We explored identity formation among nine gay men who were born between 1946 and 1964. This group of nine was the largest homogeneous sub-group within a larger sample (N = 18). Although participants share similar demographic characteristics, their individual social, personal and narrative identities diverge to represent distinctive embodied selves. Guided by queer and feminist theories, the qualitative analysis identified dominant and counter-narratives that demonstrate the complexity of sexual identity as it evolves over time. All nine men recall being aware of their gay identity as children; however, like many socially constructed labels, their outward identity was more complex and difficult to understand. The findings demonstrate how participants negotiated their sexual identities through decades of social change. As illustrated within each subset of identity (i.e. social, personal and narrative), some participants found themselves breaking ground for a broader gay rights social movement, while others described their experience of being relegated to silence and invisibility for most of their lives. This research contributes to an ongoing discussion concerning the individuality found among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in later life. As the LGBT population becomes more visible, there will be a growing need to understand the individualism that exists within this coalition and affirm their diversifying sexual and gender identities.

Rapid demographic shifts and socio-economic changes are fuelling concerns over the inadequate supply of informal care – the most common source of care-giving for older people in China. Unmet long-term care needs, which are believed to cause numerous adverse effects on health, continue to increase. Drawing data from the 2015 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey, this study explores the relationship between informal care provision and unmet long-term care needs among older people in China. We first examine the availability of informal care among older people with disabilities. We then analyse whether a higher intensity of informal care leads to lower unmet needs. Our findings suggest that the majority of older people with disabilities receive a low intensity of care, i.e. less than 80 hours per month. Besides, a higher intensity of informal care received could significantly lower the probabilities of unmet needs for the disabled older adults who have mainly instrumental activities of daily living limitations. Our study points out that informal care cannot address the needs of those who are struggling with multi-dimensional difficulties in their daily living. Our findings highlight a pressing need for the government to buttress the formal care provision and delivery systems to support both informal care-givers and disabled older people in China.

A continuous rise of female life expectancy above that of males among older adults in India and China may give the impression that the relative gender gap in health in these countries is decreasing. However, given the systemic gender bias against older females in these countries across multiple dimensions of health, a fuller understanding of the gender gap in health calls for a multi-dimensional perspective. We estimate a multi-dimensional old-age threshold (MOAT) that specifies different old-age thresholds for female and male populations which accommodates multiple dimensions related to physical, intellectual and general health. We use the MOAT to evaluate the multi-dimensional gender gap in India and China by differencing the MOAT for females with that of males. Females in both countries have a lower MOAT than their male counterparts, indicating an earlier advent of ‘old age’ for females. The multi-dimensional estimates of the gender gap are also higher than the estimates based on only one dimension of health. A considerable level of variation is also observed in the gender gap across provinces. The study illustrates the need to understand the gender gap in health in India and China from a multi-dimensional perspective and provides an innovative way to quantify such a gap. Province-specific as well as health dimension-specific interventions are vital in reducing the gender gap among older adults in these countries.

Autonomy is important in every stage of life. However, little is known about how autonomy is enhanced for older adults living in residential care facilities (RCFs). This leads to the research question: which facilitators and barriers to autonomy of older adults with physical impairments due to ageing and chronic health conditions living in RCFs are known? The results will be organised according to the framework of person-centred practice, because this is related to autonomy enhancement. To answer the research question, a systematic literature search and review was performed in the electronic databases CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubMed, Social Services Abstracts and Sociological Abstracts. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were derived from the research question. Selected articles were analysed and assessed on quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Facilitators and barriers for autonomy were found and arranged in four themes: characteristics of residents, prerequisites of professional care-givers, care processes between resident and care-giver, and environment of care. The established facilitators and barriers are relational and dynamic. For a better understanding of the facilitators and barriers to autonomy for older adults with physical impairments living in RCFs, a description is based on the 35 included articles. Autonomy is a capacity to influence the environment and make decisions irrespective of having executional autonomy, to live the kind of life someone desires to live in the face of diminishing social, physical and/or cognitive resources and dependency, and it develops in relationships. The results provide an actual overview and lead to a better understanding of barriers and facilitators for the autonomy of older adults with physical impairments in RCFs. For both residents and care-givers, results offer possibilities to sustain and reinforce autonomy. Scientifically, the study creates new knowledge on factors that influence autonomy, which can be used to enhance autonomy.

