Exploring the association between quality of homecare services and older adults' well-being.

Homecare services play an important role in enabling older adults with chronic illness or functional impairment to continue living in their homes and communities. Previous research on homecare services has not fully explored the potential psychological benefits of homecare services. This study investigates the association between quality of homecare services and psychological well-being by analyzing two surveys.

The often overlooked issue of statistical power: this and other issues regarding assessing importance weighting in quality of life measures.

In the area of quality of life research, researchers may ask respondents to rate importance as well as satisfaction of various life domains (such as job and health) and use importance ratings as weights to calculate overall, or global, life satisfaction. The practice of giving more important domains more weight, known as importance weighting, has not been without controversy. Several previous studies assessed importance weighting using the analytical approach of moderated regression.

Income, age and financial satisfaction.

Although the effects of income and age on subjective well-being have been widely studied, research on the effects of income and age on financial satisfaction, a major life domain to which income has direct relevance, remains limited. Analyzing data from the General Social Surveys, this article empirically examined the effects of income and age on financial satisfaction. These findings suggest that the social-psychological mechanisms underlying the age differences in the effects of income on financial satisfaction might not reflect a clear-cut status attainment versus status maintenance framework.

Disability payments, drug use and representative payees: an analysis of the relationships.

Aims: This study attempted to determine: if US federal cash disability payments increase the use of cocaine or opiates among those requalifying for supplemental security income (SSI) disability benefits compared with those who lost benefits; if drug use peaks at the beginning of the month after the receipt of the disability cash disbursement; and if money management by representative payees of requalifying SSI recipients suppresses drug use.

Design: A multi-site, prospective, 2 year longitudinal design was used with follow-up interviews conducted every 6 months. Urine samples were collected at the final three follow-up interviews.

Trends in financial satisfaction: does poverty make a difference?

Gerontological studies on financial satisfaction have been limited by the dearth of longitudinal research and the lack of research that includes the concept of poverty. In order to bridge these gaps, this longitudinal study examines and compares the intracohort and intercohort effects on financial satisfaction trends by poverty status among Americans age 45 and above, using data from the General Social Surveys. The results suggest that for both the poor and the non-poor, changes in financial satisfaction trends are mostly due to strong negative intercohort effects, indicating that younger cohorts are less satisfied financially than the older ones.