On Time, Leisure, and Health in Retirement: Implications for Public Health Services.

Various life challenges, such as widowhood, poor health, or significant caregiving responsibilities, can make the possibility of how to spend one's time in retirement seem daunting. Planning can help people feel more confident and prepared. In this paper, we review research that has examined: (1) life factors impacting fears about and adjustment to retirement, (2) access to resources and utilization of strategies that impact adaptation processes, and (3) the ways leisure and leisure education may be resources to support not only individual adaptation but practices of public health service providers in assisting people who may be struggling with this transition. The review ends with recommendations for public health practice including: (1) the inclusion of leisure and leisure education as a focus of service provision; (2) the development of partnerships or collaborations between public health and recreation-related organizations; and (3) the development and delivery of group- and individual-based leisure education programs.

Gender Differences in Meaningful Leisure Among Older Adults: Joint Displays of Four Phenomena.

Vital events, such as widowhood and retirement, are broadly accepted as points of inflection in the lives of older adults that often differ according to gender. In this study, we analyzed the influence of gender on meaningful leisure among older adults through the integration of qualitative and quantitative findings. The use of joint displays revealed that in this sample of people from Northern Spain: (1) there were no significant differences in the influence of retirement and widowhood on the leisure of the two genders, (2) the ethic of care was a constraining factor in older women's leisure, (3) women were more innovative in their leisure in older age, and (4) volunteer activities were highly segregated by gender. The use of joint displays helped illuminate these four phenomena in light of quantitative and qualitative data.

Sex after divorce: older adult women's reflections.

People who divorce experience a number of negative impacts, and yet divorce also offers opportunities for growth and transformation. This qualitative study of older adult women offers the possibility that divorce may be sexually empowering, especially for women, based on in-depth interviewing of women who had gone through one or more divorces. Detailed examples of the experiences of fourteen women with divorce and sexual expression are offered, focusing on in which situations divorce might be empowering and how it could contribute to sexual exploration and satisfaction. Overall, for the fourteen women in the study who had experienced divorce, the quality of sex in the marriage impacted the quality of sexual expression after the divorce. Also, these findings supported the idea of transformational learning through divorce, and expand divorce-stress-adjustment and transformational learning perspectives to apply more specifically to sexual expression. Understanding possible impacts of divorce over the lifespan, including strengths-based aspects, is important for social workers as the population they serve ages.

When distress gives way to possibility: the relevance of leisure in adjustment to disability.

Previous research has suggested that leisure assists in coping with and adjusting to negative life events in at least four different ways: by being diverting, by generating hope, by restoring some aspects of self, and by affording a context for personal transformation. An assault to the brain, whether due to a stroke, chronic disease, injury or trauma, would be such an event and would likely by served by leisure in the same way. This paper reviews the supporting evidence regarding the value and utility of leisure in coping with and adjusting to living with a disability. The concept of posttraumatic growth is then examined and related research is reviewed with particular attention to the relevance of leisure. Finally, considerations are offered for incorporating leisure as an aspect of treatment and care for those working in neurorehabilitation settings.

Reduction in leisure activity and well-being during the transition to widowhood.

There is relatively little evidence available about how leisure involvement changes with the death of a spouse and even less about how leisure activity is associated with the health and well-being of widows during this transition. Using data from the Americans Changing Lives (ACL) dataset, this study of 154 widows investigated change in leisure involvement during the transition to widowhood and examined the relationship between leisure activity reduction and widows' well-being. Results indicated a majority of widows reduced their involvement in leisure activity. Path models revealed that depressive symptoms and recovery from spousal loss were predictors of activity reduction, providing more support for the causal relationship of well-being influencing activity involvement than for activity influencing well-being.

Reconsidering change and continuity in later life: toward an innovation theory of successful aging.

This article examines the patterns and meanings of innovation in the activities of a group of retirees with an eye toward understanding the place and value of innovation in the aging process. Starting with a consideration of continuity theory, as a perspective that simply describes typical patterns of activity, and activity theory that prescribes expansion of activities as a key to well-being, this article highlights the characteristics, meanings and perceived benefits of a wide variety of innovative activities. The study utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 20 male and female retirees involved in a "Learning and Retirement" program. Innovations that both preserve a sense of self (internal continuity) as well as those that allow one to strike out in entirely new direction are described, and, using a process of constant comparison, their motivational dynamics are explored. Given previous arguments that activity can be indiscriminate and disintegrative in some circumstances, we nevertheless suggest that innovation can be growth producing and liberating, even in later life, while at the same time generally protecting a sense of internal continuity.