The passage of time is fundamentally experienced through people's interaction with their social worlds. Life-course scholars acknowledge the multiple aspects of time-based experience but have given little attention to age identity in a dynamic context. Drawing from a stress-process model, we expected that turbulence within people's family…

Research review suggests that differences in the quality and quantity of social relations are related to well-being and aging well. Some differences are socioeconomic, cultural, racial, and ethnic. The perception versus actuality of social relationships also has an effect on well-being. (SK)

Explores how families who care for their elderly relatives view their situations, in semistructured interviews with 10 Indian and 10 White caretakers of ill elderly relatives in the rural northwest. Results implied that cultural background influences the meaning of caretaking and that both affect the coping strategies selected. (JAC)

This study examined older adults' quality of interpersonal relationships and self-concept through semi-structured interviews with 39 70-year-old people in Malmo, Sweden. The gathered data is described on individual and group levels. Findings indicate that the elderly in this group have frequent contacts with their children and siblings. They…

To examine the impact of old age upon an individual's sense of self we must look at the enduring self. An understanding of selfhood or self-consciousness can only be found by reference to the social activity of the individual. The interactional part of the self involves the individual in two forms of active social behavior, subject and object. The…

Some research suggests that sources of social support change through the lifespan. Given that the support network changes because of both the individual's needs and the particular life stage of the individual, peer relationships may emerge as crucial sources of emotional support at different times in the lifespan. This study examined friend and…

Compared 22 high-goal-directed and 22 low-goal-directed early retirees to examine the idea that effective adaptation to life events requires an ability to maintain a sense of purpose and direction. Found that high-goal-directed retirees were viewed as more outgoing and involved, whereas low-goal-directed retirees were viewed as self-critical,…

Although it is now widely recognized that the middle years are a time of development and transition rather than of stasis followed by decline, existing literature tends to portray middle-aged women as generally unattractive, uninteresting, unintelligent and as dependent "labels" rather than persons in the process of growth. To gain a greater…