Strategies for Household Disbandment

“拆迁户”是指老年人在晚年搬迁到较小的住宅小区时，承担的处理个人财产的任务。解散活动同时是认知的、身体的和情感的，它们具有社会维度。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，包括独立和有效功能，自我管理，住房和搬迁，情绪，自我概念，家庭关系和护理。如果遣散对身体和情感的纯粹需求阻碍了搬迁的及时性，老年人可能会推迟或放弃搬到合适的住房的努力，在那里他们可以继续以最佳水平发挥作用。具体而言，这个为期一年的项目将(1)揭示人们用来构思、组织和完成家庭解散的策略；(2)阐明了设计一个更大的研究项目的主要考虑因素，该项目旨在研究财产在老年人搬迁决策中的作用。项目工作人员将对过去4- 8个月内搬到聚集社区或退休社区的40户老年人家庭进行半结构化访谈。对于每一个家庭，我们还将采访一位在解散活动中有重要参与的家庭成员。我们将招募不同背景的线人。与长者和家庭成员的面谈将指导举报人讨论搬迁的情况；战术：用于处置的策略、战术和技巧；过程的长度；家庭参与程度；有争议的问题;和其他人相比，老年人的代理权。使用定性数据解释和分析的既定程序，我们的研究结果将描述(a)人们对解散方式的描述；(b)意义主题如何进入叙事；(c)人们对自己努力的评价。该项目还将尝试为更大的研究解决关键的设计问题。该项目的研究结果将对老年人和家庭成员以及许多类别的服务提供者具有实际意义。

"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.