The present study examined what older people regret, and the relationships between regret, health and life satisfaction. The study also explored the role of secondary interpretive control beliefs in relation to regret. Participants (N = 228; 79-98 years old) were asked to report on the content and frequency of their regret, secondary interpretive…

The study reports on factors predicting the longevity of 328 people over the age of 65 drawn from an English city and followed over 20 years. Both the reported activities score and the individual's comparative evaluation of their own level of activity independently reduced the risk of death, even when health and cognitive status were taken into…

Statistics on place of death, validated against longitudinal evidence on entrance into nursing homes, shows the "final" rate of institutionalization to have risen in Sweden between 1938 and 1975. Issues concerning who is institutionalized and why appear more important than precise measurement of rates of institutionalization. (Author/NB)

Considers whether modern medical technology has introduced profound changes into processes of aging and dying. Anthropological literature and author research in New Guinea suggest that aging and dying are cultural constructs, as likely to be complex phenomena in simple societies as in modern ones. (NRB)

Examined work-to-retirement process, using quantitative and qualitative evaluations to verify whether pre-, intra-, and postretirement periods are different from one another when individual's internal organization is examined. Findings from 17 experimental and 22 control subjects, aged 65, revealed that at quantitative level retirement transition…

Develops explanation based on personal construct theory for why mourning and reminiscence are effective therapeutic processes in work with the elderly. Therapeutic case studies illustrate characteristics of these two processes and the relationship between them. (Author/TE)

Interviewed Hindu religious renunciates living in Varanasi and Pondicherry, India. Analysis of excerpts from three representative interviews indicated that these men rated as highly mature by Western developmental models, but Western correlates of life satisfaction were not found to hold for these men. Considers implications for Western aging,…

Examined relationship between family network variables and chances of survival among 487 persons born in 1902 and 1903. Strongest predictor for death before age 80 was being single for men and being single and/or married (as opposed to divorced or widowed) for women. For both sexes, marital status was strongest predictor for survival but in…

The aim of the research was to determine within a single study the extent to which demographic factors, self-rated-health and psychosocial factors present the strongest risks or benefits to older adults' mortality in the course of a 5.9-year longitudinal follow-up. The initial sample of 732 individuals was drawn randomly from the registry listings…