Never the Right Age? Gender and Age‐Based Discrimination in Employment

Although UK legislation against age discrimination is required by December 2006, little is yet known about how ageism affects different age categories of employees, and the gender dimensions of ageism have also been neglected. Both issues were investigated by questionnaire survey, producing responses from over 1000 employees of a major UK financial services enterprise. The extent and manifestations of ageism were found to vary across age categories and by sex, and evidence of gendered ageism emerged. Reported examples of ageism were highest among younger and older age categories, but all age groups were affected to some degree. Across all ages, women were more likely than men to experience ageist attitudes concerning appearance or sexuality. To be effective, legislation will need to cater for the complex nature and patterns of age discrimination revealed, though the comparator problem and other complexities are such that important aspects of age prejudice, including gender dimensions, risk being overlooked.     

Constructions of ‘the ageless’ asylum seekers: An analysis of how age is understood among professionals working within the norwegian immigration authorities

This article explores how professionals within the Norwegian immigration authorities conceptualise age when doing non-medical age assessments. By using social constructivism, which challenges an ethnocentric quantifying understanding of age, we delve into how socially constructed perceptions of childhood and adulthood manifest in assessment practices and the implications of these. By examining how applicants’ physical appearance, body language and life experience are used as an assessment basis, we argue that the ways age is conceptualised relate to Western ideas and ideals while overlooking other social and cultural backgrounds in which age is embedded.     

Spatial Practises and Preferences of Older and Younger People: Findings from the Finnish Studies

There are strong tendencies in urban segregation, not only according to social class, gender and ethnic lines but also according to age. This paper draws on the findings of three studies conducted in Lahti, Finland, to examine the intergenerational aspects of spatial practise. It is argued that people look at their environment through a generational gaze, such that different generations have different spatial preferences and practises. In this article, an age-friendly living environment refers to one that appeals not only to older people but to people of all ages. Age-friendly environments have no segregating borderlines, but rather enable the meeting and communication of different aged people and sustain age integration. As older and young people are most dependent on their living environments, the paper concentrates on their use of space and attachment to place. Our special focus is on recreational activities and places: How and where older and young people spend leisure time? What are their favourite places? What is the importance of nature and different kind of urban spots for them? On the basis of the differences and similarities found out in their spatial practises and preferences, our aim is to discuss age-friendly environments that appeal to different aged people. The study is based on qualitative and quantitative data and draws out implications for future age-diverse communities.     

The economics of altruism: The old,the rich,the female

This study examines whether people of different observed characteristics exhibit different degree of altruism. The article utilizes a National Mental Health Survey that gathered questions about respondents’ self-reported altruism along with their demographic, labor force, and income information. The empirical results revealed the following: (1) Older people are more altruistic. This could potentially be explained by the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) that the older people shift towards emotion-related goals that can be internally rewarding in the present. (2) Higher-income people are more altruistic. This could potentially be explained by the fact that higher-income people could better afford to be more altruistic compared to lower-income people. (3) Women are more altruistic. This could potentially be explained by either biological evolution or social imposition. The main results are robust once the potential endogeneity problem of the income variable is mitigated by the use of the instrumental variable estimation method.     

Putting old heads on young shoulders: helping social work students uncover the neoliberal hegemony

This paper explores the suggestion that younger students and social workers are more accepting of neoliberal social work practices than their older counterparts, understanding social problems more readily as failings of individual behaviour rather than as produced by societal forces such as inequality, poverty, and punitive social policy. The suggestion is made that the acceptance of a hegemonic view of people in poverty and other difficulties, which is simple and reductionist, and therefore, easy to grasp, can only be challenged by sophisticated critical thinking. Assignment results from two modules within one social work programme which significantly correlate marks attained and student age are considered in the light of the suggestion that younger students are struggling with critical thinking, and therefore, with deconstructing the neoliberal hegemony.     

