Combating loneliness: a friendship enrichment programme for older women

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
NAN STEVENS
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Older People ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
The Self ◽  
Single Type ◽  
Important Goal

Research indicates that friendship contributes to wellbeing in later life in various ways: through the provision of companionship in daily life, support during stressful transitions, sustainment of identity under changing circumstances and adaptation to old age. However not all older people have friends available who fulfil these different functions. In order to promote wellbeing and reduce loneliness, an educational programme on friendship enrichment for older women has been developed and implemented in the Netherlands. The friendship programme's main goal is empowerment; it helps women clarify their needs in friendship, analyse their current social network, set goals in friendship and develop strategies to achieve goals. Reduction of loneliness, when present, is also an important goal of the programme. A study that followed 40 participants during the year after the programme demonstrates that a majority succeeded in developing new, or improving existing, friendships and in significantly reducing their loneliness. They also reported changes related to the self and social behaviour. Limitations of the research design, reflection on the feasibility of reducing loneliness through a single type of intervention, and possible applications of the programme's design to other areas, are presented in the discussion.

scholarly journals Loneliness as a Biographical Disruption—Theoretical Implications for Understanding Changes in Loneliness

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 2029-2039
Author(s):  
Deborah J Morgan ◽  
Vanessa Burholt
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
Biographical Disruption ◽  
Stability And Change ◽  
Life Study ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Objectives While a great deal is known about the risk factors that increase vulnerability to loneliness in later life, little research has explored stability and change in levels of loneliness. Methods Narrative interviews were conducted with 11 participants who were identified as being lonely during Wave 1 of the Maintaining Function and Well-being in Later Life Study Wales (CFAS Wales). The interviews were used to explore stability and change in levels of loneliness from the perspective of older people themselves. The interviews focused on participant’s perspectives of the events that triggered loneliness, stability, and change in levels of loneliness over time as well as participant’s responses to loneliness. Results The findings show that participants experienced losses and loneliness as biographical disruption. How participants and their wider social network responded to these losses had implications for the individual’s trajectory through loneliness. Discussion Drawing on a biographical lens, the study reframed the events that triggered loneliness as disruptive events. This article discusses the utility of biographical disruption in understanding stability and change in loneliness. The findings suggest how drawing on valued identities may help lonely adults transition out of loneliness.

scholarly journals Safe passage of goods and self during residential relocation in later life

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 833-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID J. EKERDT ◽  
MARK LUBORSKY ◽  
CATHERINE LYSACK
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Older People ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Life World ◽  
Residential Relocation ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
Positive Adaptation ◽  
Household Relocation

ABSTRACTTechniques of possession research among older people tend to accentuate their prizing of things and their use of special dispositions to achieve the protection or ‘safe passage’ of things as they transfer to a new owner. Such efforts on behalf of possessions may also be undertaken to perpetuate the self. To study the care of things and self in a wider context, we examined older people's repertoire of disposition strategies during episodes of household relocation and downsizing. We analysed the narratives of persons in 75 households in the Midwestern United States of America. People indeed told stories about the safe passage of cherished possessions – their initiative to place things, appreciation by new owners, and attempts to project the values or memory of the giver. Such accounts of special placements, however, dotted rather than dominated recollections of the move. More commonly, large quantities of items were passed via non-specific offers of possessions to others who may volunteer to take them. This allowed people to nonetheless express satisfaction that their possessions had found appreciative owners. Even though our interviews did not disclose extensive attempts at self-transmission, whole-house downsizing may affirm the self in another way: as conscientious about the care of things. Such affirmation of the present self as accomplished and responsible can be seen as a positive adaptation to the narrowing life world.

scholarly journals ‘I like to go out to be energised by different people’: an exploratory analysis of mobility and wellbeing in later life

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 758-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRIEDERIKE ZIEGLER ◽  
TIM SCHWANEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

