The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of (a) respondent age, (b) age and gender of perpetrator and victim, and (c) history of experienced violence on perceptions of elder abuse. Two-hundred and one (N = 201) middle-aged adults and 422 college students were assessed. Measures included adaptations of the Severity of Violence Against Women Scale and Elder Abuse Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Scale-Revised. Middle-aged respondents viewed psychological behaviors more harshly than young. Middle-aged females and young males were less tolerant of middle-aged perpetrators. While past performance of elder abuse was predictive of future elder abuse, history of childhood abuse was not. Exploratory analyses examined middle-aged respondents' judgments of abusive behaviors and perceptions based on age of perpetrator. Middle-aged and young adults' willingness to respond to dimensions of quality, severity, and reportability were also examined.

Quality of housing was examined in relation to living arrangement, race, socioeconomic status, age, gender, income, health, and renter-owner status. There appeared to be differences in housing quality for those of younger ages, females, and owners. White subjects occupied good quality housing while Blacks occupied fair quality housing. Proportion of income allocated to housing was examined by renter-owner status, race, gender and living arrangement. Renters allocated an average of 34 per cent compared to 17 per cent for owners. Females living alone occupied good quality housing, committed the highest proportion of income to housing, and one-third had incomes below the poverty threshold while two-thirds were near poverty. Subjects allocated more for utilities than others over sixty-five, nationally.

As the ageing population continues to grow, health and social care services face increasing demands. Technology based interventions such as telecare offer a potential solution to meet this increase in a cost effective manner. However, there is a concern that such technologies may lead to increased social isolation. Traditional approaches towards resolving social isolation typically involve the provision of activities designed to provide social interaction. In this thesis, we investigate a novel persuasion based approach to address social isolation. To this end, we conducted a modelling study to discover effective persuasive strategies for encouraging social interaction and how to apply them. From the results of this study, we identified, defined and categorised effective persuasive strategies, grounded in theories of persuasion and behavioural change and developed a strategy selection heuristic for applying them. We investigated the perceived effectiveness of both the strategies and strategy selection heuristic and discovered conceptual differences between selecting the most suitable strategy for older adults and a wider audience. Finally, we investigated the actual effectiveness of the strategies with an observational study involving formal carers and older adults. Our results can be combined to create a persuasive virtual agent aimed to tackling social isolation amongst older adults.

Purpose: To compare the pulmonary function of older runners with non-runners and also the population norms. Method: 40 males ages 45 to 65 were compared for respiratory muscle strength, spirometry and maximum voluntary ventilation. Univariate and multivariate analysis (p < 0.05) were used to determine differences Results: No significant differences in age, height, or respiratory muscle strength were found. A significant difference was found for weight and BMI with the non-runners having greater values. The dependent variables of FVC, FEV1, FEF25-75%, PEF, and MVV resulted in a significant difference with the runners having greater values. A significant difference was also found for pulmonary function between runners and the general population. Conclusion: Continued and habitual aerobic exercise in the form of running in 45 to 65 year old men resulted in pulmonary function values that were significantly greater than those of the non-runners and also greater than population norms.

