This paper examines the contributions that generativity in older age may make to the concept of successful ageing. To this end, two perspectives on successful ageing are described: successful ageing as a set of clinical criteria, and successful ageing as the application of adaptive processes aimed at achieving efficient functioning. After showing the limitations of the first perspective, particularly from a developmental point of view, the paper argues that the adaptive version of successful ageing helps to put ageing into a developmental frame, but needs to be complemented by identifying specific content and goals that guide these adaptive processes and establish new feasible gains for older people. Generativity in older age could play that role and provides a conceptual framework that enriches the concept of successful ageing, both by emphasising the social context in which people age and by highlighting a personal growth component.

This paper discusses findings from a qualitative study which explored older adults' experiences of becoming regular exercisers in a gym triggered by health problems and their interactions with their younger gym instructors. A key question which the study sought to address was whether becoming embedded in the sub-field of exercise challenged traditional discourses of ageing (age habitus). While these older gym users reported significant benefits (greater health capital, expanded social networks and a return to active life after illness), they nevertheless were engaged in a complex and ambiguous negotiation of attitudes to bodily ageing and meanings of fitness and competence. In contrast, the instructors subscribed to a model of physical activity oriented towards physical capital as greater fitness. The paper suggests that these positions manifest competing understandings about what constitutes appropriate and desirable physical capital in later life. Budgetary constraints, beliefs about physical ability, professional expectations and the persistence of the discourse of decline prevent this gap from being easily bridged and allow alternative notions of ageing physicality to colonise the sub-field of exercise. The paper concludes that there is a need to develop ways of breaking down barriers in communication to overcome divergent understandings of what constitutes legitimate physical capital as we get older.

This paper examines the relationship between attitudes of filial responsibility and five different types of care-giving behaviours to parents among three cultural groups. It does so within an assessment of the relative importance of cultural versus structural factors for care-giving behaviours. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 100 Caucasian-Canadians, 90 Chinese-Canadians and 125 Hong Kong-Chinese. Multiple regression analyses assessed the association of cultural and structural factors with behaviours among the total sample and each of the three cultural groups. Limited support was found for an association between care-giving attitudes and care-giving behaviours. Attitudes are related to emotional support only among the two Chinese groups as well as to financial support among Chinese-Canadian respondents and to companionship among Hong Kong-Chinese respondents. Attitudes are not the strongest predictors and are unrelated to assistance with basic and instrumental activities of daily living. However, cultural group per se is a strong predictor of care-giving behaviours as are: parental ill health, living arrangements, and relationship quality. This study suggests gerontological assumptions about the role of societal norms and personal attitudes in parental care-giving should be questioned. It also suggests the need for further inquiry into unpacking those aspects of ‘cultural group’ that are related to behavioural differences, and the importance of examining multiple types of care-giving behaviours and of distinguishing task-oriented helping behaviour from other types of assistance.

This paper is concerned with the issue of substitution between formal and informal care in Britain between 1985 and 2000. This period provides the conditions for a ‘natural experiment’ in social policy. During the late 1980s/early 1990s, there was an increase in long-stay residential care for older people, which came to an end around the mid-1990s. The paper examines whether this increase in formal services led to a decline in informal care, and whether this was subsequently reversed. The focus is on provision of intense informal care by adult children to their older parents, trends in which are identified using General Household Survey data. The paper shows that there was a decline in provision of intense and very intense co-resident care for older parents between 1985 and 1995, which came to an end in the mid-1990s. These trends in intergenerational care were negatively related to changes in long-stay residential care. In particular, controlling for age and disability, there was evidence of substitution between nursing home/hospital care and very intense co-resident care for older parents. A key policy implication is that an expansion of very intense formal services for older people could bring about a decline in very intense intergenerational care. The paper relates these findings to the current debate on reform of the long-term care system in England.

