published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Homelessness is one of the most complex social issues today and has become a significant and growing problem. The homeless population is a heterogeneous group with women and families among the fastest growing segment. The paucity of research specifically focusing on older homeless women does little to answer the question regarding causes of homelessness in this population. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe the older homeless woman's perspective of antecedents to homelessness and answer the research questions: 1) what was your life like before you became homeless and 2) what do you believe the cause of homelessness was for you? This study, guided by a feminist perspective, was conducted to explore and capture the complexities of the experience for older women. Data analysis, using qualitative content analysis techniques, identified three themes which described antecedents to homelessness. The themes were Personal Accountability, Difficult Life Circumstances and Lack of Support Networks. All themes were interrelated and offered a perspective regarding the steady progression into homelessness for older women. Themes Difficult Life Circumstances and Lack of Social Networks reflected previously documented findings, however, the theme Personal Accountability revealed antecedents not expressed before in the literature. This studies significance will be its contribution to the body of nursing knowledge through exploration and description of information regarding antecedents to homelessness and lays the groundwork for the design of appropriate interventions and future research.

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The Problem: Recent increases in the number of senescents in the general population and concomitant increases in the number of medical and social problems among this age group (Greenleigh, 1952), have produced an urgent need for empirical study of the correlates of "successful” and "unsuccessful" aging. One explanation that has been offered for the difficulties encountered by older people in modern civilization is that the shift from an agricultural to an urban economy has eliminated the useful roles served by the older people as grandparents in the home while not offering any substitute useful roles (Poliak, 1948). Another explanation that has been offered for many of the difficulties in old age has been that of physical decline. However, recent studies by Rothschild (1945) and by Busse et al. (1954) have indicated that there is far from a one-to-one relationship between physical status, especially with regard to the central nervous system, and level of adjustment. Individuals were seen with gross pathology of the central nervous system who did not seem to be having any difficulties in leading satisfactory lives. The results of these studies suggested that social and attitudinal variables might have more direct relationships to adjustment level than any but the most marked physical disorders. Unfortunately, psychological studies of old age have been mostly concerned with the developmental aspects of aging and have not devoted much attention to the correlates of differential adjustment among the aged them- selves. Most investigations were restricted to study of the intellectual and psychomotor aspects of aging (Miles, 1942; Jones and Kaplan, 1945; Granick, 1950). Little attention was paid to personality factors until quite recently. However, the need for information regarding the personality characteristics associated with the aging process and especially of those associated with differentially “satisfactory” aging has been recognized and has resulted in an increasing number of broad range studies devoted to investigation of the relationships of specific personality variables to adjustment level in senescence, e. g. , interests, self-concept. Many of these studies have involved the use of the Rorschach and de- spite the marked differences in some of the social characteristics of the populations sampled in the Rorschach studies (Klopfer, 1946; Prados and Fried, 1947; Davidson and Kruglov, 1952; Caldwell, 1954), the findings have been very consistent. The conclusions in each study are generally that older people evidence reduced emotional responsiveness, and an increase in stereotyped thinking, and in intellectual inefficiency. A comparison of com- munity and institutionalized aged by Klopfer (1946) revealed little difference in Rorschach characteristics. However, the institutional population in this study came from a home for the aged where individuals with gross physical or mental difficulties were not accepted so that one may wonder whether any differences were to he expected. A major defect of these studies has been that the results have been interpreted generally in terms of comparison with young adult norms and little attempt has been made to explore the relation- ships between specific Rorschach characteristics and behavioral attributes of the aged. The published empirical studies of specific personality characteristics associated with differential adjustment level, using institutionalization or lack of it as the criterion of adjustment, have been devoted almost exclusively to investigation of the affective quality of the self-concept, i. e. , positive or negative self-concept. Tuckman, Lorge, Steinhardt and Zeman (1953) found institutionalized aged subjects to report fewer physical and mental symptoms on a health questionnaire than a group of aged subjects living in the community despite the fact that, objectively, the institutional group actually had more symptoms of poor health. The authors explained these findings in terms of the more negative self-concept of the institutionalized aged which allowed them to consider illness in old age as normal and therefore not worthy of mention. … It was in light of these considerations that the current study was undertaken in an attempt to establish a more suitable approach to the measurement of adjustment level, in terms of specific behaviors, rather than as indicated by institutionalization, or the lack of it. The self-concept, as previously noted, has long been regarded as a central psychological variable determining behavior. If certain "adjusted" behaviors can be identified, then we would expect the self-concept to predict these behaviors in a consistent manner in the aged as well as in any other group. In the following pages, we will outline the considerations which determined the specific variables that were selected for study and we will state our problem formally. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

This secondary research study uses data from two convenience samples of homeless persons in Central Arkansas collected during 2004 and 2011 Point in Time Counts. The prevalence of predictors of homelessness are compared across years, and also compared by age (<50 and > 50) controlling for year of survey. The number of older adults increased significantly between 2004 and 2011 surveys, and reporting serious mental illness and veteran status significantly decreased from 2004 to 2011. Age differences were noted in 2004 with older adults more likely to report serious mental illness in comparison to younger adults. Older adults were also more likely to report veteran status in comparison to younger adults during both the 2004 and 2011 surveys. The predictors of homelessness -- including serious health problems, substance abuse, race, age, and developmental disabilities-- remained fairly consistent from 2004 to 2011 and across "age groups". In addition to Point in Time data, qualitative surveys and interviews of providers were performed for their observations of the older homeless population. Providers indicated their belief that the older homeless population is increasing. Providers suggested possible challenges and reasons for the increase among older adults who are homeless. In central Arkansas, service providers feel the current economy, programs, and agencies that provide homeless services and funding sources are adequate at this time as evidenced by no increase in numbers. Due to new funding, improvement has occurred with the veteran population through VA programs. Even though this research did not find any change in gender, the providers feel that for future homeless, trends in gender (women in poverty), as well as older adults becoming homeless for the first time, should be watched in addition to other predictive factors such as the economy, increase in substance abuse, and physical and mental health concerns.

Older adults are more vulnerable to the ill effects of life stress due to physiological changes associated with aging that result in decreased immunocompetence. Stressors interacting with an aging immune system may produce further declines in health. Variables shown to modulate the effect of stressors on neuroendocrine and immune function and health include social support, personality, coping style, and health locus of control. A comprehensive model is proposed that includes: life stressors, social resources, psychological resources, interaction between stressors and social resources, neuroendocrine and immune function, and symptomatology. This model was evaluated using structured equation modeling. Participants were 97 active, community dwelling, older women, ranging in age from 60 to 93 years.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / This research examined which of the five well-known chosen extrapolative mortality models best captured the trends in old-age population mortality for different age groupings in four different countries. Mortality rates from the Human Mortality Database for the United Kingdom, Poland, Japan and Taiwan were used, encompassing males and females in the 65-89 age group. This allowed assessments to be made across developed and emerging economies, and across Europe and Asia. Comparisons were made across models to understand why some work better for some age groupings in some countries. The research considered the goodness-of-fit of these well-known mortality models to historical population mortality rates, assessed the range of projected future mortality rates, and evaluated the financial impact of mortality uncertainty on annuity prices across the subject populations. Some of the findings which emerged were that the Booth-Maindonald-Smith model tended to work best for most of the selected populations, particularly for female or Asian populations. Perhaps surprisingly, retiring females in the emerging economies can be expected to possibly outlive males in the developed economies selected. In a low yield environment, uncertainty around mortality has a noticeable impact on the range of pricing of annuities. The extent of mortality uncertainty is expected to be less for developed than in emerging economies, and less for females than males.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries