Research on Aging

A review of past research reveals apparent gaps in many current measures of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) including the Bradburn (1969) Affect Balance subscales popular among gerontologists and other social scientists. In many cases, the measures produce PA/NA correlations so high that some researchers claim subjective well-being is unidimensional. A viable alternative measure of positive and negative affect is the PANAS (Watson, Clark, and Tellegen 1988), which appears to distinguish clearly between these two emotional dimensions of subjective well-being. Unfortunately, however, only younger samples have served as subjects in research on the PANAS. Accordingly, the current study assessed the psychometric qualities of the PANAS applied to a sample of the old-old. Consistent with prior studies of younger samples, the results here clearly support the viability of the measure among the elderly. Of particular significance, the PA and NA dimensions appear completely independent of each other. More broadly, the results also support using the circumplex model of emotions when selecting mood adjectives to represent the affective dimensions of subjective well-being.

The definition of personal productivity based on paid work is expanded to include many forms of unpaid work. The productivity of these forms of unpaid work is estimated empirically, using several economic approaches (an opportunity cost approach, a market price approach, and a value-added approach) and one noneconomic approach. Additionally, two methods of dealing with selection bias when estimating opportunity costs for nonemployed persons are compared. These different approaches all document the extent to which many of the activities (such as housework, formal volunteer work, or informal help to relatives and friends) that are often performed without pay by older Americans or women are actually productive because they produce goods and services to which a market value can be imputed. Using this expanded definition to describe the productive contribution of men and women at different ages provides a much needed correction to existing social statistics: Women contribute in major ways to U.S. productivity, as do older adults, although to a lesser degree. These findings challenge the stereotypic view of older Americans as unproductive and mere burdens on society. Data were from a 1986 cross-sectional survey of 3,617 adults representative of those 25 years old and older living in the coterminous United States.

This study applies a conceptual framework to the living arrangements of older unmarried Asian Indian women in the United States that allows for the evaluation of cultural diversity. The model holds that living arrangements at the end of the life cycle are determined by three sets of factors: availability of kin, feasibility as related to economic and health status, and desirability of living arrangements as related to cultural identity and adaptation. The multinomial logistic regression results show that despite the strong family norms of Asian Indians and their minority group status, older unmarried Asian Indian females are more likely than their White counterparts to live alone. In a separate analysis of Asian Indian women, the evidence shows that acculturated Asian Indian females are more likely than less acculturated members of this ethnic group to live alone as compared to living as part of a larger household without headship.

This article discusses the concept of fictive kinship and presents the findings of a qualitative study that investigated the fictive family ties of elderly women. In-depth interviews with 142 respondents revealed that 40% could actually identify a fictive family member. Moreover, it was found that these relationships appeared to be a salient and meaningful component of the social networks of these elderly women. Evidence was found to support the substitution principle, or the notion that individuals who have no kin tend to substitute for missing relatives by converting close friends into quasi-kin. It is argued that fictive kinship ought to be given more research attention. Because current demographic trends indicate that a sizable proportion of future generations of elderly people will have considerably fewer "real" family ties, fictive kin could become a very relevant research focus for social gerontologists in particular.

The daily health diary has been used as a research instrument to collect information on health, illness, and associated behaviors. There is conflict in the literature, however, on whether the diary is useful in studying gerontological health. The purpose of this study is to examine whether two different formats, the interview and the diary, are similar or different in eliciting health data from older people. Interviews were conducted with 728 randomly selected adults ranging in age from 45 to 94; a random subsample of 83 was selected subsequently to keep a diary. The study focused exclusively on chronic health problems. The results suggest that the reporting format and age may influence what is reported about chronic health problems.

The development of the sociology of aging and, more particularly, social gerontology has been strongly influenced by the demographic imperative of a growing older population, which, in turn, has led to a proliferation of programs and policies focusing on the elderly and their well-being. As a consequence, one would expect that evaluation research would play a prominent role in the creation of knowledge in these fields. This article presents an assessment of the amount and type of evaluation research that has been published over the past 9 years in seven mainline research journals concerned with social gerontology. The assessment indicates that, contrary to what would be expected, evaluation research has been incorporated into the general literature of social gerontology to a limited degree. As in many other social science fields, evaluation research has been and continues to be treated separately from basic research in social gerontology and the sociology of aging -a circumstance that may not optimize accumulation of knowledge.