Old-age income security has become one of the most important social policy issues in two East Asian emerging welfare states, South Korea and Taiwan, as they transform at a remarkable pace into societies with a representation of older people approaching that of western countries. During the last two decades, the two countries have developed different forms of social protection for older people. South Korea has expanded social insurance pensions with means-tested benefits, whereas Taiwan has introduced flat-rate old-age allowance programmes that exclude the rich rather than target the poor. much has been written about these programmes, but their actual performance in reducing old-age poverty has not been thoroughly examined. This paper analyses the anti-poverty effect of these programmes, firstly by describing recent developments in the two countries, and secondly by examining headcount poverty rates and the size and incidence of the ‘poverty gap’ using nationally-representative micro-household datasets. We argue that while the programmes have increasingly reduced old-age income security, the different policy choices have resulted in distinctive welfare outcomes in the two countries. In the final section of the article, we discuss the long-term implications of the recent policy reforms.

Recent economic development and socio-cultural changes have made it increasingly difficult for Chinese families to provide eldercare. Consequently, institutional care has been strongly promoted to meet older adults' long-term care needs. Although it has been estimated that China needs more beds to meet such needs, unfilled beds have been reported nationwide. One reason for the low occupancy may be a lack of willingness among older adults to live in long-term care institutions. Based on a national survey of 20,255 older adults, this study examined the extent of willingness among older Chinese to live in eldercare institutions, and it was found that in urban and rural areas, only 20 and 17 per cent of older adults, respectively, were willing to do so. Using an integrated theoretical model and logistic regression analyses, this study shows that gender, perceived family harmony, perceived filial piety, socio-cultural beliefs and practices about raising children and eldercare, knowledge and opinion about eldercare institutions, and self-assessed economic status were associated with willingness to live in eldercare institutions for both urban and rural older adults, while other predictors of willingness had different effects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the substantive, theoretical and policy implications for long-term care in China.

Park homes are a small, niche sector of the United Kingdom housing market. This paper reports a study of 40 residents of park-homes that focused on their motivations for choosing this form of accommodation, and on their views about and experiences of park-home living. Whilst the sector has long provided a low-cost housing option for people of all ages, in recent years it has increasingly aligned itself as a lifestyle choice for older people. Despite their diverse reasons for moving to park homes, most respondents reported very positive experiences of park-home living and shared similar views about the benefits, but there were a few dissenting voices. Two conceptual frameworks are used to help understand the experiences of the respondents. ‘Elective belonging’ offers a way of contextualising the narratives that people articulate about their lifestyle choices and that affirm their sense of biographical continuity even having moved to new locations. This notion also helps frame some of the tensions that arise among the residents. The second framework, ‘biographical disruption’, is a way of framing the stories that the respondents told when their lives had not followed the anticipated trajectory and by which they coped and made sense of the circumstances which soured their chosen lifestyle.

Populations across Europe are ageing as death rates among the old and fertility rates among the young fall. This produces a number of long-term challenges for national governments – most notably, coping with the increased demand for social services, pensions and benefits that must be funded by a declining proportion of working adults. One policy response has been to extend people's working lives, but we know relatively little about the skills and employment experiences of older workers and how these compare with younger workers. This paper sheds new light on this issue by examining whether older workers do less well than their younger counterparts in terms of the skills of the jobs they hold, the quality of their working lives, their commitment to their current employer and to employment in general, and their attitudes towards and experiences of training. The paper also assesses whether these age gaps have closed over time. The empirical evidence for the paper is from five separate but comparable surveys carried out in 1986, 1992, 1997, 2001 and 2006. Taken together, the five surveys provide information on the employment experiences of over 22,000 workers in Great Britain. This allows us to chart whether we are witnessing the disappearance of at least some of the age divisions in the labour market.

This article uses a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain why parents send money to particular children, and examines whether intergenerational solidarity is shaped by spending on various welfare domains or provisions as a percentage of gross domestic product. The theoretical model at the level of parents and children distinguishes parental resources and children's needs as the factors most likely to influence intergenerational money transfers. Differences in state spending on various welfare domains are then used to hypothesise in which countries children with specific needs are most likely to receive a transfer. For parents we hypothesise in which countries parents with specific available resources are most likely to send a transfer. We use data from the first wave of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to analyse the influence of welfare-state provisions on the likelihood of intergenerational transfers in ten European countries. The results indicate that, in line with our expectations, the likelihood of a transfer being made is the outcome of an intricate resolution of the resources (ability) of the parents and the needs of a child. Rather large differences between countries in money transfers were found. The results suggest that, at least with reference to cross-generational money transfers, no consistent differences by welfare state regime were found.

