A new form of measure is presented for assessing not only self esteem but also subjectively perceived sources of self esteem in elderly people. Such instruments have been developed for use both in the Netherlands and in England, using seven categories of sources of self esteem. First results have demonstrated their validity and potential application. The Dutch studies carried out so far have highlighted changes in level of self esteem in Dutch old people moving into homes for the elderly and the importance of the homes themselves as sources of self esteem. The English studies have shown differences in sources of self esteem in elderly people living in ordinary housing, residential homes and special sheltered housing. It is concluded that such instruments could play an important role in studies of individual adaptation to ageing and in the evaluation of different types of welfare provision.

Home ownership is one of the principal ways of redistributing income over the life cycle. Older people who have bought homes during their working years have a substantial asset which cushions the financial shock of reduced income in old age. But those who have never been able to buy can be hard pressed as housing costs continue at high levels. This article examines the financial impacts of home ownership on inter- and intra-generational equity in Australia, Britain and the United States. It begins by showing how access to home-ownership has been influenced by the opportunities available to different social classes in different periods of history. After identifying the financial situation of older owners and tenants, the discussion considers how public policies toward housing tenure further reduce age-related inequalities yet increase them within the aged. The transfer of housing resources from older to younger generations is shown to perpetuate inequalities between generations and lineages. The paper concludes by exploring the policy implications of the increasing diversity in the resources of older people, and their improved economic circumstances relative to younger generations over the decades ahead.

‘These days no-one bothers with old people, not even their children or their relatives.’ This familiar falsehood is important to us here because of its initial phrase, two words which are very often met with in familiar conversation and which imply comparison with the past. The statement is false both because research on the family relationships of the elderly shows it to be so today, and because historical work fails to show that familial support has declined over time. Comparisons with the past, scholarly comparisons properly worked out, which illustrate what history can tell us about ageing and about ourselves as members of populations marked by long life and by the presence of many elderly persons, are the subject of the present issue of Ageing and Society.

This article reviews the growing usage of time-budget methodology, until recently seldom applied to older people. Initial studies have demonstrated that it can be employed both for the young-old and the old-old. Wider utilisation seems to have been impeded by difficulty in operationalising the definitions of such key concepts as ‘time’ and ‘leisure’, ‘discretionary’ and ‘obligatory’ activities. Advances in modern computer technology have facilitated the handling of masses of data of the kind produced by studies such as the 12-nation project led by Szalai (N = 30,000). A recent study of four Philadelphia subgroups by Lawton and Moss (N = 535) was successful in introducing a qualitative dimension of ‘liking’, which opens the door to utilising this approach for arriving at more sophisticated measures of psychological wellbeing.

An overview of the experimental literature on ageing and cognition in the areas of sensation and perception, attention and performance, learning and memory, and intelligence and problem solving is provided. The review indicates definite deficits in most functions, and therefore provides a basis for understanding the origin of the stereotypes of the elderly as senile, obsolete, and useless. However, when viewed in a broad, integrated perspective, there seems to be grounds for a less pessimistic outlook than most people have. The most positive findings are some recent ones in the area of memory, which show that the elderly are able to make use of the knowledge they have accumulated over a lifetime to perform some tasks as good as or better than younger adults. Some researchers have begun to lay plans for the development of intervention programmes for the elderly, and we suggest some areas which may be profitable for further development. There are, however, some difficult motivational issues that need to be dealt with. It seems that many elderly persons claim to be functioning to their own satisfaction, from a cognitive perspective.

For evidence about the extent and experience of old age in classical antiquity, one must rely excessively on literature and mythology, with their heavy bias towards the leisured classes and their lack of quantitative data. Nevertheless, there are bases for some plausible inferences: both life expectancy and for most people the standard of living were low, with a consequence of an early commencement of ‘adult’ employment and the absence of any notion (or possibility) of retirement; those hardy and lucky enough to survive of ten appear to have retained a vigorous creativity into very old age; emotional relations (e.g. between parents and children) were coloured by such factors as high infant mortality and the relative early death of parents and grandparents. The absence of really large cities, other than Rome and one or two others, and of rural isolation (the homestead farm, for example) reduced the dangers of the kind of loneliness associated with the modern bed-sitter, though problems of old age fell solely on the family (rather than the community). Medical literature showed a surprising lack of interest in mental illness associated with old age or even in medical problems other than the obvious ones of debility, and there is no way for us to penetrate the silence.

Based on an ethnographic study of an old age home in Israel, this essay presents an analysis of how religious activity is used as part of a survival strategy by elderly residents in an institution for the well-aged. The study describes the symbolic manipulation of religious symbols and the social meaning of religion in an old age home in terms of four behavioural levels: (a) the synagogue members and their study groups; (b) the rabbi's lack of identification with his congregants; (c) the relationship to the non-religious management of the home; and (d) the differentiation of categories of residents in terms of ‘proper functioning’. Religion in this context is thus seen as an important social resource used in interactions with the social structure of the institution.

Despite the important role played by cost considerations in policy decisions regarding services for the elderly there has been relatively little reliable research on this topic. A large nationally representative survey of old people's homes conducted by the Personal Social Services Research Unit in England and Wales in 1981 provides a firm foundation for the careful examination of the cost of residential care. Focusing on residential homes in the public sector, the cost function analyses reported in this paper have a number of policy implications. The empirical results help to explain cost inflation and allow the prediction of future cost trends, they inform ‘balance of care’ discussions and inter-authority and inter-sectoral comparisons, and they provide evidence on the cost implications of scale, group-living design, day care and sheltered housing. Finally, the relationship between cost and social environment (a central component in any quality of care assessment) is examined. The results suggest that there is no significant association between the two.