Despite the growth of cultural gerontology this century, relatively few gerontologists have interrogated their own experiences of ageing through a critical reflexive lens. This paper seeks to address this lack of attention by discussing some findings of the Ageing of British Gerontology project: a two-year (2015–2017) Leverhulme-funded study focused on identifying key developments and changes in gerontological research, theory, policy and practice in Britain since the founding of the British Society of Social and Behavioural Gerontology (now the British Society of Gerontology) in 1971. As part of our mixed-method study, we undertook 50 in-depth biographical interviews with ‘senior’ or retired individuals who have played a key role in the creation and development of gerontology in Britain. As well as focusing more widely on gerontological developments, we asked participants about the relationship between their professional insights into ageing and their personal experiences of ageing – both their own and that of loved ones. In this paper, we discuss the findings in relation to five key themes: health, illness and mortality; close personal relationships; work relationships; challenging ageism; and ageing selves. We found evidence that participants often drew upon their personal experiences of ageing in a range of contexts, including teaching and research. There were also numerous examples of professional insights informing personal decision-making, especially in relation to care of loved ones, though the emotionally challenging aspects of this emphasised the limitations of professional insights. Ultimately, we argue that the distinction between the personal and the professional is something of a false dichotomy, and there is often a complex interplay between the two aspects.

This study examines the potential health-related impact of recent versus lifetime experiences of sexual orientation discrimination among older Australian lesbian women and gay men. In a nationwide survey, a sample of 243 lesbian women and 513 gay men aged 60 years and over reported on their experiences of sexual orientation discrimination and their mental and physical health, including psychological distress, positive mental health and self-rated health. Among both lesbian women and gay men, recent discrimination uniquely predicted lower positive mental health after adjusting for experiences of discrimination across the lifetime and socio-demographic variables. In addition, recent discrimination uniquely predicted higher psychological distress among gay men. Experiences of discrimination over the lifetime further predicted higher psychological distress and poorer self-rated health among gay men after adjusting for recent experiences of discrimination and socio-demographic variables. However, there were no associations between lifetime discrimination and any of the outcome variables among lesbian women. Overall, recent and lifetime experiences of sexual orientation discrimination were related to mental and physical health in different ways, especially among the men. These findings have potential implications for policy/practice, and suggest that distinguishing between recent and lifetime experiences of discrimination may be useful when assessing potential health-related impacts of sexual orientation discrimination among older lesbian women and gay men, while also taking account of differences between these two groups.

Many persons with dementia live at home and are cared for by their relatives. If the relatives are still employed, this can lead to higher burden and losses in their work-life. The interplay between informal care-giving and working is complex. Different studies have explored this issue, but the results have not been yet synthesised. In this mixed-studies review, we elucidate the underlying complexity. Our objective is to identify the factors related to care-giving that influence employment, and to describe their impact on dementia care-givers’ employment. We performed a literature search of primary studies using four databases and one meta-database, and retrieved English- and German-language articles. We used the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool to assess their methodological quality. Evidence identified was synthesised by a parallel-results convergent synthesis design. We included 55 qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method studies published up to January 2018. The emerging model identified factors linked to the care recipient with dementia, the informal care-giver and the care-giving context. The impacts of these factors on care-givers’ employment are mostly negative (e.g. stopped/reduced work, decreased job performance). Nevertheless, the results provide encouraging insights as working can counterbalance care-giving strain, and managing both roles can enhance care-givers’ wellbeing. Practical efforts should focus on enabling informal care-givers to better manage the balance between care-giving and work responsibilities.

