Conserving Habitus: Home,Couplehood and Dementia

ABSTRACT

Compared to research on home in circumstances of aging, place and care, our knowledge about home in relation to couplehood is limited despite increases in the percentage of married and cohabiting older people in the UK. Specifically, our understanding of the experience and meaning of home for couples where one partner has dementia remains under-explored. This article presents a scoping review of published empirical literature to examine older couples’ experiences of home in dementia. The literature identified and reviewed through searching academic databases and Google Scholar is interdisciplinary and a thematic analysis suggests interactions of couplehood, home and dementia. To discuss these interactions, we use Bourdieu’s framework of field, capital, practice and habitus. We observe that habitus may gradually alter and fracture. But, in locating and supporting the performance of (adapted) everyday relationships and domestic practices, home has a distinct role in contributing to conserving habitus and in turn continuity of relationships and home. The gradual fracturing of habitus with the progression of dementia however also suggests that the continuity of relationships and home remain contingent, but this needs further investigation. It is an element of home futures that cannot remain invisible.     

Home and Where the Heart Is: Marriage Timing and Joint Home Purchase

This article evaluates the relationship between the timing of marriage and the purchase of a jointly owned home among Swedish cohabiting couples. Data for this analysis come from the Swedish Housing and Life Course Cohort Study (N = 1,596 couples; 2,006 cohabiting spells). The author develops models to proxy for simultaneity and intentions and test hypotheses about positive and negative and long- and short-run relationships between the two life-course events. The author uses a novel modeling approach, allowing for differences in the risk before, concurrently and after the conditioning event. Results indicate a positive relationship between marriage and joint home purchase and suggest the possibility of an ordering of events: For some couples, formalizing their union through marriage may be a prerequisite for a joint home purchase.     

A bivariate space-time downscaler under space and time misalignment

Ozone and particulate matter PM(2.5) are co-pollutants that have long been associated with increased public health risks. Information on concentration levels for both pollutants come from two sources: monitoring sites and output from complex numerical models that produce concentration surfaces over large spatial regions. In this paper, we offer a fully-model based approach for fusing these two sources of information for the pair of co-pollutants which is computationally feasible over large spatial regions and long periods of time. Due to the association between concentration levels of the two environmental contaminants, it is expected that information regarding one will help to improve prediction of the other. Misalignment is an obvious issue since the monitoring networks for the two contaminants only partly intersect and because the collection rate for PM(2.5) is typically less frequent than that for ozone.Extending previous work in Berrocal et al. (2009), we introduce a bivariate downscaler that provides a flexible class of bivariate space-time assimilation models. We discuss computational issues for model fitting and analyze a dataset for ozone and PM(2.5) for the ozone season during year 2002. We show a modest improvement in predictive performance, not surprising in a setting where we can anticipate only a small gain.     

Hormesis: A Highly Generalizable and Reproducible Phenomenon With Important Implications for Risk Assessment

From a comprehensive search of the literature, the hormesis phenomenon was found to occur over a wide range of chemicals, taxonomic groups, and endpoints. By use of computer searches and extensive cross-referencing, nearly 3000 potentially relevant articles were identified. Evidence of chemical and radiation hormesis was judged to have occurred in approximately 1000 of these by use of a priori criteria. These criteria included study design features (e.g., number of doses, dose range), dose–response relationship, statistical analysis, and reproducibility of results. Numerous biological endpoints were assessed, with growth responses the most prevalent, followed by metabolic effects, reproductive responses, longevity, and cancer. Hormetic responses were generally observed to be of limited magnitude with an average maximum stimulation of 30 to 60 percent over that of the controls. This maximum usually occurred 4- to 5-fold below the NOAEL for a particular endpoint. The present analysis suggests that hormesis is a reproducible and generalizable biological phenomenon and is a fundamental component of many, if not most, dose–response relationships. The relatively infrequent observation of hormesis in the literature is believed to be due primarily to experimental design considerations, especially with respect to the number and range of doses and endpoint selection. Because of regulatory considerations, most toxicologic studies have been carried out at high doses above the low-dose region where the hormesis phenomenon occurs.     

