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This article examines gender differences in social relations and resource deficits in France (N = 553), Germany (N = 516), Japan (N = 491), and the United States (N = 514). These data, from regionally representative samples, indicate few gender differences in quantity or quality of social relations, but that women are more likely than men to experience widowhood, illness, and financial strain. In all countries, more deficits and more negative social interactions are associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Interestingly, among women in France and Japan but not among men in any country, quality of social relations offsets the negative consequences of resource deficits. Findings suggest that quality of social relations may have important implications for helping people, particularly women, cope with resource deficits common in late life.

Previous cross-sectional research has shown that older people who are rich in sensorimotor-cognitive and social-personality resources are better functioning in everyday life and exhibit fewer negative age differences than resource-poor adults. Longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study was used to examine these findings across a 4-year time interval and to compare cross-sectional indicators of adaptive everyday functioning among survivors and nonsurvivors. Apart from their higher survival rate, resource-rich older people (a) invest more social time with their family members, (b) reduce the diversity of activities within the most salient leisure domain, (c) sleep more often and longer during daytime, and (d) increase the variability of time investments across activities after 4 years. Overall, findings suggest a greater use of selection, compensation, and optimization strategies in everyday functioning among resource-rich older adults as compared with resource-poor older adults.

Objectives. The aims of this study were to examine time use of elderly women and men and to explain age- and gender-related variance in activity levels in terms of differences in available resources. Methods. Activities reported in an elderly sample stratified for age and gender (N = 485, Age: 70-103 years) were aggregated into three classes: regenerative, productive, and consumptive activities and regressed on income, presence of a partner in the household, education, walking mobility, and labor force participation. Results. Levels in productive and consumptive activities were decreased in the old-old. Moreover, young-old women spent more time working in the household than any other group. Most of the age- and gender-related variance in activity levels could be explained by differences in available resources. For men, living with a partner was associated with less time spent for productive activities and enhanced leisure time, whereas for women, the reverse was observed. The expected reduction of unpaid work time as a function of income (income effect) was not observed. Discussion: Elderly individuals do contribute to societal production. Allocation of time to productive and consumptive activities is a function of available resources, amounts and effects of which differ for young-old and old-old as well as for women and men.

The goals of this article are (a) to describe the daily life of the very old in terms of frequency, duration, variety, and social and physical contexts of activities, and (b) to examine the effects of background variables (e.g., age, sex, residential and marital status, income, and education) on late life activity engagement. A representative sample of 516 adults aged 70-105 was interviewed about their activities using the Yesterday Interview. In contrast to most research on activity engagement, this measurement approach allows for assessment of both the type and context of activities engaged in during the day preceding the interview. The results indicated high frequencies of obligatory activities but also showed substantial time spent in discretionary activities, with television viewing occupying most of the participants' leisure time. Most activities were done alone and at home. In bivariate and multiple regression analyses, age and residential status had the strongest association with activity frequency, duration, and variety; the oldest-old and those residing in long-term care facilities had lower levels of activity engagement. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance for successful aging. Key Words: Successful aging, Oldest-old, Long-term care

One of the great challenges of the next century will be to complete the architecture of the human life course, to transform old age into a period where the gains [...]

Successful aging involves adapting to losses in different areas of life. Resource availability affects how well individuals adapt. Resources can be classified in four main categories, sensorimotor, cognitive, social, and personality. Self-care activities do not appear to be affected by aging, but people with fewer resources appear to be less active and are involved in fewer distinct activities. Resource-poor aged seem to focus on everyday competence at basic levels, while resource-rich aged invest more time in selected activities.

