During recent decades, Lebanon has experienced demographic and social changes which, coupled with political instability, have led to waves of youth migration and a higher proportion of older adults living alone. This paper uses the 2004 data of the ‘Pan Arab Project for Family Health’ to assess the levels of various living arrangements and to examine the correlates of living alone, with a focus on economic resources. The findings reveal that 12 per cent of older adults in Lebanon lived alone (17.3 per cent of women and 6.2 per cent of men). Financially better-off older adults and those who reported being satisfied with their income were, respectively, 4.4 and 1.7 times significantly more likely to live alone than their counterparts. The incomes of Lebanese older adults were mainly provided by their children (74.8%) and a relatively small share derived from pension schemes. Contrary to findings from other Arab countries, variations in living arrangements among Lebanese older adults seem to follow the western model whereby wealthier older individuals are more likely to live alone and to be residentially independent. Further studies are warranted to examine to what extent this trend is the result of past migration of adult children who are now established elsewhere and sending remittances home.

Older people are among the most vulnerable in major disasters. In their aftermath, it is crucial to institute efforts that will maintain a high level of elders' quality of life (QoL). This paper presents QoL assessments of elderly survivors five years after the Bam earthquake in Iran, and evaluates the determinants. A cross-sectional analysis of 210 randomly-selected survivors was carried out in 2008 using the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire. A comparison of the results with data on the general population showed that experiencing the earthquake may adversely affect psychological dimensions of QoL even five years after, but paradoxically the earthquake resulted in better social relationships in affected communities than in the general population. Lower QoL associated with female gender, higher age, living alone, severe earthquake-related injury, poor quality of living conditions, increased dependency in the activities of daily living, living in an urban area, and being temporarily housed. Recovery experts and donors should carry out long-term monitoring of health status and QoL in disaster-affected communities, with a focus on psychological wellbeing. Intervention programmes that emphasise post-disaster quality of care and satisfactory housing may lead to better QoL of the victims and may shorten the recovery phase.

This prospective study examines the relationship between aspects of the neighbourhood social environment and subsequent depressive symptoms in over 7,500 participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Neighbourhood social environment at baseline was operationalised using four items capturing social cohesion and three items capturing perceived safety and associations with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) at two-year follow-up were assessed. Friendship quality and personal sense of control were tested as mediators of this relationship using structural equation modelling. Neighbourhood social cohesion was found to be associated with reporting fewer depressive symptoms independent of demographic and socioeconomic factors and baseline depressive symptoms. Friendship quality and sense of control mediated this association. The study highlights that greater personal sense of control, higher quality friendships and fewer depressive symptoms are found in neighbourhoods seen to be characterised by higher social cohesion.

Nursing homes are a setting in which death and dying is common. How death and dying is articulated and the actions that take place in a nursing home constitute a discourse that guides the staff in their work. The aim of this study was to explore the discourse of death and dying in nursing homes from the perspective and understanding of the staff. The study draws on Foucault's discourse analysis. Data are from five focus-group discussions held with 28 staff of four different nursing homes in Sweden. The findings show that the discourse had three characteristics: (a) dying was silent and silenced, (b) emotions were pushed into the background, and (c) attentiveness to death arose after the moment of the elderly person's death. The structure of the discourse was characterised by a movement between two positions, avoiding and confronting death, the main focus being on avoidance. The articulation and practices of silence highlight a need to regard dying as a process that requires attention. One way to ensure appropriate attention could be to instil the philosophy of palliative care in nursing homes, including training and support for the staff in their work. The study demonstrates that nursing-home staff need more knowledge and support to enable them to feel that they do a good job.