Thesis advisor: John B. Williamson / Today, against the backdrop of the demographic pressures to delay the retirement of older workers, sociologists of aging have begun exploring the impact of national labor market institutions on individual workers’ experiences of aging. Using semi-structured, life story interview data drawn from a sample of 52 male workers in the Tokyo area (born between 1940 and 1953), this dissertation research has contributed to uncovering the ways in which the institution of lifetime employment – the most foundational labor market institution of contemporary Japan – uses age to control individuals’ perceptions and behaviors over the course of their working lives. This dissertation research includes data from pre-mandatory retirement older workers (n=29, aged 55-59) and post-mandatory retirement older workers (n=23, aged 60-68). Based on a social constructionist perspective, this dissertation research has explored three areas of these workers’ experiences of aging over the course of their working lives: (1) perceived instances of being subjected to age discrimination; (2) changes to their attitudes toward these age discrimination experiences; and (3) changes to their self-concepts as workers. A series of thematic data analyses of the interview data, drawn with a life course approach and a grounded theory method, has generated two sets of findings. First, the pre-mandatory retirement experiences of aging of the interview participants (n=52) have contributed to uncovering and describing a social process through which ‘older workers’ are socially constructed within the institutional framework of lifetime employment. Second, the research has found that after mandatory retirement, the post-mandatory retirement workers (n=23) rejected the label of ‘older workers’ and critically viewed lifetime employment as a 'total institution' (Goffman 1961), essentially an institution of social control, harmful to workers in their later working lives. This dissertation research has contributed to the literature by demonstrating that the lifetime employment institution in Japan serves as an intensive age-based social control mechanism that has constructed and reproduced ‘older workers’ in the country’s labor force. Based on the findings of post-mandatory retirement experience of aging, this dissertation research also suggests that the Japanese government should find ways to mitigate the social exclusion, marginalization, and stigmatization that workers experience in their post-mandatory retirement working lives. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Purpose The aim of the systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the magnitude and strength of the loneliness-psychosis relationship, and to synthesise current evidence. The aim of the empirical investigation was to establish whether, in older people, loneliness may increase proneness to auditory hallucinations and perceiving visual human-like features in ambiguous stimuli. Methods For the meta-analysis a search of electronic databases was conducted (PsychINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science). Studies were included if they reported usable data relating to the association between loneliness and psychotic symptoms. A random effects meta-analysis was used to compute a pooled estimate of the correlation, together with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Study quality and outcome quality were systematically assessed using adapted versions of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) tool and GRADE approach, respectively. For the empirical study, a parallel group experimental design with random allocation to experimental conditions was employed. Participants (62 healthy adults aged 65 and above) were assigned to one of the two conditions – the experimental condition or a control condition. A loneliness induction procedure was employed in the experimental condition whereas participants in the control condition completed a neutral task. A logistic regression was conducted to evaluate performance on auditory and visual tasks across the groups and an odds ratio was calculated. Results Thirteen studies were included in the meta-analysis, providing data from 15,647 participants. A moderate association between psychosis and loneliness was observed (k=13, N=15,647, r=0.32, 95% CI 0.20, 0.44; I2 97.56%; moderate quality evidence). Whether loneliness was assessed by single-item or a more comprehensive measure had no moderating effect on the estimate. The experimental study revealed that participants in the neutral condition were significantly less likely to hear words in ambiguous stimuli than those in the experimental condition (OR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.51 – 0.94, p < 0.05). Exploratory analysis revealed that higher scores on the state loneliness measure were associated with an increase in the likelihood of hearing words (OR=1.17, 95% CI 1.01-1.35, p = 0.03). No effect of loneliness induction was found on perceiving human-like features in ambiguous visual stimuli. Conclusions The meta-analysis confirmed a significant positive relationship between loneliness and psychosis, while the experimental study suggested that loneliness may have a causal role in the development of subclinical auditory experiences in older people. Further studies examining whether loneliness is involved in proneness to other psychotic experiences would be beneficial.

The paper presents a review of 128 studies on the behavior of older consumers published in the last 35 years (from 1980 to 2014) in 35 peer-reviewed journals. The purpose of the procedure is twofold: First, we aim to summarize results on agerelated changes in consumer research. Second, by doing so, we evaluate the relative importance of age-related factors (chronological, biological, psychological, and social age as wells as life events and life circumstances) in research on older consumers. Results of the review show that research on older consumers is still dominated by investigations using chronological age. Influences of other aspects of the aging process, although recommended by previous research reviews and providing valuable insights, are still playing a minor role in the investigation of consumer behavior. Research with alternative age measures is still in an early, exploratory stage and future studies should include specific aspects as well as multitheoretical models of aging.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

As dementia progresses older adults may lose the ability to communicate their pain experiences to healthcare providers, relying on the ability of the provider to infer their pain (Kelley, Siegler, & Reid, 2008; Pesonen et al., 2009). In the long-term care setting, the licensed nurse and certified nurse aide provide direct patient care to these residents and may be more likely to identify nonverbal behaviors that may indicate pain (Nygaard & Jarland, 2006; Pautex, Herrmann, Michon, Giannakopoulos, & Gold, 2007). The Conceptual Model for Assessing Pain in Nonverbal Persons with Dementia highlights provider, patient, and method-related factors that can hinder the process of inferring pain in nonverbal persons with dementia. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the impact of these potential barriers on pain assessment/screening. Each chapter of this dissertation explores provider, patient, or method-related factors that impair the judgment of pain in others, either through an integrative review of the literature or by secondary analysis of a data set that was originally collected for the psychometric evaluation of the Non-communicative Patient's Pain Assessment Instrument. Statistical analysis was completed using SPSS version 21.0. Results indicate that nurse-related factors are well supported in the literature as barriers to pain assessment and can impair the nurses' pain assessment decisions. Ethnic differences in the expression of the nonverbal pain behavior "pain words," signify the role of patient-related factors on the pain assessment process. Lastly, examination of method-related factors support the benefits of training staff to use nonverbal pain assessment tools, with those staff members who were trained having greater accuracy in pain assessment when compared to untrained raters. In closing, this dissertation has implications for nursing science, education, policy, and practice and serves as a valuable contribution to the current literature.