This experimental study aimed to analyse the effects of an aerobic activity intervention delivered by specially trained instructors to a sample of Italian older people living in a residential care facility. We assessed intervention effects on general health perception, perception that one's health represents a limitation for moderate and heavy physical activity, and positive and negative self-perception. The 36-item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36) was administered at pre-test and post-test to a sample of 22 older people (ten in the control group and 12 in the intervention group) of both genders with an average age of 80.6 years. The findings showed that: (a) the perception that one's health can limit moderate and heavy physical activity decreased significantly in the older people belonging to the intervention group between pre- and post-test, while it increased in the control group; (b) positive self-perception was found to be stable in the intervention group, while it decreased in the control group; and (c) there was no interaction between group and time with respect to both general health perception and negative self-perception. The exercise programme seemed to have a particularly positive effect on older people's beliefs about their ability to master successfully the activities of daily living such as walking and moving objects.

This study focuses on the influence of objective living conditions on the life satisfaction of older Europeans living alone from a gender and cross-national perspective. The data were drawn from the first wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which includes a single-item question for life satisfaction and a large set of health, family and socio-economic indicators. From a descriptive point of view, a lower proportion of women living alone declared themselves to be satisfied with life compared to men. When inequalities in living conditions were controlled for, the difference disappeared, but some determinants of life satisfaction differed for men and women and varied among countries. No limitations in daily activities, a high level of education, participation in leisure activities and an older age increased life satisfaction for both men and women living alone, but the existence of a child influenced only the life satisfaction of men, while income level (or home ownership) had an impact only for women. Moreover, a North–South gradient was clearly observable only for women living alone: all other things being equal, women had a higher probability of declaring themselves satisfied with life in northern European countries than in the South, and their determinants of life satisfaction were strongly linked to the socio-cultural context.

A review of several studies examining the lay concept of successful ageing and related concepts leads to the conclusion that elders from different cultures appear to agree on most of the components identified in the literature. From the research emerges a multidimensional conceptualisation of ‘successful ageing’ that is described on the basis of physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains, and which coincides with most theoretical and empirical definitions. The main goal of the present research is to study similarities and differences between concepts of ‘successful ageing’ in several Latin American and European countries and in two different age groups, and also to examine whether a similar structure of the lay concept can be found across both continents. The results show minor differences at item levels among countries, continents and age groups, and a similar internal structure across them.

Research on the ways in which having been an international migrant in later life shapes the welfare needs, preferences and expectations of non-native older people in rich countries is in its infancy, for both the ageing and migration fields have been slow to examine the experiences of older migrants. This paper focuses upon the welfare citizenship experiences of older women who migrated in later life to England, either as refugees or as post-retirement migrants. It reports findings from interviews and focus groups conducted with black Caribbean, Irish, Chinese and Somali older women migrants in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK, as part of the Older Women's Lives and Voices Study. The paper explores their experiences of accessing welfare citizenship and the barriers they encountered in accessing mainstream services. In particular, it examines the unequal platform from which older migrants who do not speak English access welfare citizenship rights and services, and assesses the important constraints of discrimination and language differences. Despite the obstacles, the older women participants were actively pursuing their inclusion in welfare rights and services. The paper argues for more recognition of the important enabling role that informal systems of support provided by participation in community or cultural organisations plays in the welfare citizenship and agency of minority ethnic older women.

In the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, the United Kingdom government set a ‘default’ retirement age of 65 years after which an employer can compulsorily retire workers, and made it obligatory for employers to consider the ‘business case’ for any employees' requests to continue in work after the default age. This is a ‘light touch’ approach to reducing age discrimination at the workplace and to changing the established ‘culture of retirement’. While encouraging productive staff to remain in post beyond 65 years of age, it leaves implementation of the policies and achievement of their goals to the discretion of employers. This article explores how British employers are adapting to the law, by drawing from interviews with 70 managers from a wide range of organisations. Overall the collected evidence shows the limits of a business case approach as a means of changing employers' practices. It was found that line managers, rather than senior managers or human resources specialists, generally decide which employees can stay employed after age 65 years. Consequently, the research suggests that opportunities for workers aged 65 or more years to stay employed are more the result of individual arrangements with their immediate managers than changes in an organisation's policies and practices. Altogether, the evidence suggests that consolidation rather than eradication of the established retirement culture has occurred.

The consequences of adult children's migration from rural areas for older parents who remain behind are keenly debated. While the mass media and international advocacy organisations favour an ‘alarmist’ view of desertion, the academic literature makes more sanguine assessments using the ‘household strategy’ and ‘modified extended family’ perspectives. We examine the relationship between the migration of adult children and various dimensions of older parents' wellbeing in Thailand using evidence from a survey that focused on the issues. The results provide little support for the alarmist view, but instead suggest that parents and adult children adapt to the social and economic changes associated with development in ways not necessarily detrimental to intergenerational relations. The migration of children, especially to urban areas, often benefits parents' material support while the recent spread of cell phones has radically increased their ability to maintain social contact. Nevertheless, changing living arrangements through increased migration and the smaller family sizes of the youngest age groups of older people pose serious challenges for aspects of filial support, especially at advanced ages when chronic illness and frailty require long-term personal care. Dealing with this emerging situation in a context of social, economic and technological change is among the most critical issues facing those concerned with the implications of rapid population ageing in Thailand and elsewhere.