Birth cohort and sex differences in the age of gambling initiation in the United States: evidence from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication

Youth gambling has become a significant public health concern, and it appears that individuals are gambling at younger ages than they did in earlier generations. We tested this question by examining birth cohort differences in the age of onset of gambling in a national epidemiologic survey. Data were drawn from the United States National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative general population survey of adults born 1904–84. Individuals were divided into four birth cohorts. The cohorts were compared on their lifetime gambling involvement and age of onset of gambling. Significant birth cohort and sex differences were found in the age of gambling initiation, with more recently born cohorts starting to gamble at progressively earlier ages, and men starting to gamble at younger ages than women. The mean age of onset of gambling for individuals born before 1942 was 32.9 years, and for those born between 1973 and 1984 it was 16.9 years. The overall mean ages of onset of gambling were 20.8 for men and 26.4 for women, but more recently born women appear to be ‘catching up’ with their male counterparts. This decreasing age of gambling initiation may help explain the increasing prevalence of disordered gambling in the United States.     

An alternative to farmer age as an indicator of life-cycle stage: The case for a farm family age index

In studies of farming, the age of the principal decision-maker (PDM) has been associated with numerous farm structural and managerial features and has been widely accepted as a good indicator of the influence of life-cycle factors on decision-making. As such, it has become an important aspect of many quantitative studies of agricultural change. However, contemporary studies of family farming demonstrate that the concept of a single PDM in family farms is becoming an anachronism as alternative enterprises, pluriactivity and the scale of family farms force more diffuse management/operating systems. This raises questions concerning whether the age of the PDM can still be taken as representative of farm structure, strategy or life-cycle stage? Using a study conducted in the Grampian Mountains region of Scotland in 2003 this note investigates the impact of using an alternative index—compiled by averaging the age of family members working on the farm. It suggests that PDM age is a relatively poor indicator of farm structural and managerial features compared to a family age index and calls for researchers to think about alternative approaches to measuring ‘age’ as an indicator.     

Not Such Strange Bedfellows After All

Abstract

The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is best defined as abdominal pain of greater than three months duration, with or without a change in bowel habits. Barium studies, sedimentation rate, and the lactose tolerance test are usually within normal limits. The underlying physiology includes a predominance of 3 cycles/minute basal electrical rhythm (BER). The abdominal pain is poorly localized and usually intermittent, without a clear relationship to medication. Differential diagnosis should include inflammatory bowel disease, infectious colitis or gastroenteritis, lactose intolerance, gallbladder disease, peptic ulcer disease, pelvic inflammatory disease, ovarian cysts and tumors, and endometriosis. A sedimentation rate is an important part of the diagnostic workup which may or may not include barium studies. Anticholinergics have been shown to alter the abnormal BER of irritable bowel syndrome and have proven to be of use in treating this syndrome. Dietary counseling should include advising the patient to eat slowly and at regular hours, and heat applied to the abdomen in the form of a hot water bag has been useful. “Overprogrammed” individuals with irritable bowel syndrome should be advised to modify their activities as this type of stress may give rise to the symptoms.

“Effect of Estrogen/Progestin Potency on Lipid/Lipoprotein Cholesterol,” PATRICIA WAHL, CAROLYN WALDEN, ROBERT KNOPP, JOANNE HOOVER, ROBERT WALLACE, GERARDO HEISS, and BASH RIFKIND. We studied 374 women taking oral contraceptives, 284 women taking estrogen preparations after menopause, and 1086 women taking no hormones, to determine the relation of plasma lipids and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations to various types of estrogen/progestin formulations. Premenopausal women using oral contraceptives containing a relatively low dose of estrogen combined with a medium or high dose of progestin (Norlestrin, Ovral, or Demulen) had a 24 per cent higher median concentration of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol than did those not using hormones (P < 0.05). Women using oral contraceptives that are high in estrogen and low in progestin (Envoid or Oracon) had significantly higher concentrations of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol than did nonusers; those using Ovral, a low-estrogen and high-progestin formulation, had significantly lower levels of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol. In postmenopausal women the use of estrogen was associated with concentrations of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol that were 11 to 19 per cent below the levels in postmenopausal women who did not use hormones. The effects of estrogen-progestin balance on low-density and high-density lipoproteins may underlie the increased incidence of stroke and myocardial infarction in women of childbearing age who take oral contraceptives. (New England Journal of Medicine 1983;308:862–7.)     

