This work is a study of the day to day experiences of older people in receipt of in-home care, the experiences of their family carers, and of their careworkers, resulting in a hypothesis about the structure of the lifecycle towards the end of life, and a consideration of both structured transition and individual transitions to and within this life stage. It has taken off from Laslett�s (1989,1996) seminal work on age divisions, into Third and Fourth Ages. Through an initial examination of secondary sources, I have hypothesized that the older people in this care bracket are in fact in a new life stage, between that of the independent Third Age and the dependent Fourth Age. I call this life stage the stage of 'Supported Independence'. Further references to the secondary sources, and references to the data, have supported this hypothesis, and have shown that there is a structured transition from the stage of independence to that of supported independence. The value of building such a life stage lies in the ability we then have to emphasize the situation of in-home care, bringing to prominence the experiences of the three stakeholders in this care environment. I have used the rites of passage concept to make known the issues involving the move from independence to dependence and those issues predominant in receiving in-home care, in being the carer at such a time, and in being the careworker within the invisibility of home. This has shown a formalized separation from the independent identity, and a prolonged stage of liminality because of an often uncertain form of service delivery. In this liminal stage also are revealed the emotions of living at home with a disability and with care, the improvisatory practices, the passivity and the assertiveness of this time of ageing. By applying this concept also to the family carers, I show the movement of families into and through the caring role, the joy of caring and the difficulties of taking responsibility without authority. I have shown carers� own improvisatory practices, and their determination to maintain the care recipient at home as long as possible. For the careworker, the rites of passage concept shows how she (and the careworker participants in this study are all women), can act to either maintain the liminal position of the recipients or assist in their reconnection to greater autonomy. Exploring the careworkers� own positions by means of the rites of passage concept highlights their inter-structural position between the public and private sectors, and highlights too, the care industry�s position, between that of a time managed industry and a recipient-directed industry. Whether this can be regarded as liminal depends on the philosophies of care adopted by the industry. In summary, the study examines the significance of the place of care, challenging the dominant ideology that home is best, and putting forward for consideration principles of care for other models of service delivery.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Anita Tesh; submitted to the School of Nursing. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 28, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-130).

This work is a study of the day to day experiences of older people in receipt of in-home care, the experiences of their family carers, and of their careworkers, resulting in a hypothesis about the structure of the lifecycle towards the end of life, and a consideration of both structured transition and individual transitions to and within this life stage. It has taken off from Laslett�s (1989,1996) seminal work on age divisions, into Third and Fourth Ages. Through an initial examination of secondary sources, I have hypothesized that the older people in this care bracket are in fact in a new life stage, between that of the independent Third Age and the dependent Fourth Age. I call this life stage the stage of 'Supported Independence'. Further references to the secondary sources, and references to the data, have supported this hypothesis, and have shown that there is a structured transition from the stage of independence to that of supported independence. The value of building such a life stage lies in the ability we then have to emphasize the situation of in-home care, bringing to prominence the experiences of the three stakeholders in this care environment. I have used the rites of passage concept to make known the issues involving the move from independence to dependence and those issues predominant in receiving in-home care, in being the carer at such a time, and in being the careworker within the invisibility of home. This has shown a formalized separation from the independent identity, and a prolonged stage of liminality because of an often uncertain form of service delivery. In this liminal stage also are revealed the emotions of living at home with a disability and with care, the improvisatory practices, the passivity and the assertiveness of this time of ageing. By applying this concept also to the family carers, I show the movement of families into and through the caring role, the joy of caring and the difficulties of taking responsibility without authority. I have shown carers� own improvisatory practices, and their determination to maintain the care recipient at home as long as possible. For the careworker, the rites of passage concept shows how she (and the careworker participants in this study are all women), can act to either maintain the liminal position of the recipients or assist in their reconnection to greater autonomy. Exploring the careworkers� own positions by means of the rites of passage concept highlights their inter-structural position between the public and private sectors, and highlights too, the care industry�s position, between that of a time managed industry and a recipient-directed industry. Whether this can be regarded as liminal depends on the philosophies of care adopted by the industry. In summary, the study examines the significance of the place of care, challenging the dominant ideology that home is best, and putting forward for consideration principles of care for other models of service delivery.

