This proposed study of mobility loss, the leading cause of adult disability, responds to PA number AHPP96, NICHD Areas of High Program Relevance, and extends the applicants' research program to develop theories and data on sociocultural factors in disability experiences. The goal of the proposed study is to describe the personal meanings for adult-onset mobility loss and to examine how the discontinuity in physical function relates to the continuity of life themes. Continuity theories posit that hardships are buffered by the internal continuity offered by personal life themes.
The specific aims are to answer three empirical questions. What are the contents of personal meanings and experiences of mobility loss? What are the perceived disruptions and continuities of life themes? How does impairment trajectory and severity relate to meanings for the loss, well-being, and life themes? A further aim is to build on those data to refine continuity theories of psychosocial functioning. The 48 month anthropological study will examine 216 subjects representing 3 contrasts in functional trajectory (new losses, new losses added to lifelong impairment, and lifelong impairment), 2 levels of severity (moderate vs. severe), women and men equally. Interviews and standardized measures will be conducted with persons unpaired by polio, spinal injury, accidents and arthritis in Detroit and Washington, DC. Notably, the study combines the gerontological and biosocial rehabilitation perspectives and resources of the applicant organizations to address mid-life disability, and will assure sufficient subjects. The study will contribute significant data about how adults reconstruct a continuity of personal meaning after mobility loss and how that process is linked to well-being. These understandings will be valuable for rehabilitation and gerontology, and will assist clinicians, program planners, disabled persons and their families.
| Luborsky, Mark R; LeBlanc, Ian M (2003) Cross-cultural perspectives on the concept of retirement: an analytic redefinition. J Cross Cult Gerontol 18:251-71 |