In the light of the shortfall in provision of sheltered housing in the UK and recent cricticisms of this form of care, this paper examines its public appeal both in terms of its popularity relative to other care arrangements and the ideas and images associated with it. Using questionnaire data about preferred and projected care arrangements, idealised solutions are compared with actual arrangements made by a group of predominantly old and disabled persons. The contrast suggests that some of the features which characterize sheltered housing as an idealised solution may be achieved in other settings. The implications for the emphasis that sheltered housing should receive in planning for the frail elderly are discussed, particularly in the light of recent international trends to encourage a policy of ‘staying put’.

The purpose of this paper is to explore an alternative perspective for understanding individual and societal ageing within the context of global economic and social relations. The dependent status of Third World nations as a result of the process of capital accumulation is examined. It is argued that the manner in which Third World nations respond to the human needs of their old is subject to the relationship that entwines Third World and capitalist industralised nations. Moreover, it is argued that social policy and human service models are nurtured by the ideology underlying these economic relations. The assumptions behind two policy areas are examined. When diffused to Third World nations such social policies function to maintain national elites at the expense of the majority. In conclusion, questions are raised about the relevance of western models of ageing to the needs of old people in the Third World.

There has recently emerged in the writings of those who have adopted an overtly ‘radical’ approach to social work and the welfare state, a coherent interpretation of how the status of older persons is lowered in the course of the development of industrial capitalism. The focus in these recent writings is on the social creation of dependent status and the structural determinants of the competitive relationship between elderly individuals and younger adults in the labour market. This paper reviews the arguments of this school of thought arguing firstly that it fails to take sufficient account of the longer term population history of England, suggesting that the contrast between the middle and later twentieth century and the nineteenth century is apparently so marked largely because of the atypicality of the latter period when high fertility and rapid demographic growth produced an historical minimum for the proportion of the elderly in the total population. A second failure in this recent radical or marxist research is that it also does not take sufficient account of the kinship system in north west Europe which appears to have created a situation of structured dependency of the elderly on the collectivity irrespective of the specific mode of production. Pre-industrial north west Europeans exhibited a striking contrast in this particular cultural trait with many, indeed most non-industrial societies outside Western Europe or regions populated by emmigrants from that area.

Most of the research into fear of crime among the elderly has been conducted in the United States of America particularly during the past ten years. This paper begins by summarising the major findings which have emerged from this work. Attention is then turned to similar studies which have recently been undertaken in Britain. The findings from a small sample survey of elderly residents in a town in the south of England are then reported. In discussing the data obtained from eighty interviews fear of crime is considered in relation to perceptions of crime, the amount of social contact residents have with relatives, friends and neighbours and the nature and quality of the immediate residential environment.

This article is principally concerned with the measurement and evaluation of the cost of the time which families devote to the care of handicapped elderly relatives living with them. One way of measuring the contribution is by means of time diaries which document the amount of time given to caring activities throughout the 24 hours of the day. How this was done in a small pilot study, carried out in Oxfordshire, England, is described. It is preceded by a brief general discussion of some of the factors which determine time use and by a description of the empirical findings from a few of the existing surveys. Some broad estimates of the indirect financial costs involved are offered, including an estimate using a different approach based on the loss of opportunity suffered by women who are prevented from undertaking paid work.

Previous studies of the attitudes of nursing staff towards patients in hospitals have suggested that those who were mentally alert, young, acutely ill and in need of medical (not custodial) care, middle class, appreciative and co-operative were labelled ‘good’. Conversely the old, the poor, the chronically ill and the mentally disturbed were labelled ‘bad’. In the study reported here, of a single nursing home situated in the American midwest, these stereotypes are shown not to operate. A subset of these attitudes is none the less to be found which rewards cheerfulness, wittiness and appreciativeness. Favouritism amongst patients is examined as a significant influence on the care of residents who are all elderly and long-term sick.

The persistence of greater life expectancy among women than men means that widowhood on a large scale is a feature of both pre-industrial and subsequent societies. This paper examines the changing structure of widowhood along with the familial and economic support afforded to women in this category, in the 17th and 18th centuries by contrast with the present day. It indicates, by drawing on parish data for England, that the incidence of the widowed status is today lower in each age group than two hundred years previously, but higher as a proportion of total population. Current widows are however twice as likely to be over 55 and to be heads of households. Further comparisons over time are used to make observations about the relative effectiveness of the parish, kin, and the Welfare State in providing material support.

Among the changes occurring in patterns of working time there is evidence of a growing interest in ‘phased’ or ‘partial’ retirement, which seeks to ease the transition between work and retirement.

Though a small number of companies in other countries have introduced this option, Sweden is unique in operating partial retirement on a national scale. The development of the Swedish partial pension scheme, since its introduction in 1976, is examined and reactions of older workers and employers reviewed.

The final section draws a number of conclusions from the Swedish experience and considers some of the obstacles to the more widespread development of partial retirement.

Current searchings for ways to trim a burgeoning social welfare budget come at the end of a long period of decline in the value of pensions. The social welfare benefits paid in Britain today are not as valuable, relative to the incomes of non-beneficiaries, as were the pensions paid during the first half of the twentieth century, and they are worth very much less than the allowances distributed by the nineteenth century Poor Law. Demographic changes, including the growing numbers of elderly persons, the movement of elderly persons towards living alone, the decline in household size, and the return of large numbers of women to the paid workforce, have overtaken the Welfare State, which has failed to develop a programme for redistributing resources between the generations.