Religiousness/Spirituality and Subjective Well-Being Among Rural Elderly Whites,African Americans,and Native Americans

SUMMARY

Little attention has been paid to subjective well-being among non-White elderly in rural areas where medical resources and financial support are deficient. The present study assessed a rural community sample of 215 elderly comprising 85 Caucasians, 75 African Americans, and 55 Native Americans, to examine roles of spirituality/religiousness on their subjective well-being. This study found ethnic differences in the reliance on religiosity/spirituality and a significant association between dimensions of religiousness/spirituality and subjective well-being among all ethnic rural elderly groups. The results of the study suggest that health providers, social workers, and faith communities need to provide rural elderly with religious and spiritual support in order to enhance their life satisfaction and lessen their emotional distress.     

Uncertainty and International Migration: An Option Cum Portfolio Model

Real option theory suggests that individual migration may be delayed beyond the Marshallian trigger since the option value to waiting may be sufficiently positive in the face of uncertainty. In this paper we present a model where a multi-member family is the decision- making unit. Therefore, migration may now be partly driven by the desire to diversify the location of family members in order to reduce income risk. Our two-period model incorporates both the option and the portfolio motive as the triggers determining family’s optimum timing of migration. The optimum delay before migration is shown to depend on the uncertainty parameters of the model including risk aversion and income volatility. We use aggregate Canadian data on immigrant visa issuance and landing to capture average waiting period for migrants from Hong Kong.

Integrating Services for Older People in Aging Communities in The Netherlands: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Approaches

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to discuss approaches to services integration for older people in urban and rural aging environments in The Netherlands, and the preliminary effects of these approaches on local aging conditions. In urban areas, services integration revolves around the creation of functional spatial hierarchy. In rural areas, the emphasis is on forging links between service providers. Outcomes for health and use of professional care services are similar. Out-comes for housing, informal care, and accessibility of services differ between urban and rural areas in ways that can be traced back to local aging conditions and elements of the specific approach to services integration used. In both urban and rural areas, much more could be done to connect formal programs to the lifeworlds of older dwellers.     

Aging in Asia: A cultural,socio-economical and historical perspective

Asia has about 60% of the world population and population aging is occurring more rapidly in Asia than in Western countries. The group aged 65 years and above will increase from 207 million in 2000 to 857 million in 2050, a staggering increase of 314%. The diversity in economic, demographic, religious, cultural and geo-political factors in Asia is unparalleled by any other continent, and is, in part, contributory to the rapid rise in population aging. By 2050, those under 15 years old will have shrunk from 30% in 2000 to 19%, while those aged 65 years and above will increase from 6% to 18%. In addition, the gender divide still persists with 100 elderly women to 70 elderly men. These projected demographic changes pose three major challenges: 1) how best to address the rising population of the group aged 65 years and above, 2) how to address the shrinking population of the young as well as the working adults, and 3) how to address the problems arising from the disproportionate increase in older women than men. From now to 2050, it will be expeditious for each country in Asia to look into ways of reversing the decline in total fertility rates (TFRs) and restore to replacement levels. If not, at least introduce measures to halt its free fall. Due to the complexity of factors that have influenced the fall in TFRs in Asia, it will be a daunting task to reverse this fall. There is no “single size fits all” solution to this complex problem. Research work in this short-term strategy in addressing the aging population is urgent. In the longer term, the East-West Centre have suggested four modalities, 1) establish policies and programmes that enhance traditional Asian systems of family support for the elderly; 2) introduce policy reform that encourages the elderly who are still capable of remaining in the work force; 3) create institutions and systems that support high levels of personal saving; and 4) formulate public programmes, including pension schemes and national healthcare systems. We need to work while there is time.     

Migration and Elderly Africans in the United States

Although population movements and migration across national borders have occurred throughout human history, the accelerated pace of human migration from Africa to the United States in recent decades is unprecedented. A distinct phenomenon of this trend is that in addition to young African immigrants, an increasing number of elderly Africans are joining the ranks of immigrants in the United States. This article explores prevailing factors that may explain migration among elderly Africans in late adult life. The article addresses the unique experience of African-born elders as they age in the United States. Implications for policy and practice are also discussed.     

