Downsizing Possessions for Residential Moves in Later Life

描述（由申请人提供）：这个项目的目标是调查财产管理、处置和处置，以适应年龄的脆弱性，当人们在晚年搬到更小的住所时。这些任务的完成可以使老年人自由地继续独立生活，并在更合适的住房中生活。在r03类型的试点研究中获得了对主题的描述性设施和明确的研究程序后，下一个冒险是对老年人为帮助缩小家庭规模而采用的经验、策略和自我表现进行定性访谈研究。对于其整体理论框架，该研究将采用Baltes选择性优化补偿模型的特定领域应用，将缩小规模作为人类发展的一个问题，在能力下降和资源减少的情况下唤起代理的行使。具体目标是：(1)描述那些完成搬家的人所感知的家庭缩小的策略和情绪；(2)通过检查移动环境作为财产去积累的实际背景来确认这些事件的发展特征；(3)确定人们在有限的时间和知识约束下用来解散的启发式-心理捷径；(4)描述自我表征并探索其作为实现剥夺的资源的作用；(5)在进行、组织和排序占有管理的过程中，在一组案例中描述正在进行的缩小规模的特征。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to investigate possession management, disposition, and disposal as an adaptation to the vulnerabilities of age when people move to smaller quarters in later life. The accomplishment of these tasks can free elders to continue to live independently and in more suitable housing. Having gained a descriptive facility with the topic and clarified research procedure during a R03-type pilot study, the next venture is a qualitative interview study of the experience, strategies, and self-representations that older people employ to assist the downsizing of the household. For its overall theoretical framework, the research will undertake a domain-specific application of the Baltes model of selective optimization with compensation, framing the downsizing as a problem of human development that evokes the exercise of agency amid declining capacities and reduced resources. Specific aims are to: (1) Describe the strategies and emotions of household downsizing as perceived by those who accomplish a move; (2) Confirm the developmental character of such episodes by examining move circumstances as practical contexts for the de-accumulation of possessions; (3) Identify the heuristics- mental shortcuts-that people use to disband under constraints of limited time and knowledge; (4) Describe self-representations and explore their role as resources for the accomplishment of dispossession; and (5) Characterize downsizing in process among a subset of cases as they undertake, organize, and sequence possession management. Investigators with expertise in the study of life reorganization will conduct a two-site study in areas around Lawrence, Kansas, and Detroit, Michigan. There will be a unitary design for all data collection, management, and analysis. The units of analysis will be 150 households that will have downsized for a residential move. Project recruitment will capture a range of naturally occurring types. Staff will conduct semi-structured interviews within 100 households of older persons (age 65 and older) who have moved to smaller quarters in the last four to eight months. In addition, there will be interviews in another 50 households twice before and once after the move as people actually confront the tasks at hand. The analysis of informants' accounts will clarify how individuals motivate, execute, and evaluate these transitions. This project, which directly addresses needs voiced by housing specialists and clinicians, will advance a more inclusive research program on possession management and divestiture as adaptive for incipient or anticipated limitations. The project will generate practical information for the public and for health and social service professionals that can be applied to catalyze disbandment and facilitate residential relocation as a means to better self care. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project illuminates the various practices that older adults use to downsize their households for a residential move, a process that allows them to relocate to housing and living arrangements where they can live independently, better manage health limitations, and maintain vitality. Findings of this study will be of widespread interest and assistance to the general public of aged and aging adults and to geriatric care managers, health personnel, social service providers, housing specialists, and attorneys.