ABSTRACTThis paper adds to the growing number of studies about mobility and wellbeing in later life. It proposes a broader understanding of mobility than movement through physical space. Drawing on the ‘mobility turn’ in the social sciences, we conceptualise mobility as the overcoming of any type of distance between a here and a there, which can be situated in physical, electronic, social, psychological or other kinds of space. Using qualitative data from 128 older people in County Durham, England, we suggest that mobility and wellbeing influence each other in many different ways. Our analysis extends previous research in various ways. First, it shows that mobility of the self – a mental disposition of openness and willingness to connect with the world – is a crucial driver of the relation between mobility and wellbeing. Second, while loss of mobility as physical movement can and often does affect older people's sense of wellbeing adversely, this is not necessarily so; other mobilities can at least to some extent compensate for the loss of mobility in physical space. Finally, wellbeing is also enhanced through mobility as movement in physical space because the latter enables independence or subjectively experienced autonomy, as well as inter-dependence in the sense of relatively equal and reciprocal social relations with other people.

Health capital in everyday life of the oldest old living in their own homes

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 2156-2175 ◽  
Author(s):  
ASTRID BERGLAND ◽  
ÅSHILD SLETTEBØ
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Older People ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Oldest Old ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Health Capital ◽  
Active Contribution

ABSTRACTAs more people experience old age as a time of growth and productivity, more research is needed that explores how they master everyday life. This paper reports on a qualitative study that explored how ten older women age 90 years or more experience and cope with the challenges of everyday life with a salutogenic perspective. The findings suggest that health resources such as positive expectation, reflection and adaptation, function and active contribution, relations and home, contribute to the health capital of women. These health resources were of importance for the women's experience of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in daily life. Health capital is a meaningful concept for understanding coping in everyday life by older people.

Shaping the active, autonomous and responsible modern retiree: an analysis of discursive technologies and their links with neo-liberal political rationality

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBBIE LALIBERTE RUDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Political Rationality ◽  
Marketing Risk ◽  
Practices Of The Self ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Discursive Constructions

Retirement is undergoing structural and discursive transformations that have implications for the individual and social experience and management of later life. Although discourses about retirement do not determine how individuals will prepare for and act as ‘retirees’, they provide morally-laden messages that shape people's possibilities for being and acting. Using Canadian newspaper articles published in 1999 and 2000, and drawing upon the governmentality perspective, this study explores the interconnections between neo-liberal political rationality and discursive constructions of ‘retiree’ subjectivities. The analysis demonstrates the ways in which certain subjectivities, and their associated technologies and practices of the self that are consistent with neo-liberal political rationality, are being shaped as ideal for ‘retirees’. The paper critically examines this process and its implications, and argues that the personal ‘freedom’ promised with the idealised life practices is ultimately illusory, because they oblige older people to resist or defy ageing through relentless projects of self-reflection and improvement, self-marketing, risk management, lifestyle maximisation and body optimisation. The implications of the neo-liberal discourse about old age and ‘retirees’ for future social policies and older people's services are critically examined.

A sense of dignity in later life: a qualitative study on the views of older women migrants from minoritised backgrounds

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roiyah Saltus ◽  
Christalla Pithara
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Minority Ethnic

Purpose – Research evidence indicates the need for studies that explore the salience of dignity from the perspective of older people from a range of ethno-linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Drawing findings from a mixed-methods study on social-care expectations of community-dwelling older women from black and minority-ethnic backgrounds, the purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelationships between life-course events (such as migration) and the roles adopted by the women throughout their lives, which shaped their understanding of dignity. Design/methodology/approach – Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with 32 older women in Wales were conducted in the participants’ first languages. The interview schedule was developed, piloted and peer-reviewed; it covered the themes of migration, perceptions of dignity, dignity in later life, perceptions of care and care with dignity. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. This paper focuses on what dignity meant to older women and how a sense of dignity was fostered in later life. Findings – For the participants, a sense of dignity in later life was shaped by migration to the UK, and their shifting, transnational understanding of growing old in the UK and of the perceived worth and value of the roles they played. Although some women also saw other platforms (such as work and their status as professionals) as being of importance, a sense of purpose fostered in their roles as wives, mothers and grandmothers, and as mentors and guardians of cultural knowledge, underpinned their understanding of dignity, and reinforced their sense of acknowledgement and worth. Fostered from an early age through interactions with the family and close community (religious, cultural or ethnic), respect for older people was revealed to remain a key element of the participants’ personal and cultural value systems, as were the ways in which respect should be both earned and manifested. The sense of heightened vulnerability, because of advancing age, and the impact of cumulative negative encounters and racialised micro-aggressions, were real and pressing. Practical implications – Given the changing demographic of the older population throughout Europe and the world, there is a need to raise awareness among policy makers and practitioners of the importance of dignity from a range of perspectives – providing first-hand accounts that bring these to life, and data that can be used to help develop effective interventions. Originality/value – This paper adds to the understanding of dignity from a transnational, multi-ethnic perspective; the potential impact of multiple social positions (being old, being a woman, being a migrant and being from a minority-ethnic group) on the perception of being treated and regarded as important and valuable; and the need to raise awareness among policy makers and practitioners of the importance of dignity from a range of perspectives, providing first-hand accounts that bring these to life and that can be used to help develop effective social-care interventions.

