The concepts of role conflict and role overload have been used, o k interchangeably, to interpret sources of gender differences in role-related mental health among men and women who combine the roles of spouse, parent, and worker. Howwer, these types of chronic role s k i n s actually represent two distinct concepts. Definitions of the concepts suggest different contextual sources for thesc role difficulties as well as different mental health consequences of experiencing them. This paper analyzes some potential sources of feelings of role conflict and role overload, and estimates their effects in undermining psychological well-being among a sample of women who combine work and family roles. Results indicate that (a) different contextual factors influence individuals' feelings of role conflict and role overload, and (b) feelings of role conflict significantly undermine psychological well-being, while feelings of role overload do not.

This research report compares characteristics of older homeless adults (age 55 and older) with younger homeless and examines gender differences within each age group. Data are drawn from intake interviews of 3,132 clients presenting at a local homeless center during a 3-year period. The authors find that older and younger clients differ significantly on many important characteristics, such as access to income, the duration of the current homeless episode, patterns of alcohol and substance abuse, and a history of having been in prison. There are also significant gender differences within age groups. The data suggest that pathways to homelessness among older women may be more crisis driven than those of men, whereas older men are more vulnerable to being chronically homeless than are older women. The findings highlight the necessity of considering age differences as well as gender differences among the homeless population in designing programs to reintegrate clients into stable living situations.

After a review of current conceptual models used in nutrition studies, we develop and test a ‘Dietary Change Model’ based