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The effects of objective and subjective conditions on the life satisfaction of urban and non urban elderly are examined in a sample consisting of 1405 randomly selected elderly Vermonters in a four-county area of Northwestern Vermont. Results confirm that there are few significant objective differences between urban and non urban elderly. However, the non urban feel subjectively that they are better off on most conditions. Perceived evaluations of status are found to be better predictors of life satisfaction than objective measures. Furthermore, most disadvantaged conditions' are better predictors of life satisfaction for urban residents than for non urban residents.

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Most research tends to focus on the husband's attitudes toward retirement while overlooking the wife's evaluation of this event. In this study interviews with wives whose husbands were retired or approaching retirement suggested that a variety of orientations toward their husbands' retirement was present. Some women expressed grave reservations; others looked forward to it; still others had no opinion. It is felt that an understanding of the wife's reaction to her husband's retirement can be useful in understanding the adjustments that both husband and wife may have to make in their relationship to each other.

In a survey of i ,400 older Americans over 65, two household structures, elders living with others and elders living alone, were compared with older married couples. Results indicated that elders living with others had a greater degree of incapacity and lower income than married couples, but on most indices there were few differences. Elders in three-generation families had somewhat lower general life satisfaction, but the greatest number of elderly people with low life satisfaction were widows who lived alone. Widows living alone were less likely than married couples to own their homes and more likely to perceive that their income was inadequate, that transportation needs were unmet and that no one would care for them in an emergency, all conditions strongly associated with low life satisfaction.