The Print Media and Aging Policy:

This article examines the role of the print media in covering complex ploicy issues. Two models of journalism are considered. "Pack journalism" predicts that print media coverage will be highly consistent in content due to the reliance by those in the media on the same sources of information. In this article another model - "Beltway journalism" - is proposed. It implies that coverage by the print media indigenous to the Washington, D.C. area (inside the Beltway) will diverge from that of other print media, presenting a potentially distorted view of the world to policymakers in Washington. Using the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times as possible indicators of the two models, aging policy is addressed through a case study of newspaper coverage during passage and repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988. Findings suggest that Congress was unduly influenced by the way that Medicare Catastrophic was framed in the Washington Post, lending credence to the Beltway journalism model. By paying insufficient attention to the way MEdicare Catastrophic was being framed by sources of print outside the Beltway area, lawmakers allowed themselves to assume a grassroots-level understanding of the issue and support for the bill, both of which turned out to be illusory.     

Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series: Art as Narrative History

Because art is a reflection of cultural heritage, a natural affinity exists between art and social studies. In Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series, art serves as narrative history, with visual images telling the story of the Great Migration, a movement of African American people from the South to the North around World War I. Social studies and the arts can be effectively integrated using principles of discipline-based arts education and comprehensive arts education. In this article, the author provides (1) background information on the historical period, artist, and art, (2) objectives, (3) sample guided discussion questions and extension activities, and (4) sample assessment ideas. He also outlines a complete sample lesson, synthesizing the principles and ideas into a meaningful whole in which social studies studies enhances teaching and learning in the arts and vice versa.     

上海城乡统筹发展的路径和突破口研究

上海城乡二元结构的深层次问题突出表现为:城乡居民收入差距仍然明显,促进农民增收的难度加大;郊区人口持续导入,对公共服务和社会管理的要求提高;农村土地和产权制度改革滞后,深化改革的条件尚不成熟;郊区城市化进程加速,管理体制和管理模式亟待转变;新城和小城镇等城乡统筹载体建设有待加强。上海城乡统筹发展要牢牢把握公共服务均等化、发展成果共享化、发展权利平等化内涵,坚持以城带乡、城乡一体、互动发展,以推进新型城市化战略为主攻方向,以加强城乡规划一体化为前提,以加快新城开发建设为突破口,以土地管理、集体产权、社会管理制度改革为支撑,以基本公共服务均等化为着力点,大力推进工业向园区集中、居住向社区集中、农业向规模经营集中,努力实现优化农村土地资源配置方式、优化城乡资源要素流动方式、优化城乡统筹发展方式,推进城乡一体化发展。     

Gender and Children's Housework Time in China: Examining Behavior Modeling in Context

Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one's gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children's housework time. Although researchers have identified behavior modeling as a major mechanism of gender role reproduction and characterized gender socialization as a contextually embedded process, few have investigated contextual variation in behavior modeling, particularly in non‐Western developing countries. Analyzing data from the China Family Panel Studies 2010, the author examined the differences in behavior modeling between boys and girls age 10–15 from 2‐parent families (N = 1,903) in rural and urban China. The results revealed distinctive gendered interplays in the way parental housework and employment behavior helps shape children's housework time. This analysis is a crucial illustration of how the distinctive sociocultural contexts of rural and urban China moderate the effects of housework‐behavior modeling on intergenerational gender role socialization.     

Unofficial Hanoians: Migration,Native Place and Urban Citizenship in Vietnam

Independent migration to Hanoi has surged dramatically over two decades of deepening market reforms, blurring the distinctions between urban and rural lives once maintained so carefully by the Communist Party of Vietnam. However many urban migrants face ongoing legal and social obstacles in Hanoi, tied to an outmoded system of household registration (ho khau), and widespread anxieties about the ‘floating population’ threatening to overwhelm the city. This article shows how one group of ‘unofficial Hanoians’—migrant motorbike taxi drivers from Nam Dinh Province—navigate a system of differentiated urban citizenship by forging communities and mutual assistance networks around shared ‘native places’ (que huong) to find employment, housing and social support in the city. It also reveals how Hanoi's marginal urban spaces—home to entrenched migrant communities of ambiguous legality—emerge as key arenas in the negotiation of Vietnamese citizenship, forcing national leaders, city officials, landlords and residents to grapple with questions of free movement and the rights of rural citizens to transgress urban space.     

