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Gay and lesbian aging: current perspectives and future directions for social work practice and research
- Authors:
- DONAHUE Peter, MCDONALD Lynn
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 86(3), July 2005, pp.359-366.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
The authors critically examine the current status of social work regarding practice and research with older gays and lesbians and presents recommendations for both practice and research.
The role of coping humor in the physical and mental health of older adults
- Authors:
- MARZIALI Elsa, MCDONALD Lynn, DONAHUE Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 12(6), November 2008, pp.713-718.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study examined the associations among coping humour, other personal/social factors and the health status of community-dwelling older adults. Survey questionnaires were completed with 73 community-dwelling older adults. Included were measures of coping humour, spirituality, self-efficacy, social support and physical and mental health status. Correlations across all variables showed coping humour to be significantly associated with social support, self-efficacy, depression and anxiety. Forward stepwise regression analyses showed that coping humour and self-efficacy contributed to outcome variance in measures of mental health status. Contrary to expectation, neither social support nor spirituality contributed to the total outcome variance on any of the dependant measures. The importance of social support, self-efficacy and spirituality in determining the quality of life of older adults is well supported in the literature. Coping humour as a mechanism for managing the inevitable health stresses of aging has received less attention. This study shows that coping humour and self efficacy are important factors for explaining health status in older adults. Correlations among coping humour, self efficacy and social support suggest that a sense of humour may play an important role in reinforcing self-efficacious approaches to the management of health issues.
Retirement through unemployment: what social work needs to know
- Authors:
- MCDONALD Lynn, DONAHUE Peter, MOORE Brooke
- Journal article citation:
- Canadian Social Work Review, 17(1), 2000, pp.69-85.
- Publisher:
- Canadian Association for Social Work Education
In this Canada study a qualitative analysis of interviews with 33 men and women whose retirement was induced by unemployment examines effects of such involuntary retirement. Respondents reported that unemployment led to a drop in retirement income. Those most severly hit by unemploymentt found the transition extremely stressful, reporting high levels of anger, depression, and sadness and constant worry about their straitened circumstances. People coped with this drop in income by changing their lifestyles, giving up valued assets like their homes, and dipping into savings and RRSPs. These strategies, in turn, depleted their resources for retirement and caused considerable consternationn about what they saw as an uncontrollable and unforeseeable future. People also relied heavily on social assistance and disability benefits to survive until the age at which they were eligible to draw upon their retirement benefits.