Subjective well-being in later life: Issues concerning measurement and prediction

This paper reviews the research on the measurement and prediction of subjective well-being in later life. Psychometric data on several gerontological scales are presented in detail. Structural analyses of a variety of measures of subjective well-being are discussed and evidence for a one factor structural solution to subjective well-being is presented. Objective predictors of subjective well-being are discussed with respect to the strength of their relationships to subjective well-being. It is concluded that subjective well-being is the best predictor of itself. Evidence of temporal stability and corss-situational consistency, combined with the evidence of a one factor structural solution, suggests that subjective well-being has trait-like characteristics. Suggestions for future research are presented.     

Longitudinal variation in domain indicators of happiness

This paper examines changes in the mean levels of domain indicators of happiness, as well as happiness itself, using a longitudinal design. Results show that for a large sample of the elderly, mean levels of subjective domain indicators of happiness (excluding subjective health), as well as happiness itself, did not change over the 18-month period of the study. Physically related objective domain indicators, on the other hand, did change during the same time period.     

Evolving Network Roles in International Aid Efforts: Evidence from Croatia’s Post War Transition

Social capital is created when members and organizations in a society enact relationships with others. The outcome of these relationships includes new opportunities, information, and access to a variety of resources. The purpose of this article is to study donor communication and relationships that help to build social capital. The site for this study is the evolving nature of donor organization relations with voluntary associations in Croatia from 1999 to 2002. Using network analysis, this article traces how donor–NGO-media relations changed over time and provides suggestions for international donors and NGOs in transitions to maximize the outcome of their communicative relationships.     

The Role of Gesture in Children's Comprehension of Spoken Language:Now They Need It, Now They Don't

Two experiments investigated gesture as a form of external support for spoken language comprehension. In both experiments, children selected blocks according to a set of videotaped instructions. Across trials, the instructions were given using no gesture, gestures that reinforced speech, and gestures that conflicted with speech. Experiment 1 used spoken messages that were complex for preschool children but not for kindergarten children. Reinforcing gestures facilitated speech comprehension for preschool children but not for kindergarten children, and conflicting gestures hindered comprehension for kindergarten children but not for preschool children. Experiment 2 tested preschool children with simpler spoken messages. Unlike Experiment 1, preschool children's comprehension was not facilitated by reinforcing gestures. However, children's comprehension also was not hindered by conflicting gestures. Thus, the effects of gesture on speech comprehension depend both on the relation of gesture to speech, and on the complexity of the spoken message.     

For the Sake of their Health: Older Service Users' Requirements for Social Care to Facilitate Access to Social Networks Following Hospital Discharge

Facilitating older service users’ requirements for accessto or re-engagement in social networks following hospital dischargeis recognized in social care analysis and policy as criticallyimportant. This is because of the associated benefits for restoringphysical health and psychological well-being. However, it tendsto be a neglected dimension of current social care/intermediatecare. Our paper draws on a qualitative study of voluntary sectorhospital aftercare social rehabilitation projects in five UKlocalities, which focused on addressing this issue. Throughexamining older service users’ feedback and experience,our study confirms the health benefits of social care facilitatingaccess to social networks at this crucial juncture. By providingsensitive interpersonal interaction, advocacy and ‘educational’assistance, social care workers supported older service users’re-engagement in a variety of networks. These included friendship,recreational and family groups, health care treatment programmesand locality based contacts and organizations. As a result,material, interpersonal and health care resources were accessed,which contributed to restoring and sustaining physical healthand psychological well-being. The process of such social carealso emerged as critical. This included ensuring that objectivesreflected service users’ priorities; integrating ‘low-level’home care; offering befriending; and challenging the pre-settime frame of intermediate care.     

Academic and Behavioral Outcomes Among the Children of Young Mothers

In this article, we use newly available data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the effects of early motherhood on academic and behavioral outcomes for children born to early child bearers. We find that early motherhood's strong negative correlation with children's test scores and positive correlation with children's grade repetition is almost entirely explained by prebirth individual and family background factors of teen mothers themselves. However, early childbearing is associated indirectly with reduced children's test scores through its linkage to family size (and thus to child birth order). We find a different pattern in predicting fighting, truancy, early sexual activity, and other problem behaviors among adolescent and young adult offspring. For these behaviors, maternal age at first birth remains an important risk factor even after controlling for a wide range of background factors and maternal characteristics. These results highlight the diverse pathways through which teen parenting might influence subsequent child well‐being and social performance.     

Exploring Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology: A perfect fit for midwifery research

BackgroundHeideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology has been used widely to understand the meaning of lived experiences in health research. For midwifery scholars this approach enables deep understanding of women's and midwives’ lived experiences of specific phenomena. However, for beginning researchers this is not a methodology for the faint hearted. It requires a period of deep immersion to come to terms with at times impenetrable language and perplexing concepts.ObjectivesThis paper aims to assist midwives to untangle and examine some of the choices they face when they first come to terms with an understanding of this methodology and highlights the methodology's capacity to reveal midwifery authenticity and holistic practice.DiscussionThe illumination of a selection of various concepts underpinning hermeneutic phenomenology will inform midwives considering this methodology as suitable framework for exploring contemporary midwifery phenomena.     

The Psychology of Working in Practice: A Theory of Change for a New Era

This article advances the psychology of working theory by developing a parallel change‐based paradigm to guide interventions at the level of individuals (i.e., the psychology of working counseling) and systems (i.e., the psychology of working systemic intervention). The change paradigm presented in this article includes (a) a needs assessment encompassing survival, social connection/contribution, and self‐determination and (b) input on the mobilization of agentic action that includes critical reflection and action, proactive engagement, social support, and community engagement. The needs assessment and agentic action aspects of this approach can be used to foster change in individual counseling, advocacy, and systemic intervention. Case examples reflecting a systemic intervention and an individual counseling vignette are presented along with implications for research, such as explorations of the impact of these change models on client outcomes and systemic change efforts.     

Life History or 'Case' History: the objectification of people with learning difficulties through the tyranny of professional discourses

Case histories of people with learning difficulties tend to privilege information that is useful to professionals, such as IQ and medical diagnosis. Such information allows professionals to slot people with learning difficulties into categories which inform 'treatment' and aid prognosis. Case records, as they are currently constructed, appear to further silence an already oppressed group of people, and to objectify, pathologise and label them. The subjects of such case records do not appear to be treated as stakeholders in the case recording process: their voices are not represented in such writings. Case records do not appear to contain information about the lived experience of people with learning difficulties. Ignorance of the unique histories of people with learning difficulties is dehumanising and allows professionals to psychologically distance themselves. Once humanity has disappeared, it is possible to treat people as 'objects' that can be controlled through 'respected' professional theories and their discursive practices.