International journal of aging & human development
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To explore the unique aspects of the elder self-neglect phenomenon and to achieve phenomenological understanding of self-neglect through the eyes of professional social workers. ⋯ Three major themes emerged from the participants: (1) "How can you live like that?" self-neglect as an unsolved riddle; (2) "It's very difficult for me, I go outside and immediately start thinking about myself": the personal burden; and (3) "I keep trying": seeking intervention strategies following the refusal to accept assistance. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS: Social workers' direct involvement with the self-neglecting elders poses a very significant ethical, personal, and professional challenge. In this context, there is a need to impart tools for "solving the riddle" to social workers through self-reflection, improvement of knowledge, theory, and empirical findings regarding the conceptualization and understanding of the self-neglect phenomenon. Moreover, it may be that adopting a clearer ethical "ideology," which is rooted in a discourse of human rights, could assist social workers to reconcile their tensions and difficulties in providing assistance to older, self-neglected persons.
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Int J Aging Hum Dev · Jan 2013
Job characteristics, core self-evaluations, and job satisfaction: what's age got to do with it?
There is a well-established relationship between age and job satisfaction. To date, there is little research about how many well-known predictors of job satisfaction, specifically job characteristics and core self-evaluations, may vary with age. ⋯ Findings suggest that the positive relationships between job satisfaction and skill variety, autonomy, and friendship weaken as employee age increases, while the positive relationships between job satisfaction and dealing with others, task identity, task significance, feedback, and core self-evaluations did not vary with age. The findings extend previous research by examining how the factors important for job satisfaction vary for employees of different ages.