This paper explores the embodied dimensions of computer and internet use in later life, and examines how technology use relates to constructions and experiences of the ageing body. It is argued that previous research on technology use and embodiment has neglected older bodies, in contrast to research on gender and disability. Furthermore, while earlier theorisations presented internet use as disembodied, it is argued that the experience of using such technologies is grounded in our embodiment. In the light of these limitations and arguments for more complete theories of the body, this paper explores how technology use relates to various aspects of embodiment. These issues are examined in the light of data from qualitative interviews and time-use diaries completed by retirees in 17 households in the United Kingdom. By examining the ‘technobiographies’ of these older computer users, it is shown that changes in body techniques are prompted and in some cases required by broader cultural and technological change. The findings evince the process of acquiring computing skills as an embodied competency, and as a form of ‘practical knowledge’ that can only be ‘learned by doing’. These experiences of technology use were embedded within constructions and experiences of ageing bodies. Although the participants drew on discourses of ageing in complex ways, their coding of computer technologies in terms of the competences of youth often reproduced hierarchies between young and old bodies.

Excess winter morbidity and mortality among older people remain significant public health issues in those European countries which experience relatively mild winter temperatures, particularly the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Portugal and Spain. In the UK, episodes of severe winter weather, when ambient temperatures fall below 5° C, are associated with peaks in general practitioner consultations, hospital admissions, and cardiovascular deaths among those aged over 65. While research indicates that such health risks could be substantially reduced by the adoption of appropriate behavioural strategies, accessible and credible advice on how older people can reduce risk during ‘cold snaps’ is lacking. This paper describes a programme of research that aimed: (a) to translate the relevant scientific literature into practical advice for older people in order to reduce health risk during episodes of severe winter weather; and (b) to integrate this advice with a severe winter weather ‘Early Warning System’ developed by the UK Met Office. An advice booklet was generated through a sequential process of systematic review, consensus development, and focus group discussions with older people. In a subsequent field trial, a combination of the Met Office ‘Early Warning System’ and the advice booklet produced behavioural change among older people consistent with risk reduction. The results also show that long-held convictions about ‘healthy environments’ and anxieties about fuel costs are barriers to risk reduction.

This study has explored how family members of care recipients define and sustain claims of mistreatment in old-age care. Twenty-one informants were recruited from an association of relatives of care recipients in Sweden. Using argumentation analysis, four warrants about mistreatment were identified from the qualitative interview data: they referred to physical harm, psychological harm, social-care deficiencies and identity subversion. The first three categories are similar to those recognised in previous research on elder mistreatment, but the fourth, which is described in detail in the article, is less familiar: elder mistreatment as the violation of an older person's identity. The family members backed their claims about staff members' violation of a care recipient's persona or identity by using arguments that drew on their unique knowledge of the care recipient's appearance, daily routines and preferred activities. They also described their attempts to protect the dignity and identity of a care recipient, their fears of abuse, and actual cases of conflict and retribution by care staff. They consistently positioned themselves as guardians of identity through their claims of mistreatment. The study provides important knowledge about family members' moral view of elder mistreatment, which may enhance the understanding of conflicts between formal care providers and family members.

The study compares the formal and informal social participation of 60–69 year olds in The Netherlands in 1992 and 2002, and examines which attributes of the two cohorts favour social participation. Using data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, it was found that cohort differences in formal participation (as members of organisations, in volunteer work and in religious organisations) and in informal participation (having a large social network, and in cultural and recreational activities) associated with cohort differences in individual characteristics (level of education, health, employment status and marital status). Descriptive analyses showed an increase between 1992 and 2002 in all forms of participation except religious involvement. The 2002 cohort members were more educated and more engaged in employment, but in worse health and had a higher prevalence of divorce than the 1992 cohort members. Logistic regression analyses showed that the positive effect on social participation of the recent cohort's higher educational level was suppressed by the negative effect of their worse health. Being divorced had mixed effects on formal and informal participation, but the difference in the number of divorcees did not explain cohort differences in social participation. Interaction effects showed that the influence of sex and health on volunteer work and religious involvement changed over time. The paper concludes with a discussion of the prospects for higher levels of formal and informal social participation among future cohorts of young-older people.

