In this study we examine the impact of parent status and marital status on (1) the foundations of social support networks and (2) who one turns to if help is required with activities of daily living. Data are taken from structured interviews with 678 community-dwelling persons aged 55 and over in London, Canada. This sample overrepresents the childless, single (never married), and divorced, thus ensuring adequate numbers in each category for data analysis. Our findings indicate that marital status is more influential than parent status regarding differences in the foundations of social support. However, for more specific forms of assistance, the divorced and single are more likely than the married, and the childless are more likely than parents to rely on formal support and paid help and less likely to rely on family. As well, for both marital and parent status, there are significant interactions with gender.

Despite a recognition of the importance of families in providing informal care to frail seniors, there is no consensus as to who constitutes the caregiving family. The authors discuss the current ideology about the caregiving family and the state of knowledge about its composition and propose that the caregiving family has actual and potential elements. Based on the assumption that the concept of “who's the family” is socially constructed, the authors argue that it is essential to understand “who's the family” from the perspective of primary caregivers in order to evaluate the nature of family support. This paper challenges the notion that the cargiving family is equivalent to the kin family. It is argued that the status quo in which a simplistic view of family caregiving is used to justify pressure on families to provide more care is not sustainable.

Few studies of the risks of institutionalization of the elderly have had fully specified models using multivariate analysis, and several studies have examined highly selected populations, making their generalizability uncertain. We set out to examine the risks of institutionalization in elderly people in Nova Scotia. A case-control study, executed as part of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging examined 108 incident institutional cases and 533 community-dwelling elderly controls, using a standardized assessment interview conducted by trained interviewers. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that advancing age, presence of dementia, functional impairment, poor self-rated health, recent hospital admission, and absence of a caregiver were important risks for entry into long term care. Institutions providing long-term care for the elderly need to be able to look after populations with a high prevalence of dementia and functional impairment.

Robert Brown's work constitutes an excellent synthesis of the foreseeable evolution of income-security plans, as regards seniors and the problems relative to these plans in an aging-of-the-population context. However, it contains nothing new on the measures that the State should institute to diminish the effects of an aging population. Brown believes that retirement plans implemented by employers as well as personal retirement-savings plans should be the preferred forms of retirement savings encouraged by the government. Within this framework, the fiscal reform of 1990, which significantly increases the allowable deductions for a registered-retirement savings plan, comprises a step in the right direction. Unlike the author, I believe that public retirement plans like the Quebec Pension Plan (Q.P.P.) and the Canada Pension Plan (C.P.P.) should constitute the cornerstone of any policy on income security upon retirement. Consequently, in a an-aging-of-the-population context, it seems important to rapidly increase the level of contribution to these plans, in order to better capitalize them and to stabilize the long-term level of contribution. We should also study the possibility of integrating the old age income-security pension into these plans, so that the level of compensation for revenue from work guaranteed by the public plan is stabilized at a rate of 70 per cent for low-income earners and 40 per cent for middle-income earners, as is the case in the American social security plan.

If one desires many meaningful and enriching years of retirement, one must plan and make the necessary transformations to one's psychological life structure. This means that a major revision of the dynamic organization of the dimensions of one's being and behaviour must be undertaken. A high level of consciousness of what one wants to become is essential. This involves first a strong will to change; then making the necessary ajustments to one's individual life structure.

The main questions raised in this work are related to the different answers which various highly industrialized countries gave when responding to situations arising from common elements such as the rapid aging of the populations in the said countries, the noticeable increase in the proportion of public spending committed to the aging population and the tendency for people to retire early from the job market. Nine chapters deal with the situation as it stands in different countries, while five others cover the main themes while comparing a few of the countries concerned. Despite a few weaknesses, overall this book merits careful reading, since most of the chapters it contains discuss at length the evolution of aging policies over the past 30 years while providing extremely stimulating interpretations and hypotheses.

Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985a) has recently been applied to the motivation behind daily activities in old age (Vallerand & O'Connor, 1989). According to this theory, a primary determinant of motivation is the degree of self-determination in the living environment: actual opportunities for self-determination are assumed to affect the experience of self-determination, which in turn affects motivation. This prediction was tested among 129 residents from 11 nursing homes. Both actual opportunities for autonomy and experienced autonomy were associated with motivational styles. Furthermore, the effects of the objective environment on motivation were mediated by perceptions of the environment. The results provide suggestive support for a causal sequence that has proven difficult to establish in previous research.

The relationship between the MMSE as a measure of cognitive deficit and two procedures for assessing medical-legal competence is explored. The findings on 60 patients assessed for financial capacity by a multidisciplinary panel, and 41 published cases assessed using the HCAT for capacity to consent to treatment are analysed using logistic regression and ROC curves based on the binary outcome capable/incapable. Cognitive deficit is not a good indicator of the results for mental capacity obtained either by the multidisciplinary panel or the HCAT. The relationship between cognitive deficits and procedures for the allocation of decisional authority is unclear. Some discussion is given to account for this discrepancy.

Considering that gerontology must study elderly persons within the wider context of society's dynamic processes, as well as with a view of policy responses, this book by Beaujot is to be recommended. Demographic processes underlying the growth of the Third Age in Canada are presented in a clear, non-technical way and their policy consequences are analysed thoroughly. All the chapters are of interest to gerontologists, but particularly chapter 2 on health and mortality, chapter 7 on aging, parts of chapter 6 dealing with an aging workforce, and of chapter 8 which is devoted to the aging of households, not to mention chapter 4 on migration, which is often considered a solution to fertility decline and aging. On most subjects differing points of view are given their fair share, and the author presents his own views and policy options.

This study assessed the reliability and validity of the Activities Checklist (Reid & Ziegler, 1981) as well as its utility for predicting cognitive functioning in the elderly. Data were drawn from two longitudinal projects where elderly subjects had been tested on two occasions approximately five years apart. Test-retest reliabilities were .54 and .43 for the larger (N = 158) and smaller (N = 76) samples respectively. Validity was demonstrated by an age shift towards more passive activities and by positive correlations with education, occupational status, health and well-being. Weighted versions of activity scores were not superior to unweighted versions as predictors of cognitive functioning. For both samples activity levels significantly predicted performance on some cognitive measures. It was concluded that the Activities Checklist is a potentially useful instrument to employ in the study of individual differences in cognitive aging.

This volume published in 1991 contains the contributions of specialists in the field of geriatric psychiatry who met in 1989 to discuss the state of knowledge on the pathology of anxiety in the elderly. Written from a medical perspective, it contains 16 relatively short chapters divided into five sections which cover topics related to diagnosis, epidemiology, comorbidity, neurobiology, pharmacology, and pharmacological and psychotherapeutical treatments. The major weaknesses of the book reside in its atheoretical stance and its exclusive medical focus. We learn very little on the phenomenology and etiology of anxiety in the elderly, and on therapeutic interventions other than anxiolytics. Still it may be worth reading simply because there is such a derth of literature on anxiety in the elderly. Readers interested in the psychological research on this topic may consult the additional references cited.