While social connectedness is heralded as a key enabler of positive health and social outcomes for older people, rarely have they themselves had the opportunity to express their views about the concept. Working with a diverse group of Pacific, Māori, Asian and New Zealand European older adults, this paper explores what matters to older people when discussing social connectedness? We draw from individual, in-depth interviews with 44 older adults, and three group interviews comprising 32 older adults. Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analyses. The three themes identified were: getting out of the house, ability to connect and feelings of burden. Fundamental to social connectedness was participants’ desire to be recognised as resourceful agents able to foster relationships on the basis of mutual respect. Social connectedness was conceptualised as multi-levelled: relating to interpersonal relationships as much as neighbourhoods and wider society. Alongside these similarities we also discuss important differences. Participants preferred to socialise with people from similar cultural backgrounds where they shared taken-for-granted social customs and knowledges. This is in the context where racism, poverty and inequalities clearly impeded already minoritised participants’ sense of social connection. Key structural ways to improve social connectedness should focus on factors that enable cohesion between levels of connection, including stable neighbourhoods serviced with accessible public transport, liveable pensions and inclusivity of cultural diversity.

In the midst of a ‘care crisis’, attention has turned again to families who are viewed both as untapped care resources and as disappearing ones. Within this apparent policy/demographic impasse, we test empirically theorised trajectories of family care, creating evidence of diverse patterns of care across the lifecourse. The study sample, drawn from a Statistics Canada national survey of family care, comprised all Canadians aged 65 and older who had ever provided care (N = 3,299). Latent Profile Analysis yielded five distinct care trajectories: compressed generational, broad generational, intensive parent care, career care and serial care. They differed in age of first care experience, number of care episodes, total years of care and amount of overlap among episodes. Trajectories generally corresponded to previously hypothesised patterns but with additional characteristics that added to our understanding of diversity in lifecourse patterns of care. The five trajectories identified provide the basis for further understanding how time and events unfold in various ways across lifecourses of care. A gap remains in understanding how relationships with family and social network members evolve in the context of care. A challenge is presented to policy makers to temper a ‘families by stealth’ policy approach with one that supports family carers who are integral to health and social care systems.

As a response to an ageing population, and to benefit from senior citizens’ resources and improve their quality of life, European countries are increasingly engaging older volunteers in the old-age sector and care environments. Older Danes’ participation in volunteer work is high; however, nursing home residents and home care recipients are typically not part of these initiatives as volunteers, but as the receivers of volunteer care. We investigate an initiative that engages frail older people as volunteer language teachers for foreigners learning Danish in an endeavour to utilise their resources as volunteers and to engage the language teachers socially. Through participant observations and semi-structured interviews with older volunteers, Danish-language students and care personnel, we explore what constitutes good social relationships in this specific initiative, how these relationships are created and the kind of subject that appears through Elderlearn. We are inspired by the sociology of attachment as we describe how frail older people emerge as engaged subjects by becoming reattached to their life histories, interests, abilities and relational skills. In this regard, good social relationships surpass the immediate volunteer–recipient bond and create a ‘blurry volunteering’ with less distinct divisions of who gives and who receives. This generates constructive relationships created through interlinguistic competences, international consciousness, and use of materials, objects and the local community. We argue that this arrangement reattaches the language teachers to their life histories, thereby enabling the emergence of a different kind of international and engaged old-age subjectivity.

The purpose of this article is to explore a hybrid community-based form of care for older people called adult foster care. In the article, the nature of the foster care home as a place of care is explored from the foster carers’ point-of-view. It is based on an interview study of 12 foster carers. In this article, the theoretical frameworks from human geography and work–family research are combined in order to analyse the boundaries between private family-life and public work-life in the particular space of the foster care home. The research questions are: What kinds of public and private spaces exist in adult foster care homes? What kinds of boundaries separate (a) the public and private spaces and (b) the foster care home and the outside world? The findings suggest that foster care homes are very complex socio-spatial places of care, in which the questions of power (who can do what and when in a certain space), the re-organisation of home, and the division of private and public spaces all contest the idea of home as a mere ‘safe haven’ from the pressures of work life. Different boundaries and boundary management strategies enabled the foster carers to regard their place of living and working as their home, even though it had altered to a place of care of ‘strangers’.