“That’s very rude, I shouldn’t be telling you that”

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Older People ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Cultural Resource ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Counter Narratives

This paper discusses narratives created during interviews with 23 older women (aged 61–90) about their experiences of sex and intimate relationships in later life. For analytic purposes, the paper understands narratives to be neither pre-existing nor a simple reflection of experience, but to be made moment-by-moment in the interaction between parties drawing on available cultural resources. Attention to the interactional situation in which the narrative is produced helps to explain the ways in which speakers perpetuate or resist dominant cultural storylines. Older women’s accounts of sexual relationships provide a particularly rich site for this analysis because a dominant cultural storyline of ‘asexual older people’ is often evident in popular culture. This storyline provides an important cultural resource which older women who are talking about sex can both draw on and resist in order to produce their own accounts. This paper uses a discourse analytic approach to discuss some of the moments in which speakers explicitly produce counter-narratives. These moments are visible to the analyst by the participants’ own orientations to telling a counter-narrative. The paper also considers parts of the accounts which the analyst identifies as counter-narratives, although the speakers do not orient to this. The analyst’s own position is thus implicated in the analysis and is reflexively considered.

Moral Flourishing in Later Life Through Purpose Beyond the Self

2020 ◽  
pp. 439-458
Author(s):  
Anne Colby ◽  
Matthew Bundick ◽  
Kathleen Remington ◽  
Emily Morton
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
National Sample ◽  
The Self ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Deep Well

This chapter considers several conceptions of successful aging, analyzing the morally relevant aspects of these models and their missed opportunities to illuminate moral flourishing in older adults. The authors review evidence that engagement with self-transcendent goals and contributions enhances deep well-being for older people, as well as contributing to the well-being of others and the common good. They briefly report their own research on purpose beyond the self, which indicates that almost one-third of a US national sample of older people is purposeful and that purpose in later life doesn’t require economic or educational privilege or even good health. The authors suggest that the moral development field should explore ways to expand conceptions of positive aging to take account of moral dimensions of flourishing and extend insights about moral maturity into the later stages of life.

scholarly journals ‘They’re Going to Die at Some Point, but We’re all Going to Die’ – A Qualitative Exploration of Bereavement in Later Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 003022282110530
Author(s):  
Chao Fang ◽  
Sam Carr
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Dynamic Responses ◽  
Retirement Communities ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
Qualitative Exploration ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article reports on a qualitative study to investigate what bereavement means to older people. Drawing upon 80 in-depth interviews collected from eight British and Australian retirement communities, our study revealed that facing bereavement while ageing includes experiences of losing both others and the wholeness of the self. Core themes identified how the experience of losing others can be compounded by ageing-related challenges, undermining older people’s defence from bereavement and frustrating their fundamental meaning and being. The older people’s dynamic responses were also captured, highlighting the importance of supporting their agency to deal with the deeper pain of loss. By extending the concept of bereavement in later life, we also called for a more grief literate culture to mitigate the multifaceted and often deeper distresses of bereavement that older people may face alongside ageing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document