Internal Migration of Ethno‐national Minorities: The Case of Arabs in Israel

Recent scholarship emphasizes differences among ethnic groups' internal migration patterns. Yet, with few exceptions, research has focused on the Anglo‐American world, neglecting experiences from other regions. This paper is part of a larger research project that studies mobility among the Arab minority in Israel and its driving forces. In this paper we examine patterns of internal migration by analysing the propensity to migrate as well as migrants' individual and social characteristics. First, we survey the theoretical backdrop that is suggested by recent geographic literature on internal migration among ethnic and racial minorities, including native groups. Second, we contextualize the group studied, providing necessary background information on the political, socio‐economic and demographic conditions of Arabs in Israel. We briefly discuss attributes that are – or have been – potential hindering factors to Arab mobility in the Jewish state. Finally, we analyse 1995 national census data at the micro scale and provide a basis for future explanations of the phenomenon. We conclude by outlying some future directions in the study of internal migration of minorities in Israel.     

Family Caregivers for Seniors in Rural Areas

In this article, the demographic characteristics of family caregivers for seniors in rural communities are assessed to examine whether their circumstances could facilitate or impede their well-being. Services available in rural communities for family members providing ongoing care to frail seniors is examined, particularly those that provide health and social services. How families access these services and whether there are specific barriers in service provision are analyzed based on current social work practice and the research literature. Trends for future services are identified as well as whether these trends support new roles for social workers in rural settings.     

Agrarian Transformation and Rural Diversity in Globalizing East Asia

Abstract: In East Asia the rural society is not a society based upon agricultural industry anymore and the peasant society with its long history has been disappearing. The occupation and income sources of rural inhabitants have diversified and among them those who specialized in farming are the minority. There is a shortage of rural labor, which used to be abundant in the past, and presently it is not as easy to hire the farm workers. The reason for the diversification of the rural occupations is, to put it simply, because people cannot live merely on farm income. Indeed the farm operation costs have become more expensive due to labor saving techniques, but the livelihood costs have become more expensive due the new uniform lifestyle standards from globalization. Electric machines and education are the typical of these increased costs. The background of this rural change is industrialization and urbanization in the context of globalization and its strong impact is penetrating into the rural society through the regional urban center as the relay point of the global mechanism. This change is different based upon the location of each rural society. Generally, rural societies around a big urban center enjoy opportunities for the younger generation, but remote areas have serious problems with few employment opportunities and a smaller youth population. To reproduce and sustain the regional society as a whole, it is necessary to attract younger people and make them stay. We should plan to develop a variety of industries and the resultant diversified work opportunities in the broader region beyond the narrowly demarcated village and community. Subsistence and commercial agriculture might merely be a part of such diversity.     

Migration Decisions of Dual-earner Families: An Application of Multilevel Modeling

A comprehensive framework for guiding analyses of internal migration is lacking. This study contributes to the family migration literature in three important ways. We develop a multilevel theoretical framework emphasizing an integration of individual-, family-, and neighborhood-level effects; introduce multilevel statistical modeling; and explicitly assess how effects of economic-based explanatory variables vary by gender. Our data are from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We find that the likelihood of a family migrating is affected by economic and non-economic factors, some of which vary by gender. We add to the dual-earner migration literature by finding that wives are not likely to be tied-movers, but husbands are likely to be tied-stayers. Neighborhood factors also are important to the decision to migrate.