The ‘Feminine Advantage’: A Discursive Analysis of the Invisibility of Older Women Workers

This article discusses the overlap of gender and age identity and its implications in a specific political context — a public inquiry into the problems facing the older unemployed. Using discourse analysis, it examines how ‘older worker’ identity is socially constructed in this setting. At the beginning of the inquiry, fundamentally gendered versions of ‘older worker’ identity were initially constructed, yet by its conclusion, female versions had disappeared. The analysis shows that this ‘invisibility’ of female ‘older worker’ identity is the outcome of a central discursive struggle for recognition of older male workers as a disadvantaged group in the labour market. This ‘disadvantaged’ status is achieved by constructing a companion version of ‘feminine advantage’ in the search for employment. The article discusses the complexity of discursive processes through which this invisibility is accomplished and its implications for those targeted by female and male older worker identity.     

Gambling participation in the U.S.--results from a national survey

Demographic patterns of gambling participation in the U.S. were examined. A national telephone survey was conducted with 2,630 representative U.S. residents aged 18 or older. The sample as weighted for analysis was 48% male, 12% black, and 11% Hispanic. Respondents were questioned on 15 types of gambling: how often they played and how much they won or lost. Eighty-two percent gambled in the past year. Lottery was the most commonly played game, while casino gambling accounted for the largest extent of gambling involvement. Men and women were equally likely to gamble in the past year, but men gambled more frequently and had larger wins and losses, particularly on sports betting and games of skill. Blacks were less likely to have gambled in the past year, but blacks who gambled did so more heavily than other racial groups. Blacks and Hispanics were more likely than average to be pathological gamblers. The rate of past year gambling declined with age, but extent of gambling involvement among gamblers did not vary with age. Rates of participation in most forms of gambling increased with socioeconomic status, but higher socioeconomic status gamblers had lower rates of pathological gambling, and lower extent of gambling involvement, particularly for lottery. New Englanders gambled more heavily than other Americans. Comparison with past studies showed an increase in overall gambling participation in the U.S., and large increases in rates of participation in lottery and casino gambling.     

Gambling attitudes and beliefs associated with problem gambling: the cohort effect of Baby Boomers

Recreational and problem gamblers alike hold beliefs about gambling that are dysfunctional. These dysfunctional beliefs have been theorized to play a role in problem gambling behaviour. The current study sought to examine the effects of gambling attitudes and beliefs on problem gambling behaviour across three cohorts. A sample of 308 participants consisted of 101 individuals from Generation X, 139 from the Baby Boom cohort and 68 from the Silent Generation. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that for Baby Boomers, higher scores on scales measuring beliefs about luck and illusions of control were associated with higher scores on measures of problem gambling than for the Silent Generation. Generation X’s higher scores on luck scales were associated with higher scores in problem gambling than the Baby Boom cohort. Attitudes associated with problem gambling did not differ among cohorts. These results suggest that while cohorts may not differ in types or levels of distorted beliefs, they differ in how such distortions relate to problem gambling. Future research should focus on determining whether such cohort effects are indicative of differences within the development and maintenance of problem gambling itself.     

Problem Gambling Among Adolescent Students in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada

The objectives of the present study were to determine the prevalence of problem gambling among adolescent students in the Atlantic provinces of Canada, and to determine the role of age and deception about legal age status as potential risk factors for problem gambling. In 1998, a total of 13,549 students in grades 7, 9, 10 and 12 in the public school systems of the four Atlantic provinces completed a self-reported anonymous questionnaire that included the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents. About 8.2% and 6.4% of adolescent students met the broad definition of at-risk and problem gambling, respectively. About 3.8% and 2.2% of adolescent students met the narrow definition of at-risk and problem gambling, respectively. The prevalence of problem gambling did not vary according to age. Using a fake identification or lying about one's age was found to be an independent risk factor for problem gambling. Playing video gambling machines was the gambling activity associated with the single greatest independent risk of using a fake identification or lying about one's age. It was concluded that deception about legal age status may be a facilitating factor permitting adolescents to gamble to the point of experiencing problems.     

Evaluation of the relationship between compliance with the follow-up and treatment protocol and health literacy in bladder tumor patients

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the compliance of bladder cancer patients with cystoscopic follow-up and the treatment protocol, and their health literacy.

