Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between Sense of Coherence (SOC) and subjective report of health in elders. A systematic sample of 400 retirees from Ball State University faculty and staff was used in this study. The participants completed the information sheet and two questionnaires: Orientation to Life and Perceived Health. All data from the 198 responses were entered into the database for statistical analysis, although 169 (85%) had complete sets of data. Pearson r correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between SOC and subjective reports of health. The result revealed a statistically significant relationship between the two variables. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and univariate analysis of variance were used to examine the relationship between SOC and subjective reports of health and other variables such as sex, education level, retirement status, and social support. Results indicate a significant relationship between sex, education level, SOC and subjective report of health. Retirement status and social support did not prove significant. A post hoc analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant relationship between SOC and education. This study has implications for worksite health promotion programs which address more than the physical dimension of wellness. Further march is recommended. / Institute for Wellness

The purpose of the study was to evaluate perceived stressors, coping strategies, and coping effectiveness in older adults. The theoretical framework was Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theory of stress.Data was collected from 55 independent living adults. Findings showed that primary perceived stressors focused on health, family, and independence. The most frequently used and effective style of coping was optimistic. The least frequently used and least effective style was emotive. The most commonly used and most effective strategy was prayer. Few demographic differences in coping were noted.A major conclusion was that, while individual coping strategies were highly effective, overall older adults coped only somewhat effectively with stressors.The significance of the study was that effective coping strategies and styles as identified can guide nursing interventions for stress management among older adults. Replication of the study is needed with a large sample from a variety of populations. / School of Nursing

Phenomenological inquiry was used to investigate stressors encountered by older adults during recovery from alcoholism. Thirteen men and thirteen women, ranging in age from 55 to 82 and in length of sobriety from 2 months to 41 years, generated 37 sources of stress which threatened stable recovery. Stressors were categorized as psychological, physiological, or environmental in origin.Results indicated that the number and multicomplexity of stressors intensified stress levels. Although some stressors were antecedent to sobriety, a significant proportion were unique in recovery and/or related to the maintenance of sobriety itself.Women's rates of response nearly doubled those of men. Women evidenced greater deficiencies in basic survival needs and family support for recovery, greater duration of stressors into the recovery period, and greater focalization on internal negative emotional states, particularly anxiety, guilt and anger. Males evidenced proportionally higher percentages of external sources of stress.Both genders showed higher percentages of environmental stressors than expected. Although the percentage of physiological stressors was lower than expected, there was notable incidence of iatrogenic cross-addiction to psychoactive medication during recovery.Treatment methods were an early sobrietal source of stress for both genders. Inpatient treatment experiences were negatively influenced by confrontive therapy approaches, mixed-age therapy groups, lack of assistance with problems other than alcoholism, and inattention to medical complications.This dissertation includes an extensive review of literature concerning alcoholism in older adults, and recommendations for research and practice. / Department of Educational Leadership

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

The purpose of this study was to build on previous descriptive research on grandparents' experiences of stress in raising their grandchildren. The research method used was a qualitative approach. The goal in utilizing a qualitative approach lay in a desire to understand the unique stress experience of grandfathers and grandmothers in raising their grandchildren, as they live it and feel it.

The occurrence of custodial grandparents is increasing greatly. These grandparents face added stress and many adversities that arise from caregiving. Findings of current research tends to be mixed on the effects of grandparents raising grandchildren experience. Much research concludes that grandparent caregivers experience negative declines in overall health and well-being, while other research points out that the caregiving role may actually be a positive experience for the grandparent. The current study hypothesizes that mixed research may be a result of varying levels of resilience in the custodial grandparent population. The model proposed in this study looks at resilience as a mediator between several variables that effect custodial grandparenting. The current sample consisted of 239 custodial grandparents. A regression/correlation analysis was conducted on the data, and it was found that resilience levels were significant in mediating the effects of grandparent caregiving.

Utilizing a sample of community-residing older adults, this pretest-posttest design evaluated the short term (approximately 1 week) impact on everyday functioning of Stress Inoculation (SI) training, a cognitive-behavioral intervention that is essentially a coping skills enhancement program. The targets of training were anxiety and concern about being able to successfully perform everyday living tasks. The training program was contrasted with a no contact (waiting list) control. In an effort to maximize the practical aspects of this study, the assessment battery included the use of two ecologically valid measures of everyday problem solving skills (one self-rated and one interviewer-rated). Also included were a measure of everyday intelligence widely used in gerontological research, two measures of self-efficacy, a geriatric depression scale, a state-trait anxiety scale, and a self-report measure of failures in perception, memory, and motor function. The results suggest that Stress Inoculation training is an effective intervention for improving everyday competence but that personal perceptions of self-efficacy and the emotional states of anxiety and depression mediate treatment effects. In general, only persons with lower levels of self-efficacy and higher levels of anxiety and/or depression saw improvement in their cognitive performance following SI training.