Understanding How Peer Mentoring and Capitalization Link STEM Students to Their Majors

This study investigated the role of peer mentoring and voluntary self‐development activities (i.e., capitalization) in anchoring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students to their college majors. Online data were collected from 214 undergraduate students. As hypothesized, mentoring was positively related to capitalization, and both mentoring and capitalization were positively related to satisfaction with one's major, affective commitment to one's major, involvement in one's major, and willingness to be a mentor. Contrary to expectations, capitalization did not mediate the relationship between peer mentoring and student outcomes, suggesting that these constructs contribute independently to positive outcomes. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Research on persistent pain in late life: current topics and challenges

Older women often experience pain in their daily lives. This article provides an overview of topics addressed in the geriatric pain research published between 1999 and 2004. New areas of emphasis of research have emerged such as the recognition of body mass and weight as a factor in persistent pain, while other areas have expanded, including the focus on pain among elders with cognitive impairments and the use of alternative treatment approaches. Understanding of pain in late life is hindered by study samples that lack diversity, treatment approaches that are narrowly focused, and a lack of attention to quality of life issues.     

Differences in labour force participation by motherhood status among second-generation Turkish and majority women across Europe

Second-generation Turkish immigrants make up an increasingly important segment of European labour markets. These young adults are entering the prime working ages and forming families. However, we have only a limited understanding of the relationship between labour force participation and parenthood among second-generation Turkish women. Using unique data from the Integration of the European Second Generation survey (2007/08), we compared the labour force participation of second-generation Turkish women with their majority-group counterparts by motherhood status in four countries. We found evidence that motherhood gaps, with respect to labour force participation, were similar for majority and second-generation Turkish women in Germany and in Sweden; however, there may be larger gaps for second-generation mothers than for majority women in the Netherlands and France. Cross-national findings were consistent with the view that national normative and social policy contexts are relevant for the labour force participation of all women, regardless of migrant background.     

A Comparative Analysis of VHA,Non-VHA,and Overall Outpatient Treatment Use Intensity Among Older U.S. Veterans Denied or Awarded VA Service-Connected Disability Compensation

Poorer health is often associated with greater healthcare use among the general population. In contrast, while many veterans denied VA disability compensation ("denied applicants") are as impaired as those awarded VA disability compensation ("awarded applicants"), studies suggest that these veterans may nevertheless utilize less VHA healthcare. Whether they concurrently utilize less non-VHA, and overall healthcare, however, remains a critical, unresolved issue. The 2001 National Survey of Veterans was used to examine VHA, non-VHA, and overall outpatient healthcare treatment use intensity during the previous 12 months among veterans denied or awarded VA disability compensation. Results: Denied applicants were significantly more likely than those awarded to have not used any VHA outpatient healthcare during the previous 12 months (OR=2.45, 95% CI: 1.24, 4.81). Moreover, while not statistically significant, point estimates consistently suggested that denied may have concurrently used more non-VHA, and overall outpatient healthcare than awarded. It appears veterans denied VA disability compensation are forgoing VHA outpatient healthcare services, perhaps in favor of non-VHA outpatient healthcare services. While this result may be consistent with the intent of VA service-connected disability policy, further analysis is necessary to confirm adequate access to healthcare for denied veterans.     

Beyond conventional wisdom: community cultural wealth and the college knowledge of African American youth in the United States

African American youth are generally as likely as their peers from other racial and ethnic groups to aspire to earn a college degree; yet, in spite of their aspirations these students remain under-represented in college enrollment and graduation. Part of the disparity between these students’ aspirations and the realization of their goals may lie in their minimal college knowledge and nominal participation in postsecondary preparatory activities that have frequently been caused by the historic, and ongoing, systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans. During interviews, college students reflected on how similarly-aged family members, peers, co-workers, and parishioners assisted with various aspects of college preparation and enrollment. The community cultural wealth framework helps us understand the reason for, and importance of, this ‘lateral mentorship’ in the fulfillment of these students’ college aspirations. Consequently, educators and educational systems are challenged to be more responsive to the college preparatory needs of traditionally under-represented college-going populations.