This paper introduces some key theoretical and methodological developments in the study of intergenerational family relations. It draws on observations that a number of social issues are emerging that have an intergenerational dimension, that there is growing recognition that to study adult ageing one has also to study intergenerational relationships, and that a new architecture for social relations is beginning to take shape in the wake of demographic change. How individuals, families and societies cope with such changes provokes the question of how gerontologically-informed research, theorisation and policy will also adapt. Seven positions are summarised which attempt two things. First, to map out some new conceptual directions for intergenerational research through a critical use of concepts such as transition, generational self-awareness and empathy, metaphors of cultural translation, and the deployment of social and moral capital. Second, to examine changing gender roles, the balance between family and welfare-state support frameworks, ethnicity and immigration as important elements of this process. A critical review of approaches to intergenerational relationships hopefully emerges.

This paper introduces the theme of the special issue on wellbeing, independence and mobility. We begin with outlining the complexity of each of these notions and then turn towards their interdependence. It is argued that the links between wellbeing, independence and mobility are manifold and contextual in older people's everyday lives: they differ between places, between individuals and across phases in each individual's unique lifecourse. The inherent complexity of those links can be examined fruitfully and understood better if a geographical or environmental analytical perspective is adopted. We also suggest that the interdependence of wellbeing, independence and mobility in later life needs to be understood in the context of neo-liberal governmentality and the creation of particular ways of being and acting for older people. The piece concludes with a brief description of the papers brought together in the special issue.

Evidence suggests that people with strong social support have lower mortality and morbidity and better self-rated health in later life, but few studies have used longitudinal data to examine the factors that inhibit or enhance social support. This study used both quantitative data and qualitative texts to explore older women's social networks. The mixed-methods design drew participants from the 1921–26 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Regression modelling for repeated measures was used to analyse the longitudinal data. The qualitative data was content analysed by the themes identified from the quantitative analyses. The quantitative analyses revealed that larger social networks associated with better mental health, widowhood, illness or death of a family member, and no mobility problems. Women who were not Australian-born, had sight problems or who had moved house were more likely to have smaller social networks. The qualitative data provided insight into the lived experiences of this group of women. The use of a mixed methodology enabled the longitudinal quantitative results to be enriched by the women's own words. The findings highlight the importance to older women of being able to access their social network members to gain the psychological and emotional benefits.

Attempts to import existing measures developed in other countries when constructing research instruments for use with older people can result in several problems including inappropriate wording, unsuitable response sets, and insufficient attention to cultural nuances. This paper addresses such problems by discussing a mixed-methods approach (i.e. both qualitative and quantitative) to measurement development that incorporates input from the older adults for whom the measure is intended. To test this approach, a step-by-step process to the development of a culturally-grounded measure for older Thai people is described. Using focus groups and in-depth interviews, the process begins with an identification of the culturally-meaningful domains of the construct under study. Next, input is gathered from other studies; a preliminary quantitative measure is developed; and the measure is reviewed by a panel of experts. Based on further pre-testing and cognitive interviews with older people, the measure is again modified. Subsequently, the measure is incorporated into a large-scale survey and tested for its psychometric qualities. In addition to providing a template for culturally-sensitive measurement development in gerontology, this paper also highlights issues (e.g. time constraints and trade-offs between cultural specificity as against cultural comparability) that researchers should consider when attempting to develop measures. Suggestions for how to address such issues are provided.

During the 1970s, American gerontologist M. Powell Lawton and colleagues saw the person–environment system as fundamental to defining the quality of later life. They proposed the environmental docility hypothesis that weighed whether the more competent the person, the less dependent they are on environmental circumstances. This work was later advanced to show that environmental pro-activity, including adaptation, could reinforce control and autonomy. While that theoretical development focused on the micro-environment of accommodation, it can be applied to the macro-environment of community living. This paper, which utilises data from an empirical study ‘Environment and Identity in Later Life’, examines both the micro and macro scales, develops the theoretical content of the person-competence model, considers the complexity of person–environment interaction, and argues that over time some people find that their attachments to particular environments are compromised by declining competence or changes in the environment, or both. The point at which change impacts on an individual's independence and wellbeing is reached when adaptive behaviour cannot rebalance the macro- and micro-environmental press. This point, termed ‘option recognition’, leads to a range of strategic responses including: modification of behaviour or environment; structural support using formal and informal services; and relocation; all of which impact on self-identity.