Methods: Patients who underwent transurethral resection surgery for bladder tumor were found to have non-muscular invasive bladder carcinoma on pathology examination and then underwent cystoscopic follow-up for 1?year or more were included in the study. Cystoscopic follow-up was recommended to the low- and high-risk groups in terms of progression and recurrence. The patients were evaluated with the Health Literacy Survey-European Union scale.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 67.13?±?10.77 years. The treatment continuity rate was 80.50% (n?=?33) in the adequate health literacy group (n?=?41) and significantly higher than the 56.50% (n?=?48) rate in the inadequate health literacy group (n?=?85) (p?=?.008). The health literacy results revealed that the health promotion and general index score was higher in the group of patients under the age of 65.

Conclusions: Adequate health literacy in bladder cancer patients is associated with better compliance with the treatment protocol. Young patients show better compliance with the follow-up protocol recommended by the physician. Increasing the follow-up protocol compliance of elderly patients with inadequate health literacy is necessary.     

A Comparison of Early Retirement Pensions in the United States and Russia

Abstract

Early retirement pensions for particular occupations free national policy to establish the social security early retirement age at a later age that is more appropriate for the population as a whole. This paper focuses on early retirement pensions in the United States and the Russian Federation. While comparing early retirement pensions generally, the paper provides a more detailed discussion of the pensions for musicians. While this is an unconventional group to choose for the study of pensions, study of their pensions yields insights into the principles underlying retirement age policy in the two countries.     

Abstracts of the Scientific Programs of the American College Health Association Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting April 21–24, 1981, Boston,Massachusetts

Abstract

The authors examined changes in college students' illicit drug use, patterns of polydrug use, and the relationship between students' ages of initiation of substance use and later use of marijuana and other illicit drugs between 1993 and 2001. Data from 119 US colleges and universities in the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study were used in the study. They found significant increases in percentages of students' use of marijuana in the past 30 days (from 13% to 17%), past year (from 23% to 30%), and lifetime (from 41% to 47%) between 1993 and 2001, with most of the increase occurring between 1993 and 1997. Past 30-day use of other illicit drugs increased from 4% to 7% and past year use increased from 11% to 14%. More than 98% of marijuana and other illicit drug users used another substance. They also either smoked, were binge drinkers, and/or were users of another illicit drug. Drug prevention programs should emphasize heavy alcohol use and smoking and should start when students are in high school or earlier.     

Older audiences in the digital media environment

Relying on Jensen and Helles’ model for studying the Internet as a cultural forum, this study aimed to explore the extent to which traditional media are displaced by innovative communication practices within the older audience of new media. The study was based on a cross-European survey of 1039 Internet users aged 60 years and up. Results indicated that older Internet users are significantly more inclined to use traditional mass media than new social media and prefer synchronous to asynchronous mass media. This audience, however, is not homogeneous, as four subsegments were identified. These groups differed in their media repertoires, sociocultural background and leisure preferences. The findings suggest that despite the increasing percentage of older Internet users, this audience tends to adhere to familiar media practices, with only a minority making intense use of new practices. With very few cross-national differences, this tendency appears to be universal, suggesting overall media use traditionalism and a second-level digital divide among the older audience.     

The older the bolder: Does relative age among peers influence children’s preference for competition?

Having been relatively old at school tends to have a long lasting positive effect on professional achievement, in particular in competitive environments (sports, politics). We investigate the roots of this pattern and study whether the relative age position of children at school plays a role in shaping their preference for competition. We run a controlled experiment in high schools across two states in Australia. Our participants are students who are the very oldest or very youngest in their classroom. We elicit their preference for competition using the Niederle and Vesterlund (2007) task and find evidence of an effect of relative age. This effect is concentrated on male students. We find no differences in self-confidence, and risk attitudes between relatively old and young students. These results suggest that the observed pattern may come from pure preference for competition.     

Selling Tobacco to Minors

Abstract

The present study investigated whether clerks in retail establishments that sell tobacco products can accurately estimate the age of a minor. Two Caucasian females, aged 16-years-old, participated as Field Agents in the present study. One Field Agent entered 49 retail establishments and the other Field Agent entered a different group of 51 retail establishments to conduct a tobacco compliance check. Later in the same day, each Field Agent entered the retail establishments that they had not previously sampled, and asked the clerk to estimate their age. Thirty-four percent of clerks rated the Field Agent as 18 years of age or older. This finding indicates that merchants are not accurate in assessing whether customers who are minors are of legal age to purchase tobacco.