Even though Sweden is considered a high trust society, research on this topic is primarily based on a few standardized survey questions. It is also known that there is a robust pattern of less trustful young people compared to older ones. Still, a satisfactory explanation of this fact is lacking. Thus, the first aim of this dissertation is to map trust among young adults and middle-aged individuals. The second aim is to examine by which factors and in what way different dimensions of trust are determined, focusing on individuals’ life course and consequently experiences. Analytical principles from the life course tradition are used as a theoretical framework. Data is derived from a Swedish cross-sectional nationally representative postal survey on trust, and qualitative interviews using a mixed-methods approach. A multi-dimensional concept of trust is suggested. Participants report relatively high levels of trust in known and unknown people, confidence in institutions, normative notions of trust, security, and trustful behaviour. Trust also seems to be structured according to a closeness principle. Young adults display lower trust levels in general. However, in some respects the pattern is reversed, particularly regarding domains they are expected to be more familiar with. Contrary to the well-established idea of generalised trust derived from predispositions and primary socialization, and particularised trust originating from experiences in adulthood, the results of this study suggest that unique combinations of factors, both individual characteristics and experiences, might explain each of the different dimensions. Often there is a sphere-specific relationship between experiences and later trust, i.e. experiences from one sphere of life seem to exclusively affect trust within the same sphere. It is suggested that as people grow older they accumulate what is called experience capital, which might benefit trust and contribute to an explanation of the age differences.

In the United States there exists a clear and disconcerting racial disparity in the distribution of good health, which can be seen in differential levels of morbidity and mortality affecting blacks and whites. Previous research has examined the role of SES in shaping racial health disparities and recent studies have looked specifically at the effect of education on health to explain the racial disparity in health. Higher levels of education are robustly associated with good overall health for both blacks and whites and this association has been examined over the life-course. This research explores racial differences in the effect of education on health in general as well as over the life-course. Specifically, this paper examines race differences in the effects of education on health over the life-course. Pooled data from the National Health Interview Survey were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression to estimate the effects of race, education and age on health. The results of these analyses indicate that blacks receive lower education returns on their health than whites. The effect of education on health was shown to grow in the beginning of the life-course and diminish at the end of the life course in accordance with the mortality-as-leveler hypothesis. The black white health disparity was shown to grow over the life-course among the highly educated, whereas the disparity was consistent over the life-course for the poorly educated.

Even though Sweden is considered a high trust society, research on this topic is primarily based on a few standardized survey questions. It is also known that there is a robust pattern of less trustful young people compared to older ones. Still, a satisfactory explanation of this fact is lacking. Thus, the first aim of this dissertation is to map trust among young adults and middle-aged individuals. The second aim is to examine by which factors and in what way different dimensions of trust are determined, focusing on individuals’ life course and consequently experiences. Analytical principles from the life course tradition are used as a theoretical framework. Data is derived from a Swedish cross-sectional nationally representative postal survey on trust, and qualitative interviews using a mixed-methods approach. A multi-dimensional concept of trust is suggested. Participants report relatively high levels of trust in known and unknown people, confidence in institutions, normative notions of trust, security, and trustful behaviour. Trust also seems to be structured according to a closeness principle. Young adults display lower trust levels in general. However, in some respects the pattern is reversed, particularly regarding domains they are expected to be more familiar with. Contrary to the well-established idea of generalised trust derived from predispositions and primary socialization, and particularised trust originating from experiences in adulthood, the results of this study suggest that unique combinations of factors, both individual characteristics and experiences, might explain each of the different dimensions. Often there is a sphere-specific relationship between experiences and later trust, i.e. experiences from one sphere of life seem to exclusively affect trust within the same sphere. It is suggested that as people grow older they accumulate what is called experience capital, which might benefit trust and contribute to an explanation of the age differences.