This research focuses on cognitive representations of the personal future during the second half of life. To investigate the developmental perspectives of people growing older, the anticipation of possible gains is studied. The participants of this study took part in the German Aging Survey and the sample comprises 2,934 subjects aged 40–85 years. To assess their anticipated ‘gains’, we selected the future-related items from the SELE-questionnaire, a sentence completion instrument administered for the Survey. We assumed that many would anticipate further enrichment by new social and societal activities in retirement, but the most frequently-mentioned gains referred to changes in life style and leisure activities, especially travelling. Plans and wishes feature a predominantly leisure-oriented life style. Among the anticipations, those concerned with generativity – caring for others, societal commitment, vocational ambitions – substantially decrease at about the age of 50 years. It was hypothesised that age, gender, living in the former East or West Germany, health, education, income, and perceived control would influence the cognitive representation of the future. To examine the effects of these personal and situational factors on gain anticipations, multiple regression analyses were performed. With respect to all independent variables, differences in the kinds of expected gains were found. The outcomes are discussed with reference to lifespan developmental theory and the role of older people in society.

This study examined the relationship between suicide rates among men since 1975 and rates of unemployment and labour force participation in 20 countries. Previous research has found statistically significant correlations between suicide and unemployment rates over time among young people in a number of countries. This study has extended this research to include different age groups of men. The findings for younger workers largely confirm the findings of previous studies. Among older workers, however, unemployment and suicide rates are largely unrelated, notable exceptions including Japan and the USA. The implications of this finding for policy making towards older workers are discussed.

This paper uses data from the European Community Household Panel surveys of 1994 and 1996 to study the association between changes in care-giving and changes in weekly work hours. Our sample comprises women aged 45–59 years who participated in the labour force in at least one of the two years studied. Controlling for country variation, we find significant relationships between starting or increasing informal care-giving and changes in weekly work hours. No such association is found however among women terminating a care-giving commitment or reducing their care hours. Starting care-giving significantly reduces work hours for women in northern European countries (except Ireland). By contrast, women in southern Europe and Ireland respond to an increase in care-giving hours by a smaller increase or a higher decrease in work hours than non care-givers. In summary, our results show that the impact of care-giving on adjustments of weekly work hours is asymmetrical and that it differs in southern and northern Europe.

This paper considers a dimension of social life that has been largely neglected in the research literature on ageing, older men's involvement with informal associations. These affiliations represent an under-valued resource which may contribute to the quality of life of older men by facilitating social interaction and providing a context for continued social productivity. Using the British Household Panel Survey for 1999, we explore the engagement of men aged 65 or more years with civic groups (such as political parties or voluntary agencies), religious organisations, and sports and social clubs. Involvement in civic and religious groups and sports clubs is common among middle class older men, while social club membership is common among working class men. Only a small amount of these differences can be explained by variations in health, income and access to private transport. Compared with partnered older men, widowers are more likely to be involved with sports and social clubs, while men who are divorced or never married are less likely to be a member of any informal group.

For some time in Britain, it has been difficult to recruit clinical psychologists and other health professionals to work with older people. This pattern of under-recruitment has also been reported in other countries. With the growing number of older people in western societies, the issue of under-recruitment warrants further attention. This research reported here aimed to explore this issue among the next generation of clinical psychologists: those currently training. Questionnaires were posted to 25 of the clinical psychology training courses in the United Kingdom, and 371 trainees returned questionnaires. Among the questions posed, the trainees were asked to set down their thoughts as to why it might be difficult to recruit to the older adult specialty and how recruitment could be improved. The results suggest that many trainees believe that clinical psychology, despite many recent advances, has less to offer older people than other age groups. The responses contain evidence of both ageism and the fear of ageing and death. To improve recruitment into the older adult specialty of clinical psychology, the predominant recommendations were for good quality placements and teaching during training, as well as a need for improved marketing by clinical psychologists working in this specialty, and also for improved support, terms and conditions.

This paper is a contribution to the developing understanding of social relationships in institutional care settings. It focuses on two areas that have been neglected in research: the reasons for and types of social interaction in institutional settings, and the ways in which the context of people's lives shapes social interaction. The paper draws on ethnographic observations conducted in four care settings in Scotland using a symbolic interactionist perspective. It finds that residents communicate and interact, and that the personal, cultural and structural contexts frame social interaction and influence the ways that residents use humour, express sexuality, and show hostility. The paper concludes that residents create social interactions in which action is embedded, but do so within specific structural and cultural contexts. These contexts ‘control’ resident action by establishing frameworks for the interpretation of meaning. At the same time, each facet of context is ‘controlled’ by the ways in which residents actively take on the ‘role’ of others, and project ‘self’ and a ‘label’.

Population ageing and constraints on public sector spending for older people with long-term health problems have led policy makers to turn to the social networks of older people, or the ‘informal sector’, as a source of long-term care. An important question arising from this policy shift is whether these social networks have the resources to sustain the high levels of care that can be required by older people with chronic health problems. In the face of both dire warnings about the imminent demise of the informal sector, and concurrent expectations that it will be the pillar of community long-term care, it is timely to undertake a critical analysis of the caring capacity of older people's social networks. In this paper we argue that the best way to understand the caring capacity of informal networks of frail older people is to establish their membership and caring capacity. It is useful to make conceptual distinctions between ‘social’, ‘support’, and ‘care-giving’ networks. We argue that transitions of networks from social through support to care roles are likely to show systematic patterns, and that at each transition the networks tend to contract as the more narrowly defined functions prevail. A focus on ‘care networks’, rather than the more usual ‘care dyads’, will move forward our understanding of the caring capacity of the informal sector, and also our ability to forge sound social and health policies to support those who provide care.