Follow the small cedar tree as he pursues his dream of becoming a Christmas tree. Watch as the little tree encounters a little girl whose admiration gives him his dream and a name of his own. Chester will not give up his dream although he will endure loneliness, ridicule, fears, and physical stress. Enjoy with Chester the results of all his efforts as he becomes a cedar Christmas tree.

This book is about the subjective and objective outcomes of the work of volunteer advocates in nursing facilities. The majority of the volunteers were older, and they served older persons through their work in an ombudsman program. The extent of involvement of older persons in volunteering suggests its importance to them, and it increasingly sustains human service programs for both the young and old.

Despite an increased emphasis on independent and assisted living for older persons, the need for oversight of care, welfare, and rights of the aged in nursing facilities remains. Indeed, in recognition of the need to provide advocacy services for vulnerable elderly, the Older Americans Act was amended in 1978 to require states to establish nursing home ombudsman/advocacy programs.

Ombudsman programs are based on the assumption that community involvement through volunteers will have a watchdog effect on behalf of residents and increase accountability among staff and administrators of nursing homes. The present study reveals volunteers' experiences in ombudsman programs. It provides insight into volunteers' thoughts about their work and their capabilities prior to their involvement as well as independent measures of the work of volunteers.

This work reviews the current thinking on guardianship of older persons, how the wards and the guardians are affected, and the process by which a person becomes a ward. The book, based on court records and a guardian questionnaire, considers the impact of current legislation on older wards. Recommendations for changes in the guardianship system are made in the final chapter, followed by a summary and conclusion section.

Recent social trends, including the increased employment of women, the dramatic growth in single-parent households, heightened attention to the aging of the population and to older families, and changing attitudes toward gender roles, guide the focus of this study that considers personal characteristics and family relationships and how they are linked with well-being over the life course. Pat Keith and Robert Schafer discuss how these trends have profoundly affected work/family relationships and how the far-reaching social, demographic, and economic implications of these changes inform some of the vital concerns of particular groups including one and two-job families, single-parent women and their married counterparts, older and younger couples, and modern and traditional spouses. Throughout, the focus is on variation in well-being--self-concept, role strain, and mental health--over the adult life course and the factors that may foster it at various life stages and in different family situations. The study offers observations on persons in different circumstances across the life course that are not often included in the same research but that have produced and will continue to produce lasting changes in the structure of American society.

Following two early chapters that set forth the study's guiding concepts, goals, and methodology, Chapters Three through Five assess work and well-being in one- and two-job families and equity in the marriage relationship and examine gender roles in the family, focusing on older families in particular. Typologies of marriages and the self-concept in an intimate relationship are investigated in the next two chapters. The final chapters study gender-role attitudes, characteristics of employment, and well-being of single and married employed mothers; food behavior and diet over the life stages; and families over the life stages. Scholars, students, and researchers in sociology of the family, sex roles, and aging, as well as demographers interested in the consequences of the marital status, will find the insights of this important new study timely and valuable to their work.

This pioneering study examines the resources and well-being of older widowed, divorced or separated, and never-married men and women over time. The first comprehensive, longitudinal study of its kind ever published, "The Unmarried in Later Life" considers the effects of changes in health, finances, work, social networks, vulnerability, and psychological well-being and compares adaptations to these transitions for unmarried men and women. Because it focuses attention on one of the fastest growing--yet often neglected--segments of the population, this volume is an ideal supplemental text for courses in sociology, gerontology, family studies, and the psychology of aging.

Several features make "The Unmarried in Later Life" a unique contribution to the social sciences literature: The author considers unmarried categories (widowed, never-married, etc.)_ separately, permitting more extended comparisons between groups; The study is based upon a nationally representative sample and contains data on more unmarried persons than are usually available for study; The use of longitudinal data facilitates the observation of the unmarried over a longer period of time than is often possible; The author offers a detailed evaluation of common assumptions about living alone, challenging widely held negative stereotypes of the unmarried. What emerges is a clear view of the changes in social relationships and their patterns by marital status and gender over the course of a decade. Researchers and practitioners will find here much new information about the social status of the aged unmarried.