Suchergebnisse

Since the publication of large, representative, structured questionnaire surveys suggesting that women were equally or more likely than men to hit their partners, there has been considerable debate over women's use of violence in marriage. This debate has focused on the methods used to study marital violence. On the one hand, it has been suggested that this female-perpetrated marital violence is a genuine problem which has been uncovered by the rigorous use of representative samples and quantitative methods of data collection. On the other hand, it has been suggested that the use of methods which simply measure acts of physical aggression and ignore the context and meaning of any violence results in the failure to demonstrate very obvious differences between male and female-perpetrated marital violence. This study uses a community sample of couples to show that, although women may hit their partners more often than men do, if context and meaning is included in the assessment of violence, male violence is considerably more likely than female violence to be dangerous and threatening. The data presented also demonstrate that male-perpetrated marital violence is likely to lead to serious injury and greatly increases women's risk of anxiety, whereas female-perpetrated marital violence has neither of these consequences for men.

Self-report assessments of health are commonly favoured indicators used in large-scale nationally, representative surveys as they can be readily and cost-effectively collected from large numbers of people; however, subjective assessments have been criticised. Using data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), this article examines the relationship between self-reported vision and measured visual acuity (Logarithm of the Minimal Angle of Resolution [logMAR]). The analysis indicates that normal vision is well captured by a subjective response, but there is a slight over-identification of visual impairment using self-reported vision. These findings are discussed in relation to social patterning of misreporting. Given the simplicity of the self-report assessment to administer and the correspondence between this and measured visual acuity, it is argued to be a suitable indicator of visual impairment in older people.

The hedonic view on well-being, consisting of both cognitive and affective aspects, assumes that through maximizing pleasurable experiences, and minimizing suffering, the highest levels of well-being can be achieved. The eudemonic approach departs from the concept of a good life that is not just about pleasure and happiness, but involves developing one-self, being autonomous and realizing one's potential. While these approaches are often positioned against each other on theoretical grounds, this paper investigates the empirical plausibility of this two dimensional view on subjective well-being. The interrelations between common measures such as the General Health Questionnaire, the CES-D inventory of depressive symptoms, the satisfaction with life scale and the eudemonic CASP scale are examined in a confirmatory factor analysis framework using the third wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). A multidimensional structure of well-being, distinguishing cognitive, affective and eudemonic well-being, is shown to be the best fitting empirical solution. This three dimensional second order structure is neutral to gender in its measurement. A lower influence of feeling energetic on self-actualisation, and of somatic symptoms of depression on affective well-being was noted for respondents in the fourth age () in comparison to respondents in the third age (). These small measurement artefacts underline that somatic symptoms of later life depression should be distinguished from mood symptoms. Two main social facts are confirmed when we compare the different forms of well-being over gender and life stage: men tend to have a higher level of well-being than women, and well-being is lower in the fourth age than in the third age. Although the three measures are very closely related, with high correlations between .74 and .88, they each have their specific meaning. While affective and cognitive well-being emphasize the use of an internal yardstick to measure well-being, the eudemonic perspective adds an external dimension. As each measure has an own story to tell, we advocate the use of these multiple assessments of well-being.

Using data from a community survey of 5196 ethnic minority and 2867 white respondents, together with data on local group concentration from the 1991 Census, the hypothesis was tested that ethnic group concentration is associated with lower levels of reported psychiatric symptoms. The hypothesis was broadly confirmed, both for within- and between-group differences. However, the effect was found to be modest in size and in one group, the Pakistani sample, was reversed. The findings are inconsistent with an explanation based on selection or drift. Linguistic factors contributed to, but did not explain the effects. Evidence on victimisation and mutual support suggests that social causation, in the form of reduced exposure to direct prejudice and increased social support, is a likely cause of the effect.

AbstractThis study explores the relationship between social class and health change in older people in a path analysis, using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (n = 6241) in a Bourdieusian theoretical framework. Bourdieu drew a distinction between the occupational characteristics by which people are classified and the secondary properties of class that relate to lifestyle (economic, cultural and social capitals). Our path model includes both occupational and secondary characteristics of objective social class as well as a measure of subjective social class. We investigate the effects of the predictors on change in three health outcomes (self‐rated health, number of symptoms of depression and number of difficulties with the activities of daily living). The analysis adds to Bourdieusian research by showing how the effects of objective social class on health are partially mediated by perceived social status. It also adds to substantive research on the relationship between class and health by suggesting that class‐related health inequalities do persist for older people, even for those who are not in paid employment. It suggests that a large amount of the effect of occupation on the health of older people is not direct but indirect; through their personal wealth and lifestyle.

One key challenge to those charged with tackling the social exclusion of visually impaired people is having information about the extent to which visual impairment is related to the ability to enjoy and participate in various aspects of life. Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), this article considers how self-reported visual impairment is related to older people's physical health and cognitive abilities, their economic and housing conditions, their social engagement, as well as their emotional well-being and life-satisfaction. We find self-reported poor vision to be associated with multiple disadvantages in those outcome measures. Further research is needed to establish causal links between visual impairment and the various health, economic, social and emotional well-being experiences documented in this article. Nevertheless, secondary data analysis of ELSA offers a useful and cost-effective research approach.