This study draws on the life histories of heterosexual childless individuals who have never married, to explore the more subtle ways that age norms affect the subjective experience of singlehood. Specifically, it examines whether or not it is appropriate to speak of transitions in the experience of singlehood. The data clearly reveal the experience of a transition to singlehood. This transition is represented by a change in self-attributed status that occurs over time and is associated with a cultural timetable for marriage. It marks the experience of “becoming single” that occurs when an individual identifies more with singlehood than with marriage. Moreover, I explore the ways in which singlehood is a gendered experience. The results from this study affirm the applicability of life course theory to the lives of single persons and serve to broaden the definition of the concept “transition” to include those not obviously marked by normative events.

High divorce rates over the past 40 years have affected multiple generations and have long-term consequences for family relationships. This article applies a life course perspective as it explores the reverberation of relationship dissolution beyond the nuclear family. Qualitative data from a study involving 86 adults from 10 three-generation families illustrate the extensive reach of divorce across time and generations. An intensive analysis of two families reveals six key areas of negotiation following divorce: relationship dissolution itself; balancing work and family obligations; inlaw ties; parent-child ties; sibling ties; and intimate relationships. Multiple voices from three generations demonstrate the complexity of family relationships over time and the reverberation of individual life course transitions throughout family networks. Applying the concept of ambivalence highlights variations among social groups in the ongoing renegotiation of relationships and situations that follows the dissolution of long-term unions.

To understand the impact of ongoing reform of mental health and dementia care in Ontario, an examination of prevalence and health services utilization rates is needed. However, there exists a gap in current prevalence and health services research specific to dementia care in Ontario. The objective of this study was to address these concerns using linked administrative databases to determine the incremental use of health services by elderly Ontarians with dementia. Overall, study results demonstrated that individuals with dementia used services in a pattern similar to non-demented persons, albeit at a higher level. Exceptions were women's use of hospital and home care services, where the most elderly women received significantly fewer services. Thus, the study provided important insight regarding the relative levels of health services used by demented Ontarians. Research in this area will become increasingly important as the population ages and the settings integral to dementia care and management shift and evolve.

Few studies have integrated the concept of empowerment in their analysis of the interaction between formal services and informal caregivers. This study was conducted among 32 female informal caregivers living in a district served by a Montreal local community service centre (CLSC). It was designed to identify those aspects of formal services that either empowered caregivers or increased their powerlessness. Three major issues were identified: norms applicable to care giving; access to and control over resources and services; and power relationships with practitioners. Depending on their context and their perception of their role as a caregiver, caregivers reported that their recourse to services was either an empowering experience or one that increased their powerlessness.

We studied the relationship between caregivers' personal and social resources and facilitation of adherence by elderly care recipients to a prescribed health regimen. Adherence facilitation was measured among 240 caregivers on a 45-item instrument constructed for this research. The facilitation score was regressed on caregivers' role-specific self-concept (e.g., caregiver competence), informal social network support, utilization of the informal network as a lay referral system, formal network support, and reported health status of the care recipient. Background variables and health beliefs were considered as control variables. The resource variable best correlated with adherence facilitation was the personal resource of caregiver competence — perception of oneself as a good caregiver — followed by two social resources: support of the professional health care provider and the presence of a lay referral system (R2 = 0.37). Thus, although the care recipient is the beneficiary of adherence facilitation, the caregiving characteristics of the caregiver appear to affect its extent.

The research presented here argues for the development of an evaluation tool for elderly persons' adjustment to a retirement home that more specifically measures the psychospatial adjustment of home residents. Elderly persons who enter a retirement home must undergo a process that requires them to first disappropriate their old objects and then reappropriate the new ones that furnish their rooms. The order in which this process occurs is as follows: first, objects from their former residence; second, objects acquired after entry into a home; and, third, objects belonging to the retirement home. After the existence of this process had been verified in a sample of 130 residents aged 67 to 98 years, it was demonstrated that the evaluation tool used in this study significantly correlates with the scale developed by Castonguay and Ferron (1999) that measures elderly persons' adjustment to their environments (EAPAR), as well as with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), which evaluates levels of depression. In this study, this latter is an indicator of adjustment.

In response to Canada's pressing need for effective evidence-based policy, services, and practices specific to seniors, national leaders representing all concerned stakeholders designed and implemented a National Consensus Process to promote spread, exchange, choice, and uptake of research evidence on social and health issues associated with an aging population. This article presents the innovative methods and evaluation of this three-year project, illuminating for all constituencies the challenges and opportunities associated with promoting seniors' independence through collaborative knowledge transfer efforts. A total of 198 organizations and 65 individuals were surveyed at baseline, throughout the intervention, immediately post-intervention, and one year post-intervention. Knowledge from 783 studies was spread to 63,387 people, 90 per cent of whom reported knowledge exchange. Over 50 per cent of stakeholders reported using the research evidence, although processes for facilitating knowledge choice did not achieve consensus. Significant knowledge uptake occurred in two of the four research theme areas.