This paper examines the associations between different forms of support, who provides the support and the wellbeing of older adults in Germany. Particular attention is paid to the wellbeing differences associated with kin and non-kin providers and with emotional support and instrumental support. In addition, the quality of relationships with kin and non-kin is examined as a moderator of the association between social support and wellbeing. Data for 1,146 respondents to the German Ageing Survey in 2002 were analysed to determine the combinations of emotional or instrumental support, kin or non-kin providers and relationship quality that best predicted wellbeing. Emotional support from kin and instrumental support from non-kin were both found to associate positively with wellbeing. Emotional support from non-kin providers did not associate with wellbeing, whereas instrumental support from kin providers had a negative association with one aspect of wellbeing. Higher relationship quality, whether with kin or non-kin, positively related to wellbeing. Interestingly, the negative impact of instrumental kin support was qualified by relationship quality. In other words, for people with high-quality relationships, receiving instrumental support from kin did not decrease wellbeing. When the relationship with a family carer or supporter is characterised by high quality, the challenges of frailties in old age, such as decreasing capacities and an increasing need for social support, can be met without compromising wellbeing.

Loneliness is often associated with old age, but many studies have shown that the relationship is not straightforward. This paper seeks a better understanding of the impact of social isolation on feelings of loneliness among older people, by building on the theoretical and actual distinction between social and emotional loneliness. Social loneliness refers to a lack of feelings of social integration; emotional loneliness emerges in the absence of an attachment figure. This paper focuses on social loneliness and has two aims, first to disentangle the direct and intermediate effects of both the number and the quality of social relationships on social loneliness in old age, and second to detect the groups at risk of social loneliness by identifying which personal features correspond with which relational deficits and therefore indirectly increase the risk on social loneliness. Data are analysed for a sample of 1,414 respondents aged 55 or more years drawn from the Panel Study of Belgian Households conducted in 2000. The results confirm that improved understanding is gained by decomposing the interrelation between age and other background features, on the one hand, and the social relational features, on the other, as indirect and direct predictors of social loneliness. Generally, this approach promotes a correct identification of the groups at risk of social loneliness in old age.

This article examines older women's perceptions of grey, white and coloured hair. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71–94 years (mean 79), we elucidate the women's attitudes towards and reasons for dyeing or not dyeing their hair. The majority of our participants disparaged the appearance of grey hair, which they equated with ugliness, dependence, poor health, social disengagement and cultural invisibility. The women were particularly averse to their own grey hair, and many suggested that other women's grey hair was acceptable, if not attractive. At the same time, half of the women liked the look of snowy white hair, which they associated with attractiveness in later life as well as with goodness and purity. While one-third of the women had begun to dye their hair in their youth so as to appear more fashionable, two-thirds continued to dye their hair in later life so as to mask their grey hair and their chronological age. The women suggested that they used hair dye to appear more youthful and to resist ageist stereotypes associated with older women. We discuss the findings in relation to previous research concerning older women's hair, the concept of doing gender, and theories pertaining to ageism.

This paper reports a qualitative study that used narrative analysis to explore how social support helps many armed-services veterans cope with traumatic memories. The analysis was carried out on two levels, that of narrative form (level of narrative coherence), argued to be indicative of reconciliation, and narrative content (themes of social support), which allowed exploration of the types of social support experienced by veterans with coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Ten British male Second World War veterans were interviewed regarding their war experiences, presence of traumatic memories, and experiences of social support from comrades, family and society. Different patterns of support were qualitatively related to coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Veterans with coherent narratives were no less likely to have experienced traumatic events than those with reconciled or incoherent narratives, but they reported more positive perceptions of their war experience and of the war's outcomes, more positive experiences of communication with family in later life, and more positive perceptions of societal opinion. The results are discussed in relation to how veterans can be supported by family and friends to reconcile their traumatic memories, thus to lessen the burden in later life when vital support resources may be unavailable.

This paper examines the risk factors that influence physical activity levels among a representative sample of older people in England and their awareness of the Chief Medical Officer's recommended level of physical activity. The paper analyses data from the cross-sectional, nationally-representative Health Surveys for England (HSfE) in 2006 and 2007. In HSfE2006, 1,550 adults aged 60–69 years responded to a physical activity participation questionnaire, and in HSfE2007, 561 adults aged 60–64 years were asked about their knowledge of the physical activity requirement and their attitudes to participation. Very few respondents knew the recommended physical activity target, but more than one-half thought they had enough physical activity in their daily life, and over three-quarters thought they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ physically active compared with age peers. The perceived barriers to physical activity included work commitments, lack of leisure time and poor health. It was found that obesity, not being in work and having a limiting long-term illness associated with a lower likelihood of physical activity. Participation in sports and exercise, walking, heavy housework and gardening were all lower in non-working than working adults. Older adults had unrealistic views of their activity levels, and of work and lack of time as barriers to physical activity. It is concluded that more attention needs to be paid to health promotion and education among the over-sixties, especially those not in paid work.