Attitudes and knowledge of social work students towards sexuality in later life

Background: Sexuality in later life may be compromised by restrictive attitudes, and lack of knowledge among professionals. This study examined social work students’ attitudes and knowledge towards sexuality and sexual expression in later life and investigated associated factors.

Method: Undergraduate social work students from Israel (n = 375) completed the Attitudes and Knowledge towards Older Adult’s Sexuality Scale and questionnaires regarding contacts and exposure to older adults, prior sexual education and sociodemographic.

Results: Attitudes and knowledge were correlated. First year students were the most conservative and demonstrated the least knowledge. No differences were found between men and women regarding attitude. However, men and married students had greater knowledge regarding older adults’ sexuality than women or non-married students did. Increased religious observance predicted more conservative attitudes. Age predicted more permissive attitudes and greater knowledge about sexuality in later life. A mediating process examined, suggested knowledge is a mediator variable between age and attitudes towards older adults’ sexuality.

Conclusion: As the population in Israel and in Western countries ages, it is important to examine the knowledge and attitudes of social work students regarding older adults’ sexuality and to develop educational and interventional programs aimed at increasing awareness, knowledge, and positive attitudes in this area.     

Two simplified proofs for Roberts’ theorem

Roberts (Aggregation and Revelation of Preferences. Papers presented at the 1st European Summer Workshop of the Econometric Society, pp. 321–349. North-Holland, 1979) showed that every social choice function that is ex-post implementable in private value settings must be weighted VCG, i.e. it maximizes the weighted social welfare. This paper provides two simplified proofs for this. The first proof uses the same underlying key-point, but significantly simplifies the technical construction around it, thus helps to shed light on it. The second proof builds on monotonicity conditions identified by Rochet (J Math Econ 16:191–200, 1987) and Bikhchandani et al. (Econometrica 74(4):1109–1132, 2006). This proof is for a weaker statement that assumes an additional condition of “player decisiveness”. Supported by grants from the Israeli Ministry of Science and the Israeli Academy of Sciences.     

Weak Monotonicity Characterizes Deterministic Dominant‐Strategy Implementation

We characterize dominant‐strategy incentive compatibility with multidimensional types. A deterministic social choice function is dominant‐strategy incentive compatible if and only if it is weakly monotone (W‐Mon). The W‐Mon requirement is the following: If changing one agent's type (while keeping the types of other agents fixed) changes the outcome under the social choice function, then the resulting difference in utilities of the new and original outcomes evaluated at the new type of this agent must be no less than this difference in utilities evaluated at the original type of this agent.     

Grandparent-Grandchild Relationships in Israel: A Comparison between Different Jewish Religious Groups

This article is a review of studies concerning the effect of religiosity on the relationships between grandparents and grandchildren in Israeli Jewish society. The main findings of the studies indicated that religious grandparents are more involved with grandchildren in the context of transmitting traditions, knowledge, values, and behaviors. However, secular grandparents provided more instrumental support for their grandchildren than Haredi grandparents. In addition, adult religious grandchildren provided more assistance to their grandparents than secular grandchildren. The few differences that were found between religious and secular grandparents indicate the universality of the grandparenthood role and its importance for all grandparents.     

Quality of life of older people in Israel: a comparison between older people living at home who are members of a ‘supportive community’ and nursing home residents

The supportive community is a program that was developed in Israel for older people who live at home. The program provides its members with a service package that includes medical and social services, emergency call-button, cultural activities, and a ‘community parent’ who is responsible for the members. Using quantitative method, this study compared the level of quality of life between 55 older people living in their homes who are members of a supportive community (average age = 74.7) and 60 elderly people living in nursing homes (average age = 75.8). As expected, results indicate that quality of life among the older people living at their homes who are members of a supportive community was higher than among the older people living in a nursing home. In addition, the quality of life of married, educated, functionally independent older people in good health and with a good economic situation was higher. Predictor variables of quality of life were: the place of residence, health status, and age. In light of increased life expectancy and the growing need to care for the older population, the practical application of the study focused on a recommendation for the social services to continue the support community development program.