Place therapies for older adults: conceptual and interventive approaches.

The study of place transitions-moves between places as well as changes occurring in environments of elders who age in place-is a relatively new, diverse research area of high relevance for adult developmentalists and gerontologists. This article explores the usefulness of a tractable model of environmental stress and proposes three potential "place therapies" that may minimize the negative impacts of place transitions upon older adults. Specifically, a transactional model of environmental stress linked to behavior setting theory is proposed for understanding both positive and negative outcomes associated with different kinds of place transitions. Three distinct "place therapies" are considered as interventions that may hold promise for preventing, ameliorating, and enriching the diverse impacts of place transitions on older adults and their environmental milieu.

From 'Our Town' to 'Ghost Town'?: the changing context of home for rural elders.

This research, grounded in a contextual view of environmental stress, employed an experiential field approach to explore outcomes of the continuing rural crisis of the past decade for elderly residents of four small Kansas towns. These rural changes threaten the survival of many towns, and affect their elderly residents, who often have enduring economic, social, and psychological investments in their homes and communities. At the same time, changes associated with aging may lead to transitions in the experience of home and community for these elderly individuals, regardless of the town's health. The two sources of change may have multi-faceted impacts on the well-being of the elderly individuals who experience them. Aspects of the research described here focus on environmental stressors related to housing and the meaning of attachment to home within economically-threatened communities. Some findings presented support previous research, while others reflect the region's unique socio-historical environment as a part of the Western Frontier. Implications for policy alternatives and the well-being of rural elderly are discussed.

The Men's Adult Life Experiences Inventory: an instrument for assessing developmental concerns of middle age.

This article describes the development and testing of a new 97-item self-report instrument assessing the frequency and intensity of 11 developmentally related domains of concerns of middle-aged men. These include relationships (child, parents, wife, friends), job, health, sex, leisure, death, pressures of time, and self-reflection. The psychometric properties of the instrument, as well as potential uses, are discussed.

Habituation theory and environment-aging research: ennui to joie de vivre?

Robert Kastenbaum posits that functional aging results in the overadaptation to our own routines and expectations, producing "hyperhabituation," mental stagnation, and novaphobic response orientations. This article examines the promise and implications of this notion for two areas of environment-aging research: psychological control and environmental comprehension. Possible causal and mediating links between control and habituation are considered, as well as the impact of habituation on environmental perception, cognition, and appraisal. Personal and situational characteristics of older people likely to be at risk for habituated responses are suggested. The article also speculates about individually- and environmentally-targeted interventions which might prevent and/or ameliorate tendencies toward hyperhabituated responses among older people who reside in highly ritualized and constant environments such as long-term care institutions. Interventions subject to future evaluations include modifications for the social, physical, and policy milieux and desensitization of novaphobic responses.

Perceptions of filial responsibility by elderly Filipino widows and their primary caregivers.

This study assessed perceptions of filial responsibility among forty older Filipino mothers and their primary caregiver daughters from two urban and two rural barangays in the town of Los Banos (39 miles southeast of Manila). Using parallel standard structured interview measures, perceptions of filial expectations and filial behaviors were gathered across five categories of parental support: financial and material aid; personal care; service provision; respect; and warmth and affection. Intragenerational comparisons (analyses of variance) showed that widows' reports of actual amount of support received significantly exceeded their expectations for most forms of aid. In contrast, daughters' expectations for level of parental support exceeded their behaviors, but only for the more instrumental forms of aid. Intergenerational comparisons (t-test analyses) revealed that daughters held reliably higher filial expectations for almost all forms of support than did their mothers. Comparisons of reports of actual support showed intergenerational consensus on the whole. Implications of these data for research and intervention in this area are discussed.

Environmental perceptions and patterns of well-being among older Americans in small rural towns.

This study describes perceptions of the psychosocial, physical, and service environments of 18 small towns reported by older rural Americans (n = 898) exhibiting four different profiles of social and psychological well-being ("partially engaged", "fully engaged", "disengaged", "frail"). Similarities and differences in environmental appraisals among the four groups are discussed, with particular emphasis placed on environmental perceptions of the frail residents. Implications of the results for environment-aging researchers and rural service providers are discussed.

Mental health of small-town Kansas elderly: a report from the Great Plains.

This paper presents an overview of a large-scale interview study of the subjective well-being of approximately 1,000 older (65 + years) Kansans residing across 18 small towns (2,500 and under in size). Descriptive results of assessments of social and psychological well-being are presented, along with a second-order taxonomy of well-being profiles. Results of path model analyses of physical, psychosocial, and demographic predictors of mental health of both men and women are offered. Data pertaining to the utilization of services are also presented.

The mental health of small-town rural elderly residents: an expanded ecological model.

This study describes the development of an expanded ecological model of rural mental health and examines its efficacy for explaining the mental health status of 358 male and 631 female (aged 65 years or older) residents of 18 small Kansas communities. Utilizing standard structured interview data, a holdout sample strategy was used to test the impact of environmental (ecological/architectural, psychosocial), well-being (activity, security, housing satisfaction, social contact), and demographic dimensions upon composite mental health scores. Tests of the model for each sex showed that different sex-specific "causal" dynamics explained similar proportions of variation in mental health for both males and females (26.4, 27.4%, respectively). Overall, a less complex model of mental health is indicated for men than for women. The relevance of the model for conceptual, empirical, and interventive pursuits is discussed.

An ecological model of mental health among small-town rural elderly.

The present study models the impact of three domains of environmental variables (ecological/architectural, psychosocial, and personal) on the mental health and well-being of 989 community-based rural elderly (65 years or older) in 18 small Kansas towns. Utilizing standard structured interview data, we employed a holdout sample strategy to test a path model that posited three psychosocial variables as partially mediating the predictive relations of two ecological/architectural and three personal variables with mental health. Results of tests of the model confirmed the statistical reliability (p less than .05) of all relations posited for mental health, with perceived environmental constriction, satisfaction with dwelling features, and satisfaction with community serving as the largest predictors. Results showed the decreasing predictive efficacy of the model for other dimensions of well-being (activity, security, contact with friends, contact with relatives). Strengths and weaknesses of the model relevant to conceptual, emphirical, and interventive pursuits are discussed.

Well-being profiles of small-town elderly in differing rural contexts.

This study provides data on variations in subjective well-being among older residents of small towns in varying rural contexts. Standard structured interview data on five composite dimensions of well-being (mental health, activity, contact with friends/relatives, security) were gathered on 989 elderly residents across 18 small towns stratified by population (100-500; 501-1500; 1501-2500) and quantitatively-defined county rurality (high-medium-low). Similarities and differences in well-being among the nine town size/rurality categories resulting from this stratification are discussed, along with implications for rural gerontological research and intervention.

A taxonomy of situations for an elderly population: generating situational criteria.

The present study examined the feasibility of a taxonomic strategy for generating situational criteria useful in the assessment of competence for older adults, with competence viewed as adaptive responding in specific situations. The first phase of the strategy involved (a) sampling a population of situations relevant to the experience of an older urban population, (b) selecting and empirically testing the reliability of four attribute dimensions (social-nonsocial; high-low activity; common-uncommon: supportive-depriving), which, in combination, taxonomized 16 classes of 80 situations, and (c) adapting these situations to a Q-sort technique. In the second phase, taxonomized situations were Q-sorted by 20 older individuals(x age = 71 years) on three response dimensions (self-rated ease of coping, affect, and frequency of encounter). Significant MANOVA main effects and interactions for each response dimension were found. Implications of this approach for generating ecologically-valid situational criteria useful in assessing adult competence are discussed.