Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 5 of 5
Late-life widowhood and meaning in life
- Authors:
- KOREN Chaya, LOWENSTEIN Ariela
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing International, 32(1), June 2008, pp.140-155.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
The relationship between elders' martial status and length of widowhood, as well as other personal and familial resources and the sense of meaning in life, as defined by logotherapy, was tested among 180 Israeli elderly community dwellers aged 64-95. Results show that an event such as late-life widowhood can create a loss of the sense of meaning in life. In addition, a significant difference was found between married and recently widowed elders in relation to the meaning in life. Other variables that affected and explained meaning in life were subjective health, education, the quality of social support relationships, and activity level. The results support Frankl's logotherapy approach, underscoring the importance of helping older people in general, and the widowed elders in particular, to discover and create new life meanings.
Between remembering and forgetting: the experience of forgiveness among older abused women
- Authors:
- BAND-WINTERSTEIN Tova, EISIKOVITS Zvi, KOREN Chaya
- Journal article citation:
- Qualitative Social Work, 10(4), December 2011, pp.451-466.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This study explores the experience of ‘forgiveness’ of older abused women in Northern Israel throughout a life in intimate partner violence. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 older abused Jewish women, aged 60 to 80 years. The interviews were analysed around two domains: one related to the need to explore who forgives whom; the other to various ways of forgiving, starting from not forgetting and not forgiving, moving through forgiveness experienced as burden, the struggle between forgetting and remembering as an obstacle to forgiveness at the same time, remembering without verbalising violence, ‘giving in’, and ending with forgiving and not forgetting. The discussion deals with the ways forgiveness enables the bridging between suffering, survival, and strength resulting from wisdom of age. In ending, the authors discuss the meaning of being an older abused woman and what forgiveness means to them.
Daughters as caregivers of aging parents: the shattering myth
- Author:
- RON Pnina
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 52(2), February 2009, pp.135-153.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This research study examines adult daughters’ measures of copying in their roles as caregivers of ageing parents. It investigates the model devised by Pearlin et al which presents the mental health of caregiver daughters as a function of demographic variables, role burden and stresses resulting from other relationships within the family, as well as personality variables such as mastery and self-esteem. The study examined 224 working women in Israel, and included questionnaires to measure stresses and burdens of being a caregiver and within the nuclear family, mastery over life, self-esteem, gender role orientation, and mental health. The results provided validation of the assumptions in Pearlin’s stress coping model. Two specific findings were that daughters with masculine traits felt a higher level of mental wellbeing, and also that family support provided a higher level of mental well-being for the daughter.
Coping in old age with extreme childhood trauma: aging Holocaust survivors and their offspring facing new challenges
- Authors:
- FRIDMAN Ayala, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 15(2), March 2011, pp.232-242.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study explores the adaptation of aging Holocaust survivors and their adult offspring in light of the challenges that have to cope with in old age. Childhood trauma may leave the survivors more vulnerable when they are facing stress related to old age, whereas their offspring might have a challenging role of protecting their own parents from further pain. Careful matching of female Holocaust survivors and comparison subjects living in Israel was used to form a case-control study design with 2 generations: 32 elderly female Holocaust survivors and 47 daughters, and 33 elderly women in the comparison group, and 32 daughters. The participants completed several measures examining satisfaction with life, mental health, cognitive abilities, dissociative symptoms, and physical health. This study is a follow-up of a previous study conducted 11 years ago with the same participants. The Holocaust survivors showed more dissociative symptomatology and less satisfaction with their life as compared to the matched group. Nonetheless, adult offspring of Holocaust survivors showed no differences in their physical, psychological, and cognitive functioning as compared to matched controls. The article concludes that Holocaust survivors still display posttraumatic stress symptoms almost 70 years after the trauma. No intergenerational transmission of trauma was found among the second generation.
The impact of organisational qualities of old age homes in Israel on the subjective well-being of female residents
- Author:
- IOECOVICH Esther
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work in Long-Term Care, 1(3), 2002, pp.37-53.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- London
Previous studies, especially those conducted during the 1960s, have maintained that institutions have a negative impact on the quality of life and well-being of their elderly residents. Various studies have focused on organisationaltraits, such as size and type of ownership, as being explanatory variables affecting SWB (subjective well-being). The present study investigated: theSWB levels among functionally independent female residents of old age homes in Israel; whether old age homes differ in terms of SWB levels; and, theimpact of organisation characteristics, such as levels of centralisation and formalisation, on residents' SWB. The sample included 464 residents and 164 staff members in 48 old age homes. The findings show that the majority of theresidents expressed moderate to high levels of SWB and that the facilities differed significantly in terms of the level of SWB reported by their residents. The facilities were homogeneous in terms of formalisation, but differed significantly in terms of centralization and in their organisational structure.No correlation was found, however, linking the organizational qualities to theSWB reported by the elderly residents. The implications of the study results arediscussed for policy and program development purposes.