MATURE MARKET HEADLINES updated 4/27/2000
Late Life Job Loss Potential Health Hazard
Involuntary job loss in later life is hazardous to the physical and mental health of older workers, according to a Yale University study. Contemporary wisdom suggests that the sting of unemployment may be less for older workers who have fewer financial and family obligations than their younger counterparts. Not so, say researchers at Yale University School of Medicine.
According to the study published in the May 2000 issue of the Journal of Gerontology, William T. Gallo, Elizabeth H. Bradley, Michele Siegel and Stanislav V. Kasl of Yale University School of Medicine found that negative health effects of job loss are significant for older workers. "Our findings," Dr. Gallo and others noted "indicate that negative health effects of involuntary job loss are significant for older workers." The average age of the study population was 55 years.
Gallo and company added that traditionally, workers in the United States save heavily in the years preceding retirement, often relying primarily on personal savings amassed in this period to finance the costs of retirement. "It is therefore easy to imagine that late-stage job loss could bear important consequences
for the well-being of dislocated U.S. workers." Both older and unmarried individuals may be especially vulnerable to the negative mental health consequences of job loss.
In support of the principal findings, the study also indicated that re-employment of the displaced workers was associated with improvements in both physical functioning and mental health. The Journal of Gerontology is a publication of The Gerontological Society of America, the national organization of professionals in the field of aging.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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Ready, Aim, Retire ... oops. Back to Work?
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Mother-Daughter Relations Fade to Gray
The sweet closeness in enjoyable visits between middle-aged mothers and their young adult daughters fades as the women age and is replaced by a more realistic interaction that includes negatives as well as positives. Mothers and daughters who try to keep their visits at the same sweet intensity later in life will probably be thwarted says Dr. Karen Fingerman, Penn State University.
"The research shows that what constitutes a pleasant adult mother/daughter interaction differs for older and younger mother/daughter pairs. What seems right at the beginning might not be the same when you get older," she says. To detail the focus of enjoyable visits and to see how they differ between age groups, the Penn State researcher studied two groups of mothers and daughters:
Group One: mother's average age 76 and daughters's 46,
Group Two: mother's average age 47 and daughter's 21.
The participants were healthy, middle-class women mostly of European-American heritage. Eight pairs of African-American mothers and daughters also participated.
Here's what the researcher discovered about younger mothers and daughters.
- both like to talk about the daughter's achievements and unique attributes.
- both were also more likely to describe the strength and quality of their ties.
- they portrayed their relationship as intense and intimate at this stage of life.
- younger daughters were self-absorbed, not recognizing of mothers as individuals.
- several younger daughters described their mothers as their "best friend."
Here's what the researcher discovered about older mothers and their middle aged daughters.
- they rarely referred directly to the tie between them.
- both described situations involving the daughters' children, siblings, father, husband, or the family.
- older daughters often described visits in which they provided assistance.
- even for healthy mothers, daughters enjoyed helping with shopping and food preparation.
- older mothers were more likely to make outright negative comments about annoying habits.
"It has been well-established that women do the majority of work involved in keeping extended families together. Findings from this study suggest that mothers and daughters find this aspect of family life particularly rewarding in later life", says Fingerman. Older mothers and their middle aged daughters indicated that conflict in their relationship peaked during the teenage years, with continual improvement across adulthood.
"Mothers and daughters may come to view their relationships more favorably across adulthood by accepting the other party's faults and may feel free to voice these faults," says Fingerman.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Religion Enhances Mom-Daughter Ties
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Boomer Moms Score A+ on Home Work
MOMS the Word for Caregivers
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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New Boomer Fatherhood Fosters Fuller Life
A "new fatherhood" is emerging and an appreciation is growing for the father's role in children's lives, says Eggebeen, a research associate with Penn State's Population Research Institute, and a faculty member in the College of Health and Human Development. Despite the enormous social changes affecting family and parenting over the past three decades, fatherhood still offers powerful incentives and important social benefits for many men.
"Our research reveals clear and compelling differences between fathers and non-fathers in their social and familial connections and their work lives," says Dr. Eggebeen. Fathers who live with their biological children are:
- more involved in community and service organizations.
- more often call or visit siblings, adult children and aging parents.
- more serious about the good provider role.
- more likely to invest more hours per week in work and career.
- more likely to attend church with their children.
"Men who live with their biological or adopted children are also significantly more likely to belong to service clubs and school-related organizations. Children are the mechanism that lead men who are fathers to become a cub scout leader, scout master, community league basketball coach, little league coach and school
board member," Eggebeen says.
"Once men no longer live with their children, the transforming power of fatherhood diminishes considerably, even for biological fathers," he adds. "Biological fathers who live apart from their children as a result of divorce, separation, remarriage or simply because their children move away stay closer to siblings and parents than non-fathers but in other respects lead the lifestyles of non-fathers. For example, their recreational activities are more self-focused and they are more inclined to immerse themselves in their jobs. These differences hold true regardless of the father's marital status, socioeconomic factors, race or age." This research was partially supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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Peter Baylies, champion for Mr. Moms
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Right-to-Die Pros Armed with Death Bracelet
Emergency medical workers are finding it increasingly difficult to honor the wishes of patients who do not want to be resuscitated, says University of Michigan law professor and EMT, John Beckerman. State law permits living wills and health-care proxies, also known as "advance directives", in order to influence the course of patient care ... but only in hospital settings.
The "hospital setting" limitation in the living will law place emergency medical workers in a life and death quandry. Since EMTs are faced with a patient in cardiac or respiratory arrest, they cannot interpret a living will or interrogate an advance directive in order to determine the patient's wishes.
In a typical pre-hospital emergency involving a patient who has recently suffered cardiac or respiratory arrest, EMTs must try their best to resuscitate the patient unless a "Do Not Resuscitate" order (DNR), signed by a physician, is immediately available, says Beckerman, a member of a volunteer first aid squad who rides a 12-hour shift on an ambulance most Friday nights.
The problem, he says, is that even when a valid DNR order exists, in an emergency it often is unavailable or cannot be found. The solution, he says, was enacted into law in Michigan in 1996. It permits a person with a valid DNR order to wear a bracelet that informs emergency workers of the DNR. The law both directs emergency medical personnel not to attempt to resuscitate persons wearing DNR bracelets and it shields them from liability for withholding resuscitative procedures from such persons.
"As an EMT and a lawyer, I welcome the advent of the out-of-hospital DNR bracelet." Wider use, he says, would help emergency medical personnel to respect patients' wishes and to spare relatives the emotional pain of seeing resuscitation attempts being made on a loved-one who did not want them.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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Hospitalized Elders Dying to be Treated
Empty Wallet New Cause of Elder Death
Fat Chance for Premature Death in U.S.
Medical Errors Cause 180,000 Deaths
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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