Older people are better at picking their battles, studies show
[12 May 2005 - EurekAlert - University of Michigan] Older people are less likely than younger people to react aggressively when problems come up in their relationships, University of Michigan research shows. "Older people appear better able than younger people to pick their battles," said Kira Birditt, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), the world's largest academic survey and research organization. "When they're upset with others, older people are more likely to do nothing or to wait and see if things improve. Younger people, on the other hand, are more likely to argue and yell." One of Birditt's studies, funded by the National Institutes on Aging, appears in the current (May 2005) issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. As part of a larger study of interpersonal problems in adulthood, Birditt and colleague Karen Fingerman of Purdue University interviewed 187 men and women ages 13 to 99. Participants described the last upsetting situation they had encountered with their closest, and with their most problematic social partners. Then the interviewers asked them, "Think back to a recent time when you were irritated, hurt, or annoyed with (that person). Can you tell me a little about what happened, why you were upset and what you did about this situation?" Younger people were more likely to shout, argue or walk away in response to problems while older people were more likely to do nothing. Older people reported less frequent contact with their social partners and less distress when confronted with interpersonal problems. Even after the researchers controlled for frequency of contact and distress levels, the age differences in reactions to conflict remained. ...

Planning for a Phased Retirement
[13 May 2005 - Third Age] If you had the opportunity to ease into retirement by working part-time while drawing part of your pension, would you do it? Current federal rules say workers who are covered by traditional pensions, or defined benefit plans, must retire completely from that company to collect benefits. But that may soon change. The Internal Revenue Service is proposing to allow phased retirement, a change that could ease the transition from employee to retiree for millions of workers and help alleviate the upcoming worker shortage. ...

Commission funded project generates valuable data on Europe's elderly
[2 May 2005 - CORDIS] Older people in the North of Europe are healthier and wealthier than their Southern European counterparts, but they still die younger. This is just one of the findings to emerge from the EU funded 'survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe' (SHARE) project. The survey gathered data on the quality of life of around 22,000 European citizens aged 50 and over in 11 countries, from Scandinavia to Central Europe and the Mediterranean. The primary objective of the project was to generate reliable data for researchers and policy makers working in the fields of public health, economics and social sciences. ...