Food Waste and Quality of Life in Elderly Populations Living in Retirement Living Communities

Food waste is an increasingly important issue in all food-service establishments, including retirement living communities. With residents of these communities having faced food insecurity as children and young adults, they have unique and very strong feelings regarding this issue. We interviewed 16 Canadian residents and used manifest content analysis to gain an understanding of how their experiences, behaviors, and feelings toward food waste may impact their quality of life. The results of this study may have implications for how retirement living communities approach their food-service operations.     

The Political Economy of Longevity: Developing New Forms of Solidarity for Later Life

Aging populations now exert influence on all aspects of social life. This article examines changes to major social and economic institutions linked with old age, taking the period from the mid‐20th century to the opening decades of the 21st century. These developments are set within the context of the influence of globalization as well as the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, these restructuring debates around the longevity revolution. The article examines how the basis for a new framework for accommodating longevity can be built, outlining ways of securing new forms of solidarity in later life.     

Resident Perspectives on Life in a Transitional Living Program for Homeless Young Adults

Safe and affordable housing is critical for any young person’s well-being, and yet many youth are without a reliable place to live. Knowledge of the perceptions of housing programs and shelter among homeless young adults ages 18–24 is very limited. Using qualitative methodology, the present study explores the perceptions of homeless young adults on their experiences as residents of a transitional living program (TLP) by asking the following research questions: (1) What are TLP residents’ expectations of themselves and others in the program? and (2) How do residents perceive the rules and structure of the TLP? Sixteen interviews were conducted with residents at a TLP for homeless young adults, with participants ranging in age from 18 to 22. Findings illuminated residents’ strong emphasis on the values of hard work, self-discipline and a good attitude. Results revealed that residents felt that they are overly monitored within the program, particularly around daily living in the residence and felt a lack of flexibility in the rules and regulations. It is important that the structure of a TLP housing program so that rules are not disruptive to healthy development and successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. Further implications for practice are discussed.     

生活方式预演：大学生校外租住行为

大学生校外租房居住现象在当前已具有一定的普遍性。作为成人生活方式的一种预演,大学生未能充分地认识到校外租房住宿背后潜藏着的对个人发展的危机和严重后果。此外,大学生的这种生活方式失去了学校的管理与约束,给高校学生工作带来了很多问题和挑战。     

Living a Calling,Life Satisfaction,and Workplace Climate Among a Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Population

Previous research on calling has resulted in a model that relates living a calling to life satisfaction through job satisfaction and life meaning. However, no research has examined this model in a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) population. With a sample of 171 sexual minority adults, the current study aimed to (a) test the fit of an established model of living a calling and life satisfaction and (b) examine how having a supportive LGB workplace climate functioned within this model. Results revealed an excellent fit of the model and that a supportive LGB workplace climate predicted both living a calling and job satisfaction. In addition, the relation of living a calling to life satisfaction was fully mediated by life meaning and job satisfaction, and the relation of climate to life satisfaction was mediated by job satisfaction. These results suggest an expansion of the potential utility of the calling construct to an LGB population.     

Framing Life as Work: Navigating Dependence and Autonomy in Independent Living

Qualitative Sociology - This paper offers an ethnographic account of the context of autonomy for participants at Moving Toward Independence in the Community (MTIC), an independent living program...     

Mental Illness in Assisted Living: Challenges for Quality of Life and Care

ABSTRACT

An unknown number of mentally ill elders in the United States receive care in assisted living, along with persons facing physical or cognitive challenges. While dementia is familiar in assisted living, our data indicate that neither staff nor residents are prepared to work or live with the mentally ill. Challenges are created for professionals, since these residents bring diverse needs. Daily interresident interactions are also disrupted or stressful. Qualitative data describe the impacts on quality of resident life as well as care and management dilemmas identified within five assisted-living settings having varying presence of mental illness among residents.     

Life As Gift: Spiritual Narratives of Elderly African-American Women Living in Poverty

Fifty elderly African-American women living in poverty were interviewed for a research project entitled, “Chronic Poverty and the Self in Later Life.” Using four representative case studies from the 50 respondents, this article explores how their spirituality informs their ability to cope with poverty. A key theme emerging from the women's narratives is that their relationship with God, perceived as personal, reciprocal, and empowering, allows them to take an active and positive stance in viewing and interpreting the circumstances of their life. Their spirituality imbues their hardship with meaning, engenders self-esteem, keeps despair at bay, and grants hope for rewards both in this life and the next.     

Living Values: Maternal Corporal Subjectivity and the Value of Life and Death

The article offers a reading of the Jewish myth of Samson as presenting a set of relations among masculinity, collectivity, and death. Concentrating on the role of women in Samson's life I attempt to decipher some ways in which these relations develop and to explore the role that women and mothers may play in challenging them. Building on Luce Irigaray, what I highlight in my reading of Samson's story is the process whereby attachment to life appears as a possible guiding principle but is at the same time negated and cancelled. I present attachment to life not only as a form of desire but also as a specific kind of ethicality inherent in life itself.     

