This evidence-based pedagogical approach encompasses service-learning projects via the lens of social exchange theory in working with older adults. The study's purpose was to examine if bachelor of social work students' attitudes changed positively after the completion of service learning projects that involved educational presentations for older…

Interviewed currently married or widowed women aged 60-75 (N=719), either childless or with one or more children, about advantages and disadvantages of childlessness and about other family-related and social areas. Results indicated that childless older women did not conform to a stereotype of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. (BH)

Investigated the interaction between older adults and their adult children, focusing on the impact of social structure and subjective factors on family interaction and on the influence of family exchanges on self-feelings among the elderly. Found that older adults with families have a higher sense of well-being than others. (CMG)

Studied the aging process and the mechanisms used by the elderly to cope with age in rural Ireland. Reciprocity is identified as one of the major strategies that reinforce independence, manifested in the stem family, sibling relations, pets, neighbors, parental caretakers, financial resources, and family configurations. (JAC)

Analyzed relationships in traditional and caregiving homesharing arrangements. Respondents in both arrangements expressed satisfaction with basic money and service exchanges. For traditional arrangements, client satisfaction was related to lifestyle fit, social interaction desired and received, and lodger access in provider's home. In caregiving…

Surveyed 67 neighbors in retirement housing to identify characteristics and helping styles within an informal support system. Findings confirmed three exchange types: (1) high helpers, who exhibit a quasiprofessional style; (2) mutual helpers, who show an interdependent style; and (3) neighborhood isolates, whose social ties are outside the…

Investigates the person/environment transactional processes of 75 elderly Cuban-Americans, using participant observation to learn about their adjustment to aging. Findings suggest the productiveness of the short-term exchange approach in understanding the older person's creative use of resources. (JAC)

Theories of social interaction and lifelong learning have been advanced by K. Lewin, J. Moreno, T. Sarbin, J. W. Thibaut and H. H. Kelley, R. S. Perinbanayagam, and B. Dervin. From this research lifelong learning can be seen as an affective and cognitive activity that occurs in the life-space of the actor in response to positive or negative field…

Examined equity in marriage in 400 middle-aged and older married women who described equity at eight points across their lifespan. Results suggested women begin a marriage with a sense of overbenefit, move into a period of underbenefit during their middle years, and feel fairly treated in late middle age. (JAC)

Problems of aging are seen as problems of decreasing power resources. Because power resources decline with increased age, older persons become increasingly unable to enter into balanced exchange relations with other groups with whom they are in interaction. The relative power of the aged vis-a-vis their exchange partner increasingly deteriorates.…

This review of the literature on prosocial behavior in the elderly provides empirical data on the prevalence of helping behaviors among the elderly and the range of motives underlying their helping. Implications of these data for theories of social behavior in later life are considered, and questions are raised about the validity of the models…

This paper demonstrates the utility of interdependence theory for understanding older persons' social relationships. Using friendship as an exemplary case, a model of expectations for and reactions to social exchanges is described. Exchanges which are perceived to be motivated by obligation are distinguished from those which are perceived to…

With more rigorous and systematic integration of gerontological data with social and social psychological theory, more comprehensive explanations of life course phenomena would result. Moreover, the age variable would be considered by other sociologists as less of a control and more of a relevant variable in its own right. (Author)

A developmental model is proposed and incorporated with exchange theory to further explain the position of the second generation in considering dependency needs of both the first and third generations. What literature exists deals primarily with dependency needs of children or at best, attitudes toward older people. Questions are raised and some…

Using social exchange theory, examined satisfaction of the primary caregiver with living in a multigenerational household in 99 Midwestern families. Identified important predictors of satisfaction consisting of characteristics of the older person (indicators of dependency status, characteristics of the primary caregiver, and the situational…