Strategies for Household Disbandment

“家庭解体”是指老年人在晚年搬迁到较小的住宅区时为处置个人财产而承担的任务。解散活动是一次认知，身体和情感，他们有一个社会层面。这是老年学研究的一个新课题，涉及老龄化研究和服务提供中的许多问题，包括独立和有效运作，自我管理，住房和搬迁，情感，自我概念，家庭关系和养老。如果解散的纯粹身体和情感需求阻碍了及时搬迁，老年人可能会推迟或放弃搬迁到合适住房的努力，在那里他们可以继续以最佳水平发挥作用。具体目标，这个为期一年的项目将（1）披露的战略，人们用来构思，组织，并完成家庭解散;（2）照亮的主要考虑因素，为以后的设计，更大的研究项目，研究的角色，财产搬迁决策的老年人。项目工作人员将对40户在过去4至8个月内搬到聚集或退休社区的老年人进行半结构化访谈。对于这些家庭中的每一个，我们还将访问一个家庭成员谁有重大参与解散活动。我们会从不同的背景中招募线人。与长者和家庭成员的访谈将引导受访者讨论搬迁的情况;用于处置的战略，战术和技术;过程的长度;家庭参与的程度;有争议的问题;以及长者与其他人相比的代理。使用既定的程序解释和分析的定性数据，我们的研究结果将描述（a）人们的帐户的解散是如何完成的;（B）如何意义的主题进入叙事;（c）人们的评价，他们的努力。该项目还将试图解决更大规模研究的关键设计问题。这项研究的结果对长者和家庭成员以及许多类别的服务提供者都有实际意义。

"Household disbandment" refers to tasks that elders undertake for the disposition of personal possessions when they relocate to smaller residential quarters in later life. Disbandment activities are at once cognitive, physical, and emotional, and they have a social dimension. This is a novel topic for gerontological research that bears on numerous issues in aging research and service provision, including independence and effective functioning, self-management, housing and relocation, emotions, self-concept, and family relationships and caregiving. If the sheer physical and emotional demands of disbandment are an obstacle to the timeliness of moves, elders may delay or abandon efforts to move to suitable housing where they can continue to function at optimal levels. For specific aims, this one-year project will (1) disclose the strategies that people use to conceive, organize, and accomplish household disbandment; and (2) illuminate major considerations for the design of a later, larger research project to study the role of possessions in relocation decision making by older people. Project staff will conduct semistructured interviews with 40 households of older persons who have moved to congregate or retirement community settings within the last 4- 8 months. For each of these households, we will also interview one family member who had significant participation in disbandment activities. We will recruit informants from diverse backgrounds. Interviews with elders and family members will guide informants to discuss the circumstances of relocation; the strategies, tactics, and techniques that were used for disposition; the length of the process; extent of family involvement; contested issues; and the agency of the elder compared to others. Using established procedures for interpretation and analysis of qualitative data, our findings will describe (a) people's accounts about the ways that disbandment is accomplished; (b) how themes of meaning enter the narratives; and (c) people's evaluation of their efforts. The project will also attempt to resolve key design issues for a larger study. Findings from this project will be of practical interest to elders and family members and to many categories of service providers.