Complex Families and Late‐Life Outcomes Among Elderly Persons: Disability,Institutionalization, and Longevity

The authors examined the effects of marital status and family structure on disability, institutionalization, and longevity for a nationally representative sample of elderly persons using Gompertz duration models applied to longitudinal data from 3 cohorts of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 11,481). They found that parents with only stepchildren have worse outcomes than parents with only biological children. Elderly mothers with only stepchildren become disabled and institutionalized sooner, and elderly men with only stepchildren have shorter longevity relative to their counterparts with only biological children. The effect of membership in a blended family differs by gender. Relative to those with only biological children, women in blended families have greater longevity and become disabled later, whereas men in blended families have reduced longevity. The findings indicate that changing marital patterns and increased complexity in family life have adverse effects on late‐life health outcomes.     

Gold Statue of Longevity Buddha

The Longevity Buddha is also known as Amitabha, the host of the Western Paradise, or Pure Land. Buddhists believe that the acts of making, enshrining and worship-     

Ambivalence and Living Apart Together in Later Life: A Critical Research Proposal

Most unattached older persons who would like an intimate partnership do not want to remarry or be in a marriage‐like relationship. A growing trend is to live apart together (LAT) in an ongoing intimate relationship that does not include a common home. We address the debate about whether LAT constitutes a new form of intimate relationship in a critical assessment of research on LAT relationships that applies ambivalence and concepts from the life course perspective. We conclude that among older but not younger adults, LAT relationships are generally a stable alternative to living with a partner, negotiated in the context of current social institutions and arrangements. We propose research questions that address later life living apart together as an innovative alternative intimate relationship. We encourage comparative work on the unique challenges of later life living apart together, their implications for other family ties, and their connection to social and cultural arrangements.     

Earn as You Learn: Connections Between Doing Qualitative Work and Living Daily Life

Qualitative Sociology -     

Living in the shadow of occupation: Life satisfaction and positive emotion as protective factors in a group of Palestinian school children

Starting from perspectives on functioning and wellbeing, the aim of the present study was to investigate positive and negative affect, self-perceived life satisfaction and happiness in a group of 74 Palestinian children exposed to political violence. We hypothesized that the children in our sample would display generally satisfactory wellbeing and good functioning in terms of positive affect, life satisfaction and happiness, despite their negative life conditions. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the dimensions of participants' wellbeing was carried out. In particular, we explored the ecological dimensions affecting the wellbeing of Palestinian children through content analysis of narratives produced by the group of participants. Positive emotions were found to contribute to wellbeing and life satisfaction in children, acting as protective factors in dealing with daily violence. The children displayed a range of personal resources facilitated above all by the functioning community structure supporting them. Implications for clinical intervention are discussed.     

Working for a Better Life: Longitudinal Evidence on the Predictors of Employment Among Recently Arrived Refugee Migrant Men Living in Australia

Although a number of studies have investigated the predictors of employment among refugee migrants, there is a dearth of evidence from longitudinal data. This study investigated the cross‐sectional and longitudinal predictors of employment among 233 adult refugee men living in South‐East Queensland, Australia. Participants were interviewed four times at six‐month intervals between 2008 and 2010. Using a conceptual model developed from the literature, Generalized Estimating Equations were used to model the predictors of employment. Over time, the employment rate increased from 44 per cent to 56 per cent. Region of birth, length of time in Australia, seeking employment through job service providers and informal networks, and owning a car were significant predictors of employment. Contrary to previous research, English language proficiency was not a significant predictor when other variables were controlled for. Recognition of overseas skills and qualifications decreased the chances of finding employment. The policy and programme implications are discussed.

Policy Implications

• Recognition of refugee migrants' overseas‐gained skills and qualifications does not guarantee them securing employment.
• Recognition of overseas skills and qualifications should be accompanied by educating employers, especially those outside the traditional migrant employment ‘niches’, about the resources and capabilities of refugee migrants, and the value of their qualifications.
• Fostering programmes that target the needs of job seekers from refugee backgrounds could enhance their employment outcomes.
• Supporting refugee migrants getting their drivers' licence and establishing favourable loan programmes that enable refugee migrants to buy a car can have a positive impact on their workforce participation.

     

Weaving a Foundation for Independent Living

FOR many years, learning how to weave cloth was a type of compulsory education for girls living in cotton-growing areas; the skill was usually handed down by their mothers or grandmothers. After the girls got married, spinning and weaving for their families would become their lifetime work. The girls in the photo, however, were not those home weavers, but students of the Women Department of the Industrial School in Rugao County, Jiangsu. The photo records the transformation in the