Efforts in the United States to encourage divisiveness within the working class have been widely recognised as a key strategy in the war on welfare. This paper examines one aspect of this overall strategy, namely the creation of an ideology based on generational equity and ‘age/race wars’ thinking, which blames the old for poverty and economic hardship in the young. Attempts to frame problem analysis and policy deliberations within such an ideological framework are seen to be based on spurious assumptions concerning the relative financial well-being of the old, the role of elderly entitlements as a cause of poverty in minority children, and growing resentment of programmes for the old among minorities and youth.

This paper examines recent attempts to de-legitimate the claims of the elderly through the advancement of an ideology of age/race wars. The assumptions underlying this approach to policy are critiqued, and a case is made for developing an alternative framework which would stress the interdependence of generations, rather than age/race group competition.

The United Kingdom and the Netherlands differ significantly with respect to structure, policy, legislation and financing of their care delivery systems. Day care services for elderly people thus developed in considerably different policy and socio-historical contexts. In this article various aspects of day care in the two countries are compared. The most marked distinctions between the countries concern supply and distribution of services. The practice of day care, however, appears to be very similar, as indicated by similar objectives, care and activities, staffing and premises, and demographic, social and medical characteristics of users. Some differences are noted concerning problems with transport and organisational linkages of day care services. It is concluded that the supply and distribution of services are largely determined by government policy and that design, quality and day-today practice are primarily a consequence of professional standards and the needs of users and their relatives. Further, a new conceptualisation of day care is advocated: different terminology, more flexibility and a wider range of activities. Finally, the future contributions of day care within both countries' policy contexts are discussed.

According to ‘conventional wisdom’ older people are now relatively well off and, as a result, many are in a position to pay for their own care and housing needs in old age. In reviewing the evidence for this latter proposition the article provides a brief overview for the UK population and the implications of an ageing society for the care services. A summary of the main sources of income available to older people is undertaken, including home ownership and ways of releasing equity which might be employed to generate extra income. On the basis that it is also important to match information about financial resources available to older people to the cost of different services, the article reviews the likely costs of residential and nursing home care and the little that is known about the costs of domiciliary services. In short, the article presents a summary of the relevant background information and examines the issue of whether elderly people could (but not necessarily ‘should’) finance their housing and care needs in old age.

Profiles of customary physical activity (CPA) and psychological wellbeing were obtained from a random community sample of 1,042 individuals aged 65 years and over. Activities were assessed with regard to their estimated minimum energy cost and/or their assumed contribution to functional capacity. The structure of CPA, and associations between activity levels, morale and mental health were then investigated. Women and men showed clear differences in the organisation of their activity patterns, and these differences were reflected in activity–affect relationships. For men, factor scores derived from the first principal component of CPA emerged as significant, though modest, predictors of well-being in regression and discriminant analyses. For women, however, activity factor scores failed significantly to predict levels of morale or mental health when medical and demographic factors were controlled. The results indicate that, among the present cohort of retired and elderly people, relationships between customary physical activity levels and psychological well-being are weak, indirect and gender-specific.

Later life and ill health are perceived as being synonymous. To be old is to be unhealthy, while youth is associated with good health. One result of the widespread acceptance of this stereotype is that there has been little analysis of differences in health status within the post-retirement age groups. Data from the 1980 and 1985 General Household Survey (GHS) are used to consider patterns of health in later life. Using cross-sectional analysis, it is shown that morbidity increases with age. However, even for those aged 85+ the experience of ill health is shown not to be universal. Health status varies between both men and women and between the social classes. These differences are shown not to be the result of the varying age composition of the gender and class groups. The data presented show that there are profound age, gender and class differences in health status in later life and these represent the continuation of inequalities observed within the non-retired population.

This paper overviews a series of recent investigations of the sociopsychological meanings of older people's language and communication. The first set of studies investigated young people's perceptions of younger and older voices. Older voices were, in general, downgraded relative to younger voices by young people. In addition, younger people's messages were recalled significantly better than older people's messages. The next set of studies was concerned with whether people seek information differently from people of various ages. The findings indicate that different questions were posed depending on the target's age. Further studies show that young people's information-seeking strategies draw on various ageist assumptions to formulate questions to both younger and older targets. The next investigation examined how young people address both younger and older people when they are requesting different kinds of assistance from them. Not only do we find ageist assumptions mediating the kinds of compliance-gaining young people use with older people, but also negative stereotypes emerge when younger people are asked what kinds of compliance-gaining strategies older people themselves usually adopt. Finally, the above findings are meshed with a new model being developed concerning the relationships between language, health and the elderly.

There is some evidence in the literature of increased demand on health services by adults with psychiatric morbidity. Among people over retirement age these associations appear weaker. Results from three independent, but comparable, surveys of elderly people living in London and Essex are presented in relation to their use of health and social services. Psychiatric morbidity was found to be a poor predictor of service use. Level of functional ability and, in some cases, age were both stronger predictors of use of a selection of these services among the two samples from the urban area. Age was a stronger predictor of use of home help and meals on wheels services among the younger urban sample aged 65–85. The model had little explanatory power in relation to use of general practitioner services. The study also indicated that the semi-rural sample had better reported health status and functional ability than the samples in the urban area. Use of health and social services was also lower in the semi-rural areas.

This study is an attempt to explore the dynamics in a group of family caregivers in a small rural setting in Sweden. Thirty-nine caregivers giving extensive help to elderly family members, who were all on the verge of institutionalisation, were interviewed. The results showed that the motives of caring were usually based on feelings of reciprocity and that the perceived burden of care was related to the proximity of the carer to the person cared for. Despite the existence of a rather well-developed system of formal care, these resources were poorly coordinated with the informal provision of care.

