Research into the older adult sibling relationship has only recently recognized and attempted to account for differential feelings of closeness between siblings throughout their lives. Sixty-one participants, aged fifty-four and older with at least two siblings, were interviewed concerning the degree of closeness they felt towards their siblings. Participants in this investigation were able to differentiate levels of closeness felt toward their siblings and account for these differences. Family systems theory serves as a guide for these accounts.

Research on compliance-gaining strategies has focused more on communication sources than on receivers' willingness to comply with messages. In this study, targets' satisfaction with and willingness to comply with 12 strategy types, under conditions varying in level of intimacy, were investigated. Results indicate that strategies employing negative sanctions were least likely to produce willingness to comply and were also the least preferred by receivers. Moreover, these strategies also produced the least receiver satisfaction. A significant relationship was found between communication satisfaction and receivers' willingness to comply. Perceptions of relational distance between source and receiver did not effect satisfaction with or willingness to comply with messages. Implications for future research are suggested.

This paper addresses how older rural residents view the relationship between God and both health and illness. We employed semi-structured interviews and qualitative analytical strategies with 15 African Americans residing in predominantly African American communities and 13 Whites living in nearby predominantly White communities, in order to identify similarities and differences in views about a divine other's roles in health and illness. African Americans were more likely than Whites to describe their religious lives in personal terms, in ways suggesting there is a set of religious truths that do not require further investigation or analysis, and in a manner indicating that religious belief permeated their lives. They were also more likely to describe specific role expectations for God in health and illness. The results point to the substantial cultural diversity that exists in small rural areas, and to the need for health care workers to be sensitive to the health-related religious beliefs of patients.

This article uses long-term care data from one state (Virginia) to examine four hypotheses: (a) Rural counties are more likely than urban counties to have no nursing facility, (b) counties without a nursing facility will have lower nursing home utilization rates than counties having a nursing facility, (c) individuals admitted to nursing facilities who originate in counties with no facility will tend to experience moves of greater distance than their counterparts originating in counties having a facility, and (d) those admitted to nursing facilities originating in counties with no facility will tend to move to more urban settings. These hypotheses were supported by the analysis. The findings suggest that access to nursing home care may be more limited for individuals who live in counties without nursing facilities. Long-term care policy makers should give careful consideration to access in their methods for determining need for nursing home care and long-term care services in rural areas.

Objective. To examine recent admissions of older adults to intermediate care facilities in order to identify the factors associated with whether the individual originated in another county, a non-adjacent county, and another state.Methods. Employing a conceptual framework based upon migration theory and the long-term care decision process and a data set derived from multiple sources, logistic regression was used to examine whether characteristics of the county of residence prior to admission, the admission facility, and the individual are significant net predictors of the three types of mobility. Separate analyses were conducted for married and unmarried individuals.Results. The analytical models tended to have relatively good fit but only moderate predictive accuracy. In general, persons on Medicaid payment status were more likely to move to another county and to a non-adjacent county, whereas Medicaid payment was associated with a lower likelihood of migrating to Virginia from another state. Individuals originating in counties with higher bed rates had lower rates of migration to another county and non-adjacent county, whereas those from counties with higher occupancy rates were more likely to leave their county of origin. Conclusion.Examination of factors associated with the distance and patterns of nursing home mobility improves our understanding of the nursing home selection process and helps to illuminate the impact of public policy, market forces, and nursing home staff on who goes where to be admitted to a nursing home.