Research on Aging

Workers covered by defined benefit pension plans receive lower benefits at retirement if they leave their current jobs before reaching retirement age. This study estimates the magnitude of this pension loss for workers in the May 1983 supplement of the Current Population Survey, using pension formula estimates from the 1983 Employee Benefit Survey. The pension loss is generally greatest between the ages of 35 and 54 and represents roughly half of a year's earnings for that age group. The loss tends to be quite high in the declining mining and manufacturing sectors. This probably resulted in lower voluntary attrition at a time of massive layoffs and plant closings.

Interviews were conducted with geographically distant adult children whose female siblings were primary caregivers for elderly widowed mothers. Female distant siblings were more likely than males to express guilt, strain, and other emotional effects deriving from the mother's situation, as well as certain intersibling tensions relative to the mother's care.

The population of social security beneficiaries residing outside the United States, now approximately 340,000, is examined. One objective is to evaluate the implications of the growth of this population for the level of emigration; another is to classify those in this population according to citizenship and-for the first time-nativity.

This article examines the impact over time of changes in older people's health and functional capacity on the composition of their support networks. The analysis identified a pattern of network expansion, in which declines in health status were accompanied by reports of assistance from sources increasingly distant from the older person.

This article examines aspects of housing among the elderly population in Alaska. Factors associated with housing type are examined, along with housing satisfaction. Most of the demographic variables, family relations variables, and health variables are found to be associated with type of housing.

Two prior articles in this series described some basic information on the demographic and social characteristics of elderly Alaskans and provided some more detailed analyses of the concomitants of housing and housing satisfaction. This article considers how income is related to other social status variables and some indicators of health. It then examines how presence or absence of children is related to social status variables and indicators of health. Finally, indicators of health are examined in detail in terms of social status variables.