Perception of quality of life in an elderly Angolan sample / Percepción de calidad de vida en una muestra de ancianos angoleños

Increased life expectancy and the ageing of the population have made it particularly important to distinguish between the old (usually 60–79 years, or the ‘young old’) and the oldest old (80 years or more, or the ‘fourth age’). This study explores the effects of age, gender and institutionalization on perceived health and life satisfaction in 1003 elderly people from Luanda, Angola. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was estimated to test for these effects. Results provide evidence of lower scores on life satisfaction and perceived health for the oldest old and the institutionalized. However, the higher life satisfaction among the non-institutionalized disappeared when they reach the fourth age. No differences were found by gender, although there was a slight drop in the life satisfaction of women over the age of 80.     

Migration of Professional Social Workers: Reflections on Challenges and Strategies for Education

International migration of social workers has had, in recent years, a substantial influence on the political agenda of different countries in the world, and is fraught with challenges. In some countries, recruitment of internationally qualified social workers has even become an important strategy to meet staffing demands and to fill shortages in the social work profession. This paper aims to promote debate on the key role of social work educators in assisting social work students and practitioners to practise within both a national and an international context, by reflecting on specific practice examples from Canada, England and South Africa. We explore challenges, as well as possible strategies for adaptation in new contexts, such as the facilitation of additional training, globally comparable social work programmes, and the development of a stronger professional identity, based on integrated social work values. We conclude that by enabling a stronger professional identity through the development of professional virtues, social workers will be empowered to become more confident practitioners and internationally more adaptable.     

The Residential Mobility of Seniors Among Different Residential Forms: Analysis of Metropolitan and Rural Issues for Six Contrasted Regions in Québec,Canada

The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the residential mobility of senior citizens, between 2006 and 2011, among different residential forms in rural and metropolitan areas in the province of Quebec (Canada). A systematic analysis of residential form variability in territories that include both metropolitan and rural areas is performed. First, a typology of residential forms is proposed using a principal component analysis and a hierarchical cluster analysis on environment-related and housing variables. Second, the residential mobility of seniors among these different residential forms is analyzed. The results reveal a certain amount of residential stability among seniors, except where specific conditions are met, such as the death of a spouse or the onset of health problems limiting day-to-day activities. For those who moved, high-rise habitat areas and mixed areas with older rental apartments held the greatest attraction. However, suburban areas attracted the largest number of seniors because these areas account for a sizeable portion of the real estate market.     

Housing affordability among elderly female heads of household in nonmetropolitan areas

This study investigates the extent and nature of housing affordability for elderly nonmetropolitan female heads of household using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The results indicate that over one-third of elderly nonmetropolitan female heads of household experience housing poverty and that those who rent, who have fair to poor health, and who are minorities are particularly vulnerable. Housing affordability, measured by the concept of housing poverty, identifies households struggling to meet basic needs while the conventional 25% of income for housing expenditures ratio identifies a larger population. The findings suggest the need for multifaceted public policies to address the problem of housing poverty. Her research interests include housing affordability, housing and community vitality, and decision making. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University. Sooyoun Park is in the same department as a Project Assistant on a USDA-funded research project entitled “Housing Affordability in Rural Areas,” which is a joint project between Nebraska and Wisconsin. Her research interests focus on housing management behavior in relation to housing expenditure burden. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.     

Reconfigured Reciprocity: How Aging Taiwanese Immigrants Transform Cultural Logics of Elder Care

Drawing on 55 interviews with older Taiwanese immigrants who relocated to the United States at an earlier life stage, the author argues that changing contextual features involved in the processes of international migration encourage and even demand aging immigrants to reconstruct cultural logics of aging and geriatric care. He develops the concept of reconfigured reciprocity to demonstrate how aging migrant populations transform cultural logics of intergenerational responsibility, obligation, and entitlement to reconcile the tension between ethnic tradition and modernity. First, he reveals how many of the respondents' lack of caregiving for their own parents undermines their sense of entitlement to receive care from younger generations. Furthermore, he highlights how the structural squeeze among work, family, and caregiving with which the younger generation struggles further discourages the respondents from relying on their children. Finally, the author underscores how aging immigrants evoke the concept of Americanization to reconstruct expectations of how they should be taken care of in their twilight years.