貧窮既是一種客觀況，又是一種主觀心感受。既有的研究很少關注老年人自身關於貧窮的經驗，特別是缺乏華人社會背景下貧窮老人主觀經驗的研究。本研究試圖從個體的層面考察貧窮對於中國城市老人多重面向的負面影響，以及他們如何回應這些負面影響，在此基礎上為改善與貧窮老人有關的社會政策提出適切的建議。 / 基於這一研究目的，本研究從批判老年學和抗逆力的理論視角出發，採取建構主義範式和生命故事的研究取向，以中國北京的城市貧窮老人為例，選取17位城市貧窮老人為研究物件，深入研究中國城市貧窮老人的各種壓力，以及抗逆力的內外保護性因素回應這些壓力的機制及其所起到的作用。 / 研究發現，中國城市貧窮老人面臨經濟壓力、疾病與老化的壓力、逆反哺與照顧配偶的壓力，以及貧窮恥感的壓力。貧窮在城市老人的主觀經驗裡意味著多重壓力的相迭，這從主觀經驗的角度揭示了中國城市貧窮老人的多重弱勢。 / 作為抗逆力外在保護性因素的社會支持，它的實現機制因其類型的不同而相異。代際支持對提升抗逆力的作用受到代際團結和代際張力的共同影響；其他非正式支持對提升抗逆力的作用受到互惠關係的影響；社會政策的支持對提升抗逆力的作用受到人情倫理的雙重性和代群差異的影響。這些機制共同決定了貧窮老人的非正式支援日趨弱化，而社會政策和專業服務提供的正式支援有待加強。 / 作為貧窮老人抗逆力的內在保護性因素，工具性策略由獨立性的要求所驅動，意義創造遵循追尋自我價值和重構貧窮經驗這兩條路徑。意義創造在貧窮老人的內在保護性因素中發揮著更為根本性的作用。內外保護性因素的比較有助於我們識別城市貧窮老人中更脆弱的次群體。 / 基於這一研究發現，本研究在原有研究框架的基礎上，補充了貧窮老人的多重壓力和保護性因素的實現機制，擴展了貧窮老人抗逆力研究的研究框架。文章的最後提出了社會政策的具體建議。 / Poverty is both an objective condition and a kind of subjective psychological feeling. However, existing studies pay little attention to older people’s own experience of poverty, especially lacking of studies on subjective experience of the aged poor in the Chinese context. This research attempts to explore from the individual level, the multi-dimensional negative effects of poverty on the aged poor in urban China and how they respond to these impacts. On this basis, appropriate social policies were proposed to improve the living conditions of the aged poor. / Taking the constructivist position and life story approach, this study was conducted from the perspectives of resilience theory and critical gerontology and used the urban aged poor in Beijing, China as an example. Seventeen urban aged poor were selected as the sample for in-depth interview and their multiple stresses, and the mechanisms of internal and external protective factors of resilience in response to their stresses and their functions were investigated. / Research findings show that China’s urban aged poor suffer stresses from economic pressure, diseases and aging, taking care of their spouses, inverse nurturing, and shamefulness of poverty. Poverty means a combination of multiple stresses in the subjective experience of the urban poor elderly. This perspective reveals the multiple disadvantages of the Chinese urban aged poor. / Social support as the external protective factor of resilience, its implementation mechanisms are different by its types. The intergenational support in enhancing the function of resilience is influenced by intergenational solidarity and intergenational tension. Other informal social support in enhancing the function of resilience is affected by reciprocal relationship. Formal support from social policy in enhancing the function of resilience is influenced by the dual nature of interpersonal ethics as well as cohort differentiation. These mechanisms together determine that informal social support of the urban aged poor is gradually weakened. As a result, formal social support coming from social policy and professional social service has to be strengthened. / As one of the internal protective factors of resilience of the aged poor, the instrumental strategies are driven by the demands