While the adverse effects of HIV and AIDS on female care-givers in southern Africa have been well documented, there are too few examples of more nuanced analyses, which reflect not only adversity and challenges, but also positive responses, perspectives and experiences. By discussing findings of qualitative research conducted with nine female carers of children in South Africa's Kwazulu-Natal province, one of the world's most HIV-affected regions, this paper explores two themes, focusing mainly on older (grandmother) carers: (a) their strength and resourcefulness in responding to adversity to ensure their families' survival and (b) their leadership role in affronting HIV and related stigma within their own families. These two themes unfold through insights provided by the stories of two study participants, which are discussed in the context of the broader study findings and literature. The aim of this research is both to add to experiential data on the much-debated notion of ‘resilience’ and further challenge the stereotype of older carers or ‘rural African grandmothers’ as passive victims of a changing world, rather than key agents of change. While terms such as ‘coping strategies’ and ‘resilience’ should be used cautiously, it is important to consider carers' short-term responses to the many challenges faced, with a view to constructively informing interventions.

There have been fundamental changes in the intergenerational family, and yet families continue to be an important part of people's lives. We use the convoy model to describe the factors that influence supportive relations within intergenerational families, beginning with a description of the changing structure of the intergenerational family. We next outline support exchanges, detailing how personal characteristics, especially gender, race, age and socio-economic status, and situational characteristics, in particular family structure and intergenerational context, influence support exchanges. Instrumental and emotional family exchanges are described, with special attention to the unique circumstances of care-giving in intergenerational families. We also examine the importance of recognising differences in the quality of intergenerational relations, again noting the influence of personal and situational characteristics. Variations in support quality, e.g. positive, negative and ambivalent, and its influence on wellbeing are discussed. As families and individuals change, differences emerge at the individual, family and societal levels. We consider the implications of changes and stability in intergenerational relations and make recommendations about how best to envisage and plan future intergenerational family support. Societies with fewer resources as well as individuals and families with diverse individual histories must be innovative and creative in meeting the needs of older people as well as those of all family members.

Following Reher's (1998) seminal paper on family ties in western Europe, the perspective that family solidarity patterns are divided between an individualistic north and a famialistic south has dominated the literature. We challenge this view and address the variability in intergenerational family solidarity within and across countries. Using multiple dimensions of intergenerational solidarity drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we develop a typology of late-life families which is robust across northern, central and southern regions. The four types are: (a) descending familialism: living nearby, frequent contact, endorsement of family obligation norms, and primarily help in kind from parents to children, (b) ascending familialism: living nearby, frequent contact, endorsement of family obligation norms, and primarily help in kind from children to parents, (c) supportive-at-distance: not living nearby, frequent contact, refutation of family obligation norms, and primarily financial transfers from parents to adult children, (d) autonomous: not living nearby, little contact, refutation of family obligation norms, and few support exchanges. The four types are common in each European country, though the distributions differ. The findings suggest that scholars should abandon the idea that a particular country can be characterised by a single dominant type of late-life family. Socio-demographic differentials in family type follow predictable patterns, underscoring the validity of the developed typology.

The concept of ‘active ageing’ has received much attention through strategic policy frameworks such as that initiated by the World Health Organisation, and through government and non-governmental organisation initiatives. The primary goal of these initiatives is to encourage older people to be active and productive, and to enhance quality of life, health and wellbeing. It is well known that with increasing age, night-time sleep deteriorates, which has implications for how older people maintain activity levels, and leads to an increased propensity for day-time sleep. Using data from 62 interviews with people aged 65–95 years living in their own homes who reported poor sleep, this paper explores the meanings of day-time sleep, and how the attitudes and practices of ‘active ageing’ are intricately linked to the management of day-time sleep and bodily changes that arise from the ageing process. The desire to be active in later life led to primarily dichotomous attitudes to day-time sleep; older people either chose to accept sleeping in the day, or resisted it. Those who accepted day-time sleep did so because of recognition of decreasing energy in later life, and an acknowledgement that napping is beneficial in helping to maintain active lives. Those who resisted day-time sleep did so because time spent napping was regarded as being both unproductive and as a negative marker of the ageing process.