As increasingly more people experience old age as a time of growth and productivity, theoretical attention to successful ageing is needed. In this paper, we overview historical, societal and philosophical evidence for a deep, long-standing ambivalence about human ageing that has influenced even scientific views of old age. In recent years, however, discussion of the psychological and behavioural processes people use to maintain and reach new goals in late life has gained momentum. We contribute to this discussion the metamodel of selective optimisation with compensation, developed by Baltes and Baltes. The model is a metamodel that attempts to represent scientific knowledge about the nature of development and ageing with the focus on successful adaptation. The model takes gains and losses jointly into account, pays attention to the great heterogeneity in ageing and successful ageing, and views successful mastery of goals in the face of losses endemic to advanced age as the result of the interplay of the three processes, selection, compensation, and optimisation. We review evidence from the biological and social science literatures for each component and discuss new research avenues to study the interaction of the three processes. KEY WORDS - Success, successful ageing, selection, compensation, optimisation.

The potential of the testing-the-limits of cognitive reserve capacity method as a psychological diagnostic strategy for the early identification of Alzheimer's disease is evaluated. Findings showed that the method determined more variance in the mental health status of subjects. When the range of cognitive reserve capacity or plasticity is measured using cognitive training, early detection of Alzheimer's disease becomes possible.

Twenty-seven people from two nursing homes and a geriatric hospital participated in a staff training program to alter dependency-support interactive behavior between the residents and the staff of long-term care institutes. The participants were trained on basic behavior principles and provided with information about aging and communication to improve the independence-supportive and reduce the dependence-supportive behavior of the staff. The elderly residents also became independent and associated better with the staff who promoted self-help.

In the present paper the focus is on structural aspects of everyday competence and its relationship with various personal resources, such as health, social status, self concept and cognition. The findings support the hypothesis that two distinct, albeit intercorrelated, components of everyday competence are differentially related to the various resources examined in this paper. The two components are a basic level of competence (BaCo) which is defined mainly by self-care related activities, and an expanded level of competence (ExCo) associated mostly with leisure and social activities and advanced instrumental activities of daily living. In general, BaCo is more strongly related to health-related resources, and ExCo is more strongly associated with behavioural, psychological and social resources. 90.6% of the reliable variance in ExCo and 82.4% in BaCo are explained by these selected resources. Furthermore, all of the age-related variance in everyday competence is accounted for by these health-related and socio-behavioural resources.

In the present research project, an attempt is made to delineate the relationship between dependent/independent behaviors of nursing home residents and the consequent behaviors of the staff. In this context, dependence in residents is limited to self-care behaviors during morning care in the nursing home. Subjects were six staff members of one ward in a nursing home and the 48 patients they cared for. Observations of behavior sequences were recorded with the BOSS system by four observers over 11 days for one hour each morning. Interrater reliability, established during eight sessions, ranged from 0.89 to 1.00 (X= 0.946). In terms of frequencies of behaviors, elderly residents exhibited significantly more independent behaviors than dependent behaviors. Staff engaged significantly more often in 'no response', followed by dependence-supporting behavior, and lastly by independencesupporting behavior. In terms of interactive sequences, an independent response by a resident was most often followed by 'no response' from staff. In contrast, staff members almost invariably responded to the dependent behavior of the residents with dependencesupporting behavior. These temporal contingencies when interpreted within an operant paradigm should have consequences for the maintenance of dependent and independent behavior in elderly residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last decade, research has shown the plasticity and modifiability of aging behaviors heretofore considered irreversible. The last years produced theoretical review papers summarizing empirical findings of this new breed of intervention research in aging. Two major streams of intervention research appear to have evolved: (1) cognitive intervention research which is largely based on the life-span model of development (for review see Baltes and Willis 1977; Barton et al. 1975; Labouvie-Vief 1976) and (2) behavioral intervention research based on the operant learning model (for review see Baltes and Baltes 1977; Baltes and Barton 1977; Hoyer 1973, 1974). In the present paper, these latter research findings and intervention programs will be summarized and analyzed. Furthermore, recent research developments within the operant model will be outlined, the findings of which seem to promise enhancement of the effectiveness of long-range intervention programs with the elderly. It should be noted here that much of the cognitive intervention research with the elderly has often used an operant paradigm but will not be considered here. Furthermore, many intervention studies are implemented in an implicitly operant mode, but are not explicitly conducted within the operant framework. These studies will not be considered here since it would make this review a voluminous one. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]