Generativity refers to activities that help to establish and guide the next generation. This paper explores the nature of generative concern among older people and how it manifests itself in an era of rapid social and technological changes that have produced wide generation gaps. Eight focus groups were conducted with 51 women and 20 men who were recruited from social centres in Hong Kong on the basis of age, socio-economic status, and level of participation in the centres. The discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed using grounded-theory principles. The elders frequently referred to the superior educational level and technological knowledge of their offspring, as well as the differences in values and lifestyles between the generations, which they thought had made their own knowledge and wisdom obsolete. They had concerns about social and technological changes, however, and they aroused a sense of urgency to protect the younger generation from contemporary evils, while many considered that passing on moral and behavioural codes nowadays was the most important generative role. Although they wanted to help, their efforts were often criticised. In order to maintain harmonious relationships and to avoid conflicts with their offspring, many participants adopted passive generative roles. Attempts to stabilise the generative self by redefining generativity were also observed. The final section of the paper discusses the implications of the findings for the maintenance of the generative self in personal situations of declining resources.

This article reports findings from a three-year project on ‘Communication patterns and their consequences for effective care’ that explored communication in dementia-care settings. As the proportion of people with dementia living in British care-homes continues to grow, there is a need to understand better their care. Using a range of qualitative methods, the project set out to identify the constituent elements of dementia-care practice and the patterns that characterise day-to-day relations in care homes. The tightly prescribed and standardised nature of the interactions between staff and residents is described: it raises questions about the capacity for dementia care to be truly person-centred. The project found that people with dementia are both capable of communication, and invest much effort in seeking to engage those around them, but are excluded from the monitoring, planning and provision of care in ways that we argue are discriminatory. The case is made for promoting and supporting communication as key skills and competencies for care workers. The value of measuring the level and quality of communication as a means to evaluate care is demonstrated. The authors question the priorities that currently guide care practice and argue that we need to listen to people with dementia and rethink what lies at the heart of dementia care.

This paper examines how older women experience and respond to ageism in relation to their changing physical appearances and within the context of their personal relationships and places of employment. We elucidate the two definitions of ageism that emerged in in-depth interviews with 44 women aged 50 to 70 years: the social obsession with youthfulness and discrimination against older adults. We examine the women's arguments that their ageing appearances were pivotal to their experience of ageism and underscored their engagement in beauty work such as hair dye, make-up, cosmetic surgery, and non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The women suggested that they engaged in beauty work for the following underlying motivations: the fight against invisibility, a life-long investment in appearance, the desire to attract or retain a romantic partner, and employment related-ageism. We contend that the women's experiences highlight a tension between being physically and socially visible by virtue of looking youthful, and the realities of growing older. In other words, social invisibility arises from the acquisition of visible signs of ageing and compels women to make their chronological ages imperceptible through the use of beauty work. The study extends the research and theorising on gendered ageism and provides an example of how women's experiences of ageing and ageism are deeply rooted in their appearances and in the ageist, sexist perceptions of older women's bodies.

The high cultural valuation of youthfulness and fitness in the mass media and more generally in western consumer society is the contextual frame for this study. It examines older people's attitudes towards their own ageing and towards people who are older or frailer than themselves. Participant observation was conducted of the attitudes, actions and interactions of the users of a senior centre in Norway. The users held two sets of attitudes that led to quite different activities and actions at the centre. On the one hand, they saw the centre as helping them ‘thrive’, which was associated with involvement in the community and participation in the structured daily activities to promote the senses of belonging and being useful. On the other hand, some perceived the centre and particularly the other users as ‘threats’ – as reminding them that they were getting old and increasingly vulnerable to sickness and disability. To some, the centre was for old people with disabilities, and they used subtle strategies to distance themselves from this group. Some users' attitudes and behaviour were in tension: they wished to participate in the valued activities but also to distance themselves from frailer users, while not denying their own ageing. The distancing strategies and behaviour amounted to age discrimination in interpersonal relations and interactions at the centre. This behaviour accepts rather than challenges the cultural valuation of youthfulness and the negative representation of old age.

This article aims to answer the following question: how have refugee families in the United States (US) modified attitudes and behaviours surrounding intergenerational exchanges within the context of filial piety? This research reports on one 31-member extended family in a community of Cambodian refugee families living along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The family members in this study have changed types, found new meanings in, and are often ambivalent about, intergenerational exchanges. Moreover, they have held onto those aspects of Cambodian culture that were considered essential, such as filial piety and elder reverence, while adapting and redefining types and meanings of intergenerational exchanges the better to reflect their current lives in the United States. These findings illuminate ways in which changed life circumstances and cultural transitions shaped attitudes, preferences and behavioural patterns associated with intergenerational exchanges. The findings also show how and why refugee families have negotiated and modified their beliefs and behaviours surrounding intergenerational exchanges in the context of massive social and cultural disruption.

This study examines the characteristics of parent-child relationships after childhood from a theoretical attachment perspective. It describes how relationships between adult children and their parents vary by age group of the child on three dimensions that were derived from attachment theory: direction, penetration and quality. Data from 4,589 respondents to the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study were analysed to describe relationships between adult-children and their parents. Analyses of covariance were used to specify differences by age group. The results showed that age had notable effects on relationships between adult children and parents, especially their direction and penetration or centrality. The direction was reversed for parents of children in the two oldest age groups. The level of penetration was lower for the older age groups, and quality was higher in the younger age groups, but the effect size was small. The age effects on the dimensions were qualified by the personal circumstances of the adult children. Having one's own children was associated with different patterns of attachment at different ages. Adult children may be an important source of support for their elderly parents and may even become ‘attachment figures’. Given the current increases in longevity, there could be increasing pressure on adult children to support their parents. Attachment theory is a useful framework for studying the characteristics of inter-generational relationships, also after childhood.