Several studies have documented the health-related benefits of older adults' use of computer technology, but before they can be realised, older individuals must be positively inclined and confident in their ability to engage in computer-based environments. To facilitate the assessment of computer technology attitudes, one aim of the longitudinal study reported in this article was to test and refine a new 22-item measure of computer technology attitudes designed specifically for older adults, as none such were available. Another aim was to replicate, on a much larger scale, the successful findings of a preliminary study that tested a computer technology training programme for older adults. Ninety-six older men and women, mainly from non-European-American backgrounds, were randomly assigned to the waitlist/control or the experimental group. The same six-week, one-on-one training was administered to the control subjects at the completion of their post-test. The revised (17-item) version of the Older Adults' Computer Technology Attitudes Scale (OACTAS) showed strong reliability: the results of a factor analysis were robust, and two analyses of covariance demonstrated that the training programme induced significant changes in attitudes and self-efficacy. Such results encourage the recruitment of older persons into training programmes aimed at increasing computer technology attitudes and self-efficacy.

This article presents an analysis of privacy, care practices and architectural space in assisted living in Sweden. The presented research is a qualitative case study. Observations and personal interviews with staff as well as residents were the major data collection methods. The analysis revealed the evasiveness of a private–public dichotomy; that is, how privacy appears in public spaces and how private spaces became public under certain conditions. During the course of a day, the residents' privacy was qualified and structured by caring activities that took place in various spaces and that associated with variable distance or closeness to the staff. The study shows that individualised care practices improved privacy for the resident, and that although architectural features constrained the staff, they used a number of spatial strategies to promote the residents' privacy, for instance, in the dining room at meal times or when residents were subject to intimate care in their private rooms. Access and control are dimensions of privacy that are relevant to assisted living. The residents had more control of access to their private rooms than control of their personal space in public areas. Individualised care strengthened the residents' agency. Staff supported the residents to lead a private life in the assisted-living facility.

The purpose of this article is to examine an emerging model of intergenerational relationships that takes as its starting point the degree to which it is possible to place oneself in the position of a person of another age, the ‘age-other’. The paper explores an experiential approach that draws on both sociological thinking on ‘generational consciousness’ and a debate in family gerontology on the relationships between conflict, solidarity and ambivalence. The main emphasis is on the processes of generational experience, and a working distinction is made between the informational ‘intelligence’ that is culturally available to social actors and the degree to which it is possible ‘to act intelligently’. The latter itemises the steps that would need to be taken to become critically self-aware of age as a factor in social relations, including the relative ability to recognise one's personal generational distinctiveness, acquiring understanding of the relationship between generations, critical awareness of the value stance being taken toward generational positions, and finally, acting in a manner that is generationally aware. The paper concludes with a consideration of how sustainable generational relations can be encouraged and the implications for future research into intergenerational relationships.

This 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.

Although the factors that influence people's perception of happiness have long been a focus for scholars, research to date has not offered conclusive findings on the relationships between income, age and happiness. This study examined the relationship between money and happiness across age groups. Analysing data from United States General Social Surveys from 1972 to 2006, this study finds that even after controlling for all the major socio-demographic variables, income (whether household income or personal equivalised income) had a significant positive association with happiness for young and middle-age adults, but it was not the same case with older adults. After controlling for the major socio-demographic variables, there was no evidence of a significant relationship between income (whichever definition) and happiness for older adults. The results also showed that the effect of household income on happiness was significantly smaller for older adults than for young or middle-age adults in the model controlling for major socio-demographic variables. The relationship between household income and happiness no longer differed significantly across age groups after social comparison variables were included. The relationship between equivalised income and happiness did not vary significantly by age group after controlling for the major socio-demographic variables.