Vulnerability and narrative in later life.

Narrative gerontology considers how people age biographically as well as socially and biologically. Vulnerability as a process category and state of being remains undertheorized in the context of narratives of later life. It is argued that the narrative space for stories from old age privilege backward-looking stories that focus on positive milestones and support cultural narratives of a "life well lived." Sad, emotionally laden or uncertain/unfinished stories that reveal vulnerabilities are rejected and potentially viewed as problematic. Using an illustrative case example of a study of resilience narratives and aging, this paper considers how the study authors position and identify resilience. Some interpretative judgements used in the research regarding who is resilient based on expressions of vulnerability are highlighted. Overall, the tensions between cultural and personal narratives that position older people as vulnerable subjects are considered and it is argued that vulnerability can be a great source of strength and meaning in later life.

Only daughters caring for their aging mothers in Ufa, Russia.

Russia is not the only country in the world that relies heavily on informal caregiving, but what makes Russia unique is the number of single-parent one-child families. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition from state socialism to market capitalism, little has changed in terms of the social protection of older adults. Unaffordable home care services, low pensions, bifurcation of the formerly free healthcare into state and private sectors, the invisibility of people with disabilities, and the absence of quality nursing homes, have left adult children in Russia no choice but to bear the full burden of caregiving for their aging parents completely alone. Given the scarcity of research that examines informal caregiving in Russia in general and in provincial cities in particular, this study addresses this gap by centering on previously unheard voices of a unique group of women: only children of single mothers from Ufa, a metropolitan city in the Ural Mountains. Twenty middle-aged (M = 40.75, SD = 3.43), college-educated women participated in a two-hour, semi-structured interview. Inductive thematic analysis revealed three themes: incongruence with the microenvironment, aging in the "cement box," and distrust of outsiders. The findings suggest material and cultural constraints that female caregivers face as they negotiate the mothers' discordance with the microenvironment of Khrushchev-era apartments.

In the Shadows of Others: Unheard Voices of Older Russian Immigrant Women in the United States.

Older post-Soviet immigrants in the U.S. have been largely overlooked by research despite their unique experience of having lived in a totalitarian regime until middle age, only to find their lives profoundly altered after its fall. Our qualitative study examined the experiences and caregiving expectations of 16 older post-Soviet immigrant women (mean age = 74.5 years, SD =5.8) through in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Data analysis revealed four themes: broken family ties, happiness in the little things that money can buy, intergenerational comparison, and a nursing home is not an option. Overall, our findings emphasize immigration as an important life course event, with profound implications to one's social position, familial ties, employment opportunities contributes to a deeper understanding of how historical context shapes the aging experiences and intergenerational relationships.

Meeting Challenges of Late Life Disability Proactively.

Discussions of disability in the gerontological and the disability studies literatures have seldom considered unique perspectives and needs of older adults. Disability has often been stigmatized and viewed as antithetical to successful aging. We call for expansion of prevailing paradigms of disability to address the resilience and continuing human potential of older adults living with disabilities. In addition to recognizing the environmental context of disability, we propose greater attention to adaptive potential of disabled older adults. We discuss 6 types of proactive adaptations that can contribute to empowerment, meaning, enhanced quality of life and psychological well-being among persons living with late-life onset disabilities. These include: (a) helping others, (b) planning for future care, (c) marshaling intergenerational support, (d) self-advocacy for responsive health care, (e) making environmental modifications to improve safety and comfort of the home, and (f) finding strength in spiritual pursuits. Enacting proactive adaptations can contribute to resilience in facing late life impairments and functional limitations. Such efforts can complement utilization of services and obtaining accommodations. Maintaining life satisfaction among older adults living with disabilities also involves focus on transcendent personal goals and acceptance of an altered self. We note how a more integrative view of medical and social dimensions of disability, infused with concepts of human agency, contributes to rapprochement between alternative disciplinary orientations to late life disability. Without negating society's important responsibilities for accommodating to needs of older adults living with disability, we reaffirm their potential for greater control and self-determination through proactive adaptations.

The Role of Relevancy and Social Suffering in "Generativity" Among Older Post-Soviet Women Immigrants.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: This paper examines generativity, social suffering, and culture change in a sample of 16 women aged 65 years or older who emigrated from the former Soviet Union. Key concerns with generativity are identity, which can be strongly rooted in one's original cultural formation, and a stable life course, which is what ideally enables generative impulses to be cultivated in later life. DESIGN AND METHODS: To better understand how early social suffering may affect later life generativity, we conducted two 90-min interviews with each of our participants on their past experiences and current views of generativity. RESULTS: The trauma of World War II, poor quality of life in the Soviet Union, scarcity of shelter and supplies, and fear of arrest emerged as common components in social suffering, which affected their identity. IMPLICATIONS: Overall, the theme of broken links to the future--the sense that their current lives were irrelevant to future generations--was strong among informants in their interviews, pointing to the importance of life course stability in relation to certain forms of generativity.