In this paper we examine whether there are systematic differences in the quality of life, depending on whether an individual is institutionalised or not, holding health status and income level constant. In doing this we use a nationally representative data set, the Health 2000 in Finland. When controlling for health and functional status, demographics and income level, we find that individuals who are living in old-age homes actually report significantly higher levels of subjective wellbeing than those who are living at home. We argue that this finding emerges from queuing for care homes. This implies that there are individuals living at home who are so frail that they should really be living in an old-age institution, but because of the queues for that particular mode of living, they are living at home with a decreased quality of life as a consequence.

The study objective was to explore the views of residents and relatives concerning the physical design of extra-care housing. Five focus groups were conducted with residents in four extra-care schemes in England. One focus group was carried out with relatives of residents from a fifth scheme. Schemes were purposively sampled to represent size, type, and resident tenure. Data were analysed thematically using NVivo 8. Two over-arching themes emerged from the data: how the building supports the lifestyle and how the building design affects usability. Provision of activities and access to amenities were more restrictive for residents with disabilities. Independent living was compromised by building elements that did not take account of reduced physical ability. Other barriers to independence included poor kitchen design and problems doing laundry. Movement around the schemes was difficult and standards of space and storage provision were inadequate. The buildings were too hot, too brightly lit and poorly ventilated. Accessible external areas enabled residents to connect with the outside world. The study concluded that, while the design of extra-care housing meets the needs of residents who are relatively fit and healthy, those with physical frailties and/or cognitive impairment can find the building restrictive resulting in marginalisation. Design across the dependency spectrum is key in meeting the needs of residents. Inclusive, flexible design is required to benefit residents who are ageing in situ and have varying care needs.

Extra care housing aims to meet the housing, care and support needs of older people, while helping them to maintain their independence in their own private accommodation. In 2003, the Department of Health announced capital funding to support the development of extra care housing, and made the receipt of funding conditional on participating in an evaluative study. Drawing on information collected directly from residents in 19 schemes, this paper presents findings on the factors motivating older people to move to extra care housing, their expectations of living in this new environment, and whether these differ for residents moving to the smaller schemes or larger retirement villages. In total, 949 people responded, 456 who had moved into the smaller schemes and 493 into the villages. Of the residents who moved into the villages most (75%) had not received a care assessment prior to moving in, and had no identified care need. There was evidence that residents with care needs were influenced as much by some of the attractions of their new living environment as those without care needs who moved to the retirement villages. The most important attractions of extra care housing for the vast majority of residents were: tenancy rights, flexible onsite care and support, security offered by the scheme and accessible living arrangements. The results suggest that, overall, residents with care needs seem to move proactively when independent living was proving difficult rather than when staying put is no longer an option. A resident's level of dependency did not necessarily influence the importance attached to various push and/or pull factors. This is a more positive portrayal of residents’ reasons for moving to smaller schemes than in previous UK literature, although moves did also relate to residents’ increasing health and mobility problems. In comparison, type of tenure and availability of social/leisure facilities were more often identified as important by those without care needs in the villages. Therefore, as in other literature, the moves of village residents without care needs seemed to be planned ones mostly towards facilities and in anticipation of the need for care services in the future.

The purpose of this article is to review, contrast and synthesise several major intellectual streams that have guided theoretical development and empirical research in the area of intergenerational family support to older people: (a) normative-integrative approaches that focus on cohesion between family members based on bonds of solidarity and norms of filial obligation, and (b) transactional approaches that are primarily concerned with identifying motives for resource transfers across generational lines. We propose the concept of moral capital – defined as the stock of internalised social norms that obligate children to care for and support their older parents – the transmission of which lies at the intersection of self-interest (for parents) and altruism (for children). Using data from a multigenerational family study, we present an empirical analysis showing that a strong positive correspondence in the filial obligations of adult children and their older mothers – arguably the result of intergenerational transmission – elevated the supportive behaviour of children. We suggest that moral capital may be a useful unifying concept that bridges disciplinary and theoretical divides in the study of intergenerational transfers to elderly people by helping resolve the paradox of how self-interest and selflessness can co-exist within families.