Older Drivers Retiring From the Road: An Application of the Selection,Optimization, and Compensation Model

Purpose: This study uses the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model to compare older adults who have given up driving, those who still drive, and those who drive less to identify differences in the three groups. Design and Methods: This cross-sectional study of 281 older adults is part of the Naturally Occurring Retirement Community Demonstration Project. Study participants completed interviews that included questions on demographics, health and functioning, mental health, social support, and current levels of engagement in activities including current driving status. Results: Data suggest that driving retirement is a process and that a substantial number of people are in the transitional stage, where they are less functional than those who still drive and more similar to those who have retired from the road. Implications: Given the similarity of those who drive less to those who have given up driving, front-line professionals and policy makers must work together to ease the transition to driving retirement for those without adequate ability to effectively compensate for their inability to continue to drive safely.     

The influence of caregiving stressors, social support, and caregiving appraisal on marital functioning among African American wife caregivers

Using a stress and coping framework, we examined the influence of caregiving stressors, social support, and caregiving appraisal on the marital functioning of 100 African American wife caregivers. Results of separate multivariate analyses revealed received church support, caregiving burden, and caregiving satisfaction significantly predicted wives' marital functioning, when caregivers' background characteristics (age and education), length of caregiving, whether first marriage, and urban versus rural location were controlled. Receiving church support was associated with increased marital functioning. Lower levels of caregiving burden were associated with increased marital functioning. Higher levels of caregiving satisfaction were associated with increased marital functioning. Findings illuminate wives' caregiving and marital experiences, and have implications for family therapy and future research.     

Challenging Professional Roles: Lay Carers' Involvement in Health Care in the Community

The bulk of care in the community is carried out by lay carers. Recent policy initiatives to support them in the United Kingdom are outlined. There remains evidence of significant gaps in support from professional health and social‐care workers including community nurses. This paper reports three studies of lay carers: those caring for older people, carers of technology‐dependent children, and home‐care workers involved in the “direct payments” scheme. Findings are reported in the areas of decisions about appropriate caring roles, the lay–professional boundary, training and respite opportunities and the expertise of lay carers. Recommendations for policy and practices are made.     

Self-Esteem Mediates the Relationship Between Volunteering and Depression for African American Caregivers

Research on the influence of volunteering on mental health outcomes has not placed enough focus on African American female caregivers who are at risk for adverse outcomes such as depression. This study addresses this gap by examining the mechanism through which volunteering might influence depressive symptoms using data collected from 521 African American female caregivers of older adults. Regression results indicate that although volunteering is inversely associated with depressive symptoms, self-esteem mediates this relationship. Findings suggest inclusion in volunteering for African American female caregivers may be relevant to promotion of their mental well-being.     

The Relationship of Social Support to African American Caregivers' Help-Seeking for Emotional Problems

This study analyzes whether social support serves as a link to or substitute for formal services among African American female caregivers seeking help with emotional problems. It also analyzes other determinants of help-seeking. It relies on data from the Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health and Functioning Study and is guided by a modified version of the behavioral model of health services use. Using hierarchical binary logistic regression, analyses reveal that only age, stress, and support from fellow church members are statistically significantly associated with the likelihood of help-seeking. These results support the linking hypothesis, suggesting that the social support received by African American women caregivers in the context of their religious organizations helps to link them to services.     

The Contextual Specificity of Masculinity and Femininity in Early Adolescence

Using a social constructionist perspective, we investigated the flexibility of early adolescents' (N = 80, 40 boys, 40 girls; M age = 13.14; SD = .65) masculinity and femininity as a function of the interpersonal context (same- or other-sex partner) and situational demands (co-operation or competition). Participants played a block-building game with a girl and a boy peer and were instructed either to play the game co-operatively or competitively. Boys' and girls' femininity scores were greater when working with a girl peer rather than a boy peer. Stereotypical gender differences in masculinity were most apparent when instructions emphasized co-operation. These findings provide empirical support for a social constructionist theory of gender development by demonstrating how the proximal situation changes adolescents' views of gendered aspects of their identity. A conceptualization of masculinity and femininity as flexible states is discussed as supplementing the idea that masculinity and femininity are enduring personality traits. Implications of the study for understanding how social situations maximize or minimize gender differences and similarities are discussed.     

Is Evidence‐Based Organizational Innovation in the NHS a Chimaera – Or Just Elusive?

Evidence-based adoption of organizational innovations requires explicit definition of the outcomes the innovations are intended to produce. Implementation theory, however, suggests that organizational innovations are often politicized in the sense that the prospect of implementing them provokes conflicts of interests among the parties affected. Then the intended outcomes of the innovation are liable to be formulated ambiguously, misleadingly or not at all, which makes evidence-based organizational innovation unattainable. Analysis of 61 organizational innovations in nine English NHS primary care trusts suggests that while the majority of innovations were not politicized in this way, a substantial minority were. Innovations whose adoption is motivated by evidence can therefore be differentiated from politicized innovations whose adoption is not so motivated, even when they nevertheless do have evidential support .     

Waiting like a girl? The temporal constitution of femininity as a factor in gender inequality

This paper explores temporal constituents of the female self in terms of their role in underpinning ongoing gender inequality. Drawing on the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Iris Marion Young, together with sociological approaches to ambivalence, I suggest that these temporal subjectivities are embodied, arise from the split subjectivity associated with woman as simultaneously subject and object, and counterpose the neoliberal emphasis on “choice” and agency with a more traditional gendered “expectation,” or “waiting” style. The dialectic between both temporalities, in which neither is hegemonic, results in a chronic state of ambivalence which impedes women's ability to fully project themselves into the future, a skill significant to planning and career ambition and the absence of which suspends women instead in an extended present. The paper aims to do two things in particular. In conceptual terms it aims to explore aspects of the configuration of the gendered self that underlie the stalling and slowing down of the gender revolution and which can be seen to provide a “missing link” between structures, institutions, and micro-cultures. In empirical terms, it suggests a future research agenda, of which this paper constitutes a beginning, through which such gendered temporalities can be explored in greater detail via ethnographies of women's lived experience of time throughout the life course.     

Towards an evaluation of a business school graduate programme

An evaluation research methodology, which has been validated in a previous study, and which was developed to be both scientifically defensible and feasible from a practical point of view, is described. This involves collecting course participants' judgements about the effects of the course, and taking steps to ensure that the process by which the participants arrive at these judgements is sound. The application of this methodology to a course in business administration revealed the following effects or consequences: (1) Access to and progress in successful careers; (2) Flexibility and mobility in careers; (3) Ability to take overall view of problems; (4) Personal confidence; (5) Awareness of own aspirations and career fit; (6) Frustration from unused skills and unfulfilled expectations; (7) High salaries; (8) General reasoning and problem solving ability; (9) Economic/commercial understanding; (10) Understanding of organisation and human behaviour; (11) Useful work, career and personal contacts; (12) Social skills.     

Local Voices in an Internal Market: The Case of Community Health Services*

This paper presents findings from a study of contract specification and implementation in community health services (CHS). In this paper, we focus on one aspect of that study: the role of local people in informing the assessment of health needs and in determining the provision of community health services in the context of the NHS “internal market”. The paper is based on fieldwork undertaken in three districts within one region. Analysis of data obtained from these localities suggests that while there appears to be a genuine commitment to the principle of local involvement, ideas about how that involvement can be built into the activities of either purchasers or providers are less transparent.