross-cultural sources. It is suggested that these determinants have universal validity, and that status of the aged in all societies is dependent upon them. It is further proposed that these determinants can be economically reduced to four basic “prestige generating” components: (1) advisory, reflected in the degree to which the advice or opinion of the aged individual is actually heeded; (2) contributory, reflected in the extent to which older society members still participate actively in various spheres; (3) control, reflecting the degree of direct control which the aged have over behavior or welfare of others; (4) residual, reflecting residual prestige from previous statuses. These four components of prestige may vary independently, and one or more must be operative for aged individuals to be viewed with, and accorded, prestige.

Widowhood, Social Participation and Life Satisfaction

The study is an analysis of the relation between widowhood, social participation and life satisfaction as measured by the Havighurst Life Satisfaction Scale-Form A. The study compared the level of participation and LSIA scores of married and widowed males and females residing in sixty-one small towns of Missouri in 1966. Females were found to be more activity oriented than males, whether with children, relatives, friends or in formal organizations. There were no changes in activity patterns after widowhood among females. Males show a linear decline in most types of participation with length of widowhood. Association with friends appears to be more closely associated with LSIA score than is association with children and relatives. Participation in formal groups, primarily the church, correlated more closely with LSIA scores than does either participation with family or friends. Widowhood produces a more drastic change in life style and in satisfaction of small town elderly males than it does for females.

The Alchoholic Patient in the Nursing Home

There are indications that more alcoholics are being placed in nursing homes than ever before. To determine in what ways these patients differ from others going to nursing homes, all alcoholics (72) placed from hospital to nursing homes were studied prior to placement and followed 6 months in 35 homes. Seventy-one nonalco-holics placed during the same period were randomly selected for comparison. Hospital disability ratings from physicians, evaluations from social workers, and diagnostic data from records indicated no significant differences in levels of disability or impairment. Alcoholics were less likely to be currently married and had less income. Although they were younger, they had a significantly higher number of diagnoses than other nursing home patients (P< .01); however, with the exception of cirrhosis and brain syndrome, they had fewer serious illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. Outcome after 6 months showed 28 percent left the nursing home, 45 percent were still in the home, 10 percent were hospitalized, and 16 percent had expired. These outcomes were not significantly different from other nursing home patients. Results indicate alcoholics are as much in need of nursing home services as other patients, even though they differ along social and specific illness patterns *

The Effects of Praise and Reproof on the Performance of Middle Aged and Older Subjects

Aged (n=33) and middle-aged (n-33) Ss were compared on a digit symbol substitution task under three conditions of verbal feedback incentive: praise, reproof, and neutral comment. Elderly Ss appeared to show decrement while middle-aged Ss showed increment under the censure condition. Elderly Ss showed early gains with praise but these were not significantly sustained through later trials as compared to controls. An analysis of “fast” and “slow” responders suggested that the fast-responding aged showed greatest decrement with censure while the middle-aged slow responders showed a tendency toward an increment with censure.

An Approach to the Measurement of Prestige Loss among the Aged

While it is often assumed that the aged are accorded low prestige status in the stratification systems of urban-industrial societies, direct empirical research demonstrating the existence and extent of prestige loss and delineating sources of variation has not been undertaken. Using a format similar to the NORC occupational prestige studies, an exploratory approach to this problem is made by asking a sample of older persons to evaluate the prestige of a series (“E”) of 9 general occupational titles and a matched series (“R”) of 9 occupational titles prefaced by the age-status designation “retired” (e.g., plumbers/retired plumbers). The hypothesis of low perceived prestige is supported as the summary prestige score for the R-series is significantly lower than the score for the E-series. Further analysis suggests the existence of an “order of presentation” effect: a greater difference between the summary prestige scores is found for those evaluating the R-series early in the interview and the E-series later in the interview than vice-versa. The methodological implications of this finding are considered as is the potential utility of the general method for more heterogeneous samples. Also considered is the use of the method to determine variation in perceptions of prestige loss among the aged along such dimensions as social integration, life satisfaction, age, socioeconomic status, and others.

Circe's Terrible Island of Change

In old age, the relationship between physical incapacity and mental state is apparently circular; that is, degree of physiological degeneration both affects and reflects psychic state. This paper focuses on two questions: 1) To what extent do old people referred for psychiatric care differ from the general aged population in their own ratings of level of self-care? 2) To what extent do age, sex, and mental symptoms play a part in how old people referred for psychiatric care evaluate their physical activity level and health? Interviews with a sample of 140 old people referred for mental hospitalization suggest that they're neither homogeneous in their self-evaluations of health nor in ability to perform activities of daily living. There seem to be two elements that make up the pattern of self-evaluations by mentally ill old people. One of these is presence or absence of observable symptoms of mental illness. The second is the sex of the respondent. Men, regardless of mental state, feel themselves as independent more often than do women and are even more likely to stress independence when confronted by a female interviewer. The differences between men and women probably reflect sex role behavior persisting even after work and parental roles have been abandoned.