Understanding healthy ageing using a qualitative approach: the value of narratives and individual biographies

Carpentieri, JD; Elliott, Jane

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656516.003.0009

Cited by 12 publications

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“…Narrative has been argued to be a mechanism through which individuals can understand themselves as having a sense of self that endures over time without being fixed and unchangeable ( Ricoeur, 1991 ). This interweaving of constancy and change may have particular salience in the study of aging, as individuals strive to maintain a “good strong story” in the context of physical or other losses ( Carpentieri & Elliott, 2014 ). Narrative gerontology emphasizes the importance to well-being of avoiding narrative foreclosure ( Freeman, 2000 ), that is, the sense that one’s life story has come to a conclusion, that there are no further opportunities for individual development and growth, and that one has therefore moved into “epilogue time” ( Morson, 1994 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Adapting to Aging: Older People Talk About Their Use of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation to Maximize Well-being in the Context of Physical Decline

Carpentieri¹,

Elliott²,

Brett

et al. 2016

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Objectives:Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) may contribute to successful aging by helping older people maximize well-being in the context of physical decline. To explore this hypothesis, and to investigate the potential for narrative analysis to improve understanding of SOC, we analyze interviews conducted with 15 members of the 6-Day Sample, a cohort of Scots born in 1936.Method:Interviewees were chosen based on their physical function and well-being scores. Interviews were analyzed to investigate “SOC talk,” that is, older people’s talk about SOC behaviors in everyday life. Types and amounts of SOC talk were quantified, and talk was narratively analyzed. We hypothesized that older people who engaged in more SOC talk would have higher well-being.Results:Older people who engaged in high levels of SOC talk had high well-being despite low physical function. Those who engaged in little SOC talk had low well-being despite higher physical function.Discussion:The concept of successful aging is valuable in part because of its narrative quality: One must strive to keep one’s life story developing despite physical decline and other losses. We provide evidence, from the perspectives of older people themselves, of the ways in which SOC may play a role in that process.

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confidence: 99%

Adapting to Aging: Older People Talk About Their Use of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation to Maximize Well-being in the Context of Physical Decline

Carpentieri¹,

Elliott²,

Brett

et al. 2016

GERONB

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“…Logistic regression analysis of survey data can identify and parameterise the phenomenon of interest (women who extend their working lives beyond state-pension age) and model the effects on the likelihood of extended employment of a range of potential associates. Findings from the analysis of data collected through life-course narratives with a cohort sub-sample reveals factors in individual lives that are perhaps missing or inadequately captured in the survey data (Carpentieri and Elliot, 2014).…”

Section: Mixed-methods Research Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Course Influences on Extended Working: Experiences of Women in a UK Baby-Boom Birth Cohort

Wildman

2019

Work, Employment and Society

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Combining feminist political economy and life-course perspectives, this mixed-methods study critically examines the extent to which extended working life policies take account of women’s experiences of paid and unpaid work. I explore how decisions to extend working life are shaped by gendered social structures and norms across the life course among women in the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a UK early baby-boom birth cohort. Among this cohort of women currently transitioning into retirement, analysis of longitudinal survey data identifies a range of mid- and later-life factors that impact on the likelihood of women working beyond state-pension age. In-depth life-course interviews identify further complex and interacting gendered life-course experiences, not captured in the survey data, which act to necessitate, encourage, enable or constrain extended working. I conclude that, if women are to extend their working lives, ‘joined-up’ policies are required, addressing gendered inequalities across the life course.

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“…Any understanding of human agency also needs to recognise that the life course is affected by multiple influences such as macroeconomic conditions, institutional structures such as socio-economic status, social class, gender, ethnicity, as well as acquired attributes, habits, dispositions, and individual resources such as ability and aspirations (Evans and Biasin 2017). Health is also another important factor (Karp 1989), which is further complicated because the health of a spouse, or of a significant other, may also come into play (Carpentieri and Elliott 2014).…”

Section: Theoretical Orientation: a Life Course Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Approaching Retirement After a Working Life in Poverty

et al. 2020

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This paper uses a life course perspective to explore and understand how an individual’s experiences over their lifetime contribute to the formation of a growing consciousness about their impending retirement. The fieldwork took place in 2016 and was part of a wider mixed methods study about retirement in the UK, which used data from the 1958 birth cohort study (also known as the National Child Development Study). The paper focuses on the qualitative dimension of the study and uses in-depth case studies of four people approaching 60 to consider, in particular, the effects of health, financial resources and employment history on their views on retiring, including the anticipated timing of their exit from the labour market. All four were purposively chosen because they had experienced low pay or poverty during their lifetime and were employed in relatively low paid jobs. State Pension Ages (SPAs) are on the rise in many countries, including the UK, and the authors maintain that it is important to study the working poor, who, even though are more likely to continue working until SPA, are more prone to suffer from poor health, and less likely to be able to put savings aside for their retirement.

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Understanding healthy ageing using a qualitative approach: the value of narratives and individual biographies

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Adapting to Aging: Older People Talk About Their Use of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation to Maximize Well-being in the Context of Physical Decline

Adapting to Aging: Older People Talk About Their Use of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation to Maximize Well-being in the Context of Physical Decline

Life-Course Influences on Extended Working: Experiences of Women in a UK Baby-Boom Birth Cohort

Approaching Retirement After a Working Life in Poverty

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