This prospective study examines the relationship between aspects of the neighbourhood social environment and subsequent depressive symptoms in over 7,500 participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Neighbourhood social environment at baseline was operationalised using four items capturing social cohesion and three items capturing perceived safety and associations with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) at two-year follow-up were assessed. Friendship quality and personal sense of control were tested as mediators of this relationship using structural equation modelling. Neighbourhood social cohesion was found to be associated with reporting fewer depressive symptoms independent of demographic and socioeconomic factors and baseline depressive symptoms. Friendship quality and sense of control mediated this association. The study highlights that greater personal sense of control, higher quality friendships and fewer depressive symptoms are found in neighbourhoods seen to be characterised by higher social cohesion.

Several studies have documented the health-related benefits of older adults' use of computer technology, but before they can be realised, older individuals must be positively inclined and confident in their ability to engage in computer-based environments. To facilitate the assessment of computer technology attitudes, one aim of the longitudinal study reported in this article was to test and refine a new 22-item measure of computer technology attitudes designed specifically for older adults, as none such were available. Another aim was to replicate, on a much larger scale, the successful findings of a preliminary study that tested a computer technology training programme for older adults. Ninety-six older men and women, mainly from non-European-American backgrounds, were randomly assigned to the waitlist/control or the experimental group. The same six-week, one-on-one training was administered to the control subjects at the completion of their post-test. The revised (17-item) version of the Older Adults' Computer Technology Attitudes Scale (OACTAS) showed strong reliability: the results of a factor analysis were robust, and two analyses of covariance demonstrated that the training programme induced significant changes in attitudes and self-efficacy. Such results encourage the recruitment of older persons into training programmes aimed at increasing computer technology attitudes and self-efficacy.

This article presents an analysis of privacy, care practices and architectural space in assisted living in Sweden. The presented research is a qualitative case study. Observations and personal interviews with staff as well as residents were the major data collection methods. The analysis revealed the evasiveness of a private–public dichotomy; that is, how privacy appears in public spaces and how private spaces became public under certain conditions. During the course of a day, the residents' privacy was qualified and structured by caring activities that took place in various spaces and that associated with variable distance or closeness to the staff. The study shows that individualised care practices improved privacy for the resident, and that although architectural features constrained the staff, they used a number of spatial strategies to promote the residents' privacy, for instance, in the dining room at meal times or when residents were subject to intimate care in their private rooms. Access and control are dimensions of privacy that are relevant to assisted living. The residents had more control of access to their private rooms than control of their personal space in public areas. Individualised care strengthened the residents' agency. Staff supported the residents to lead a private life in the assisted-living facility.

The population of South Korea is ageing rapidly and government provision for older people is meagre. Hence the erosion of traditional family support for older people is of much concern. Yet relatively little is known about the actual financial status of elderly Koreans or the amount of economic support they receive from children. This paper addresses these issues using data from the 2006 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We find that almost 70 per cent of Koreans aged 65 or more years received financial transfers from children and that the transfers accounted for about a quarter of an average elder's income. While over 60 per cent of elders would be poor without private transfers, children's transfers substantially mitigate elder poverty, filling about one-quarter of the poverty gap. Furthermore, children's transfers tend to be proportionally larger to low-income parents, so elder income inequality is reduced by the transfers. Over 40 per cent of elders lived with a child and co-residence helps reduce elder poverty. By showing that Korean children still play a crucial role in providing financial old-age security, we demonstrate how important it is for the Korean government to design old-age policies that preserve the incentives for private assistance. This snapshot of today's Korea also has implications for other rapidly changing Asian countries that are following a similar trajectory.

In several European countries, older unemployed people, after reaching a certain age, are entitled to unemployment benefit payments without having to seek new employment. The coexistence of this exemption clause and of reforms aimed at containing early retirement in the respective countries reflects a conflict of political aims – on the one hand, between an efficient labour-market policy at a time of high unemployment, and on the other hand, the goal of the comprehensive activation and labour-market integration of older workers as a response to demographic change. This paper deals with the reasons for the transfer of older long-term unemployed people on to ‘facilitated benefits’ for labour-market withdrawal in Germany. The empirical analysis shows that low or no propensity to work was rarely the motive for leaving the labour market; in particular, those anticipating a low retirement income actually wanted to be re-employed. The vast majority gave three reasons for the decision to retire: an inability to cope with requirements of available jobs; a lack of job opportunities; and an absence of proper support from the public employment agency. Thus the withdrawal of older long-term unemployed people into pre-retirement cannot be attributed to a utility-maximising decision in favour of leisure and against gainful employment, but is the primary result of the scarce re-employment prospects.

Dementia and dementia care present huge and growing challenges, both to individuals and to societies worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the context for the study reported here, recent key policy initiatives have highlighted problems in care provision, noting a lack of appropriate carer guidance, and an overemphasis on strictly biomedical interventions. Communication practices which support agency and empowerment have been identified as areas for particular improvement. A number of communication training and guidance packages are currently available, but these exhibit shortcomings, including a lack of user input and cross-referencing to other communications theory or to relevant empirical evidence; a lack of individualisation; and high context-specificity. In general, their uptake and level of application to care is very low. As a response, the study described here developed a new communications intervention characterised by the direct involvement of a broad spectrum of lay and professional stakeholders. This inter-group dialogue produced an agreed free-to-users, user-informed and user-relevant dementia communications toolkit (DEMTEC), which is empirically supported and adaptable to different socio-cultural and care environments. We detail the conceptual background to the toolkit, the inclusive and iterative methodology for its formulation, and how it can be used to help support ‘personhood’ and quality of life and to challenge the socially-constructed ‘othering’ of people with dementia.

This study draws on national survey data from the United States of America (USA) and the Netherlands to compare family obligations and support behaviour for middle-generation adults who have a living aged parent and adult child. Consistent with a familialism by default hypothesis based on welfare state differences, the US sample espouses stronger family obligations than the Dutch sample. Yet, the Dutch respondents are more likely to engage in family support behaviours with both the younger and older generations, contrary to a family-steps-in hypothesis. The connection between family obligations and support behaviour is also tested, revealing a stronger association in the US sample, consistent with a family-steps-in hypothesis, but only in regard to relations with ageing parents. We conclude that Dutch respondents are more likely to act on their individual preferences whereas American respondents are more influenced by general norms of obligation towards family members. The findings are discussed in terms of social policy differences between the two countries, and in light of results from comparative European studies of intergenerational relations.

The workplace is one of the areas in which discrimination most frequently occurs. Despite increasing workforce participation among older adults and the adverse effects of workplace discrimination on the physical and psychological wellbeing of older adults, limited attention has been given to workplace discrimination against older workers. Based on a national survey of 420 older workers age 50 and above, this study first examined the prevalence of perceived workplace discrimination. Results indicated more than 81 per cent of the older workers encountered at least one workplace discriminatory treatment within a year. Prevalence of perceived workplace discrimination differed with age, gender, education, occupation and wage. The study further tested two competing hypotheses on the level of perceived workplace discrimination and found mixed support for both. As hypothesised (based on the social barriers theory), lower education and racial/ethnic minority status were positively associated with perceived workplace discrimination. As counter-hypothesised (based on the attribution-sensitivity theory), younger ages and being male were positively associated with perceived workplace discrimination. In examining the roles of supervisor and co-worker support, the study discovered that supervisor support was negatively associated with workplace discrimination. Finally, this study revealed a non-linear relationship between wages and perceived workplace discrimination, with the mid-range wage group experiencing the highest level of workplace discrimination.