Aging and the Life Course: An Introduction to Social Gerontology - Hardcover

Quadagno, Jill S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0073528161 ISBN 13: 9780073528168

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social, 2007

Synopsis

This groundbreaking text is the first to take a life course perspective, examining the relationship between the quality of one's life in old age and one’s experiences, earlier choices, opportunities, and constraints. The text gives students a broad background for understanding current policy debates through a distinctive chapter entitled "Old Age and the Welfare State" (Chapter 11) and through boxed essays in every chapter called "An Issue for Public Policy." Each chapter also includes a box called "In Their Own Words" that allows older people to describe their own experiences. In addition, coverage of race, class, gender, and culture is integrated throughout and featured in the "Diversity in the Aging Experience" sections.

About this title

From the Publisher

New chapter on "Living Arrangements" (Chap. 10) discusses variations in household structure, patterns of home ownership, and alternative living arrangements among the aged.
New "Aging Around the World" and "Diversity in the Aging Experience" box features strengthen this text's coverage of diversity and culture.
New pedagogy includes "Looking Ahead" preview questions, "Looking Back" summary questions, discussion questions at the ends of boxes, and "Thinking About Aging" critical thinking questions.
New "Exploring the Internet" sections at the end of each chapter direct students to relevant websites and ask them to answer a series of questions about the material they find online.
New Online Learning Center is a text-specific website that includes quizzes, web links, interactive exercises, URLs for Census 2000 updates, and additional resources.
Provides a contemporary approach to the study of aging, emphasizing the life course perspective (Note especially Chapter 8, "Adult Development and Life Course Transitions")
Gives students a broad background for understanding current policy debates through a distinctive chapter entitled "Old Age and the Welfare State" (Chapter 4) and in boxed essays found in every chapter titled "An Issue for Public Policy."
Distinctive chapter, "Caring for the Frail Elderly" (Chapter 13) examines family and institutional care options.
Boxed essays in each chapter entitled, "In Their Own Words," add human interest through vivid first-person accounts of various aspects of the aging experience.
Appendix on careers introduces students to the many varied career opportunities in social gerontology.

About the Author

Jill Quadagno is the Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar Chair in Social Gerontology at Florida State University. She earned her B.A from Pennsylvania State University, her M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Dr. Quadagno is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Section on Aging of the American Sociological Association, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. In 1994, she served as Senior Policy Advisor in the President's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. She is the author of numerous books on aging and social policy issues, and is presently serving as President of the American Sociological Society for 1997-1998.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0073528161
• ISBN 13: 9780073528168
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 521