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Older people are increasingly being cared for in the community across Europe. Dependent care in Spain largely remains a private issue involving family carers and migrant women from developing countries. Qualitative research on respite care has contributed to our understanding of respite as a subjective experience. Nonetheless, how care-givers relieve the burden of care is still not fully understood. Migrant care-givers are present in family life but their need for rest remains unseen. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to contrast family care-givers and migrant care-givers' strategies for relief from their caring role. Care-givers rest by thinking, doing and being but in a different manner from that of care-giving, that is: when they are a different person. To leave the life of care-giving is the general strategy that family care-givers use to rest from their care-giving selves while turning to one's own world describes the way migrant care-givers seek to relieve the burden of care. The comparative analysis shows that both strategies have in common the necessity to disconnect from the care-giving identity and that both migrant and family care-givers employ strategies that are false exits to a care-giving identity: they apparently relieve the burden of care. Respite goes beyond places, times and activities; as family care itself, it requires identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Critical reviews of the literature on the factors that influence physical activity among older adults have argued that existing theoretical frameworks should be extended by integrating those that deal with the complex processes of socialisation and social learning. This paper explores some of the social processes that influence older people's participation in physical activity (beyond that associated with everyday domestic tasks). A questionnaire with items on personal, social and environmental characteristics was completed by a random sample of older adults in the Madrid Autonomous Region (Spain). Significant relationships were found between the type of physical activity participation and: being physically active at earlier life stages, socio-economic status, the encouragement of others or social support in being active, and the knowledge and availability of local facilities. Some cases were observed of re-socialisation into physical activity among those who had been inactive earlier in life, and both appropriate environmental and supportive social conditions appeared instrumental. The findings could usefully inform the design of future social programmes to promote active lifestyles in later life, but given the complexity of the socialisation processes, it would be advisable for future studies to examine other than the four factors featured in the presented analysis, such as the role of cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]