of independence. The other one of the internal protective factors, the creation of meaningfulness, develops towards two paths, one of which is in search of self-worthiness and the other reconstruction of experience of poverty. The significance of creation of meaningfulness in the internal protective factors of the aged poor exerts a more fundamental function. A combination of the internal and external protective factors can help us differentiate the more disadvantaged sub-group among the urban aged poor. / Based on the findings of the study, the original conceptual framework is reconstructed by supplementing the multiple stresses and the operating mechanisms of protective factors. This has expanded the research framework of studying resilience of the aged poor. Finally, some specific recommendations of social policy are provided. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 陳岩燕. / Thesis subitted: December 2012. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 456-499) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Chen Yanyan. / Chapter 第一章 --- 緒論 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一節 --- 研究背景 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究目的與研究意義 --- p.11 / Chapter 第三節 --- 本文的結構 --- p.13 / Chapter 第二章 --- 文獻回顧 --- p.14 / Chapter 第一節 --- 貧窮老人研究的回顧 --- p.14 / Chapter 第二節 --- 與老年貧窮相關的社會政策與研究發現 --- p.49 / Chapter 第三節 --- 與貧窮老人相關的理論解釋 --- p.80 / Chapter 第四節 --- 現有研究的不足 --- p.125 / Chapter 第三章 --- 研究設計 --- p.132 / Chapter 第一節 --- 概念框架 --- p.132 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究方法 --- p.143 / Chapter 第四章 --- 中国城市貧窮老人的多重壓力 --- p.183 / Chapter 第一節 --- 經濟壓力 --- p.183 / Chapter 第二節 --- 老化和疾病的壓力 --- p.187 / Chapter 第三節 --- 逆反哺和照顧配偶的壓力 --- p.202 / Chapter 第四節 --- 貧窮恥感的壓力 --- p.226 / Chapter 第五節 --- 多重壓力相疊 --- p.237 / Chapter 第五章 --- 貧窮老人與非正式社會支持 --- p.240 / Chapter 第一节 --- 貧窮老人與代際支持 --- p.240 / Chapter 第二節 --- 貧窮老人與擴展家庭的支持 --- p.259 / Chapter 第三節 --- 貧窮老人與鄰里支持 --- p.271 / Chapter 第四節 --- 貧窮老人與其他非正式支持 --- p.291 / Chapter 第六章 --- 貧窮老人與正式社會支持 --- p.297 / Chapter 第一節 --- 貧窮老人與社會政策的支持 --- p.297 / Chapter 第二節 --- 貧窮老人對待社會政策支持的例外個案 --- p.319 / Chapter 第三節 --- 社會政策基層執行者的支持 --- p.325 / Chapter 第四節 --- 其他的正式社會支持 --- p.336 / Chapter 第七章 --- 貧窮老人的工具性策略與意義創造 --- p.347 / Chapter 第一節 --- 貧窮老人的工具性策略 --- p.348 / Chapter 第二節 --- 貧窮老人的意義創造 --- p.372 / Chapter 第八章 --- 討論 --- p.410 / Chapter 第一節 --- 多重壓力：中國城市貧窮老人的多重弱勢 --- p.411 / Chapter 第二節 --- 外在保護性因素：社會支持的再審視 --- p.414 / Chapter 第三節 --- 內在保護性因素 --- p.435 / Chapter 第四節 --- 對貧窮老人抗逆力理論框架的補充 --- p.441 / Chapter 第九章 --- 社會政策的啟示 --- p.445 / Chapter 一、 --- 優勢為本的社會政策 --- p.445 / Chapter 二、 --- 支持家庭的社會政策 --- p.446 / Chapter 三、 --- 雙重權利系統的社會政策 --- p.447 / Chapter 四、 --- 適度普惠的社會政策 --- p.448 / Chapter 第十章 --- 總結 --- p.450 / Chapter 第一節 --- 總結 --- p.450 / Chapter 第二節 --- 本研究的貢獻與局限 --- p.453 / p.456 / 附錄 --- p.500 / Chapter 附錄1： --- 200-2050年中國各年齡段男、女性人口增長趨勢 --- p.500 / Chapter 附錄2： --- 北京市歷年社會保障相關標準（1994-2011） --- p.501 / Chapter 附錄3： --- 受訪者的訪談時間與合計訪談時長 --- p.502 / Chapter 附錄4： --- 2009年11月第一次訪談大綱 --- p.504 / Chapter 附錄5： --- 2010年9月第二次訪談大綱 --- p.507