Theoretical approaches to conceptualising the notion of generativity have been psychologically or psychosocially based and assume generativity to be a universal phenomenon. Because psychological issues are subsumed within a cultural context, we suggest that generativity is not a universal psychological principle but rather a cultural construct. In this paper we argue that generativity must be analysed as a product of American culture and its embeddedness in individualism. Through an analysis of ethnographically based interviews with 161 older women we illustrate how generative behaviour is inextricably tied to a constellation of American beliefs about the nature of the self, the meaning of death, and attempts to attain immortality that are informed by the ideology of individualism.

The basis of an effective and satisfactory physician–patient relationship is found in the communication which occurs between these two individuals. By studying the interaction, we can learn much about the identities of the physician and patient, and how they view each other and the world. The interactional dynamics between physician and patient are unique. For example, even in initial medical encounters which involve the meeting of two strangers, patients and physicians deal with concerns as diverse as life and death as well as other intimate or personal issues. Researchers of physician–patient interaction seek to discover how communication evolves and how that communication reveals the multiple levels of meaning in the medical encounter.

Although several authors have speculated about the type of relationship between informal and formal care, relatively little empirical work directly examines the interface between the two support systems. This paper examines the correlates of using neither system, only one system and several combinations of both systems. It explores the characteristics of those who do and do not make complementary use of both systems and under what circumstances the two systems are complementary. Multivariate analyses are performed, using logistic regression analyses, to examine the correlates of the different sources of support. Analyses demonstrate that those who utilize the formal care system do so while retaining care from the informal network. Use of the formal system in conjunction with informal care appears to take place in two instances:when seniors are in need and critical elements of their informal network are lacking, or when they have an intact informal support network, but their health needs are extremely high. In both of these instances the formal system enters to assist the informal network. The data point to the complementarity of the two care systems, not in terms of task specificity, but rather, in terms of a sharing of overall task load.

The Hughes Hall Project for Later Life screened all people aged 75 years and over on the lists of seven general practices in Cambridge in order to identify those who were suffering from dementia. Of those living at home, it was found that 40% were being cared for primarily by husbands or wives, most of whom were themselves over the age of 75. In this paper we describe a group of 34 married couples in which one partner was diagnosed as demented. We suggest that for the nondernenting partner, the experience of caring differs in important respects from that of the more typical carer – usually younger and female – described in much of the research literature.

Research describing the social world of elderly residents of nursing homes is organised in this paper into three levels of analysis: the institutional level, the relational level and the interactional level. The significance of each level is highlighted, with special attention being given to the interactional level of analysis and the study of language within the nursing home. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews with both elderly residents and nurse aides are presented and interpreted as evidence of interactional problems which may emerge in the resident–staff relationship. Implications and future prospects of incorporating the three levels of analysis into the study of the psychosocial well-being of nursing home residents are considered.

Population ageing is often thought to have adverse economic consequences, and economics therefore has a responsibility for contributing to an understanding of ageing. This paper discusses the treatment of population ageing in economic theory and argues that mainstream economics is too narrow and restrictive to provide an adequate representation of ageing. An alternative to mainstream economic theory is a more pluralistic view of ageing, drawing from non-neo-classical economic theory and from the theorising of the other social sciences.

The economic participation rates of older men have fallen dramatically over the last decade. Early retirements have accounted for much although not all of this reduction and yet early retirement has been a somewhat neglected aspect of the social scientific literature. Initially the prerogative of managers and white-collar workers, early retirement has spread to wider sections of the work force and has generally been seen by managers and trade unions as an uncontentious way of achieving ‘headcount reduction'. Research into the experiences of early retirees is sparse but such survey data as does exist suggests relatively high levels of satisfaction. This paper presents some of the findings of a small, qualitative study of the experience of early retirement from the chemical industry of a sample of 40 men from the West Riding of Yorkshire. An attempt was made to construct a quality-of-life index with which to compare and contrast their experiences and investigate some of the major factors in determining the outcome of early retirement. The paper highlights the role of further paid work in enabling healthy men with marketable skills to effectively negotiate their own ‘flexible retirements’. Those with ill health and a lack of skills were unable to do this and these factors were associated with a relatively low quality of life.

Parker's review in the last issue has provided us with a number of questions concerning the relationship between case management services and the needs ofcarers (Parker, 1990a). Essentially, she makes three main points; the first is to question whether there is evidence that some case management services can improve outcomes for carers, the second is about experimental studies, and the third is to raise the question of the financial costs experienced by carers.

Comments made by a UK Government minister in 1989 concerning poverty, or rather the lack of it, amongst elderly people once again reflected the idea that the majority are well-off and less in need of State support than was the case in the past. The idea of a new group of Woopies (well off older persons) has been used as justification for debate about the introduction of means-testing for certain benefits directed at the elderly population. This paper challenges that view. It traces the evolution of the Woopie using published data and then examines the socio-economic characteristics of such a group. In a series of logit estimates to determine what factors are of importance in determining ‘Woopie status’, unsurprisingly receipt of income from assets and from an occupational pension are the most significant variables. Finally the scope for policy changes is examined.

In the present paper we analyse some of the problems in talk to elders by examining evaluative dimensions of talk in general and of address forms in particular. We first introduce status and solidarity as primary dimensions underlying talk. We briefly review research on attitudes and talk to elders, and develop a framework in terms of status and solidarity for understanding the evaluation of talk to elders. The framework, speech accommodation theory, and politeness theory are then employed in a specific analysis of various aspects of problematic address usage: title and last name v. first name; third person; first person plural; and no-naming. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for future research, for practical applications, and for the extension and integration of theory