The Cultural Context of Aging - Worldwide Perspectives, 3rd Edition (Paperback, 3rd Revised edition)

The new edition of Sokolovsky's unique text explores a wide variety of cultural issues worldwide that impact aging issues, from perception and valuation of the elderly to homelessness, caregiving, assisted suicide, psychological support, and responses to those with dementia. This third edition includes twenty-five new chapters as well as special student resources, data from the most recent studies, a guide to Internet sites, and a bibliography of related readings. Especially useful for students across majors from anthropology and psychology to social work, nursing, and medicine, the new edition fully updates and expands on the award-winning second edition, about which the journal Contemporary Gerontology wrote: "I marvel at the extent to which Sokolovsky has made The Cultural Context of Aging user friendly." The authors come from the fields of anthropology, sociology, gerontology, social work, psychology, psychiatry, and nursing. Through explorations of the experiences of real people, the contributors illuminate how elders actually live in such places as U.S. urban ethnic enclaves, rural Kenya, a South Seas island, urban China, or a New York City women's shelter. Dealing directly with key practical issues relevant to those seeking to pursue a career in the aging field, this volume covers: policy implications of demographic aging; culture and successful aging; culture and caregiving; gender and aging; grandparenthood and the crisis in urban families; informal social support; homelessness and aging; nursing homes and pet therapy; assisted suicide and "death hastening behavior"; the aging woman and widowhood; rural aging; self-help groups; and the cultural response to Alzheimer's disease.This essential text allows students to understand fully how culture can dictate what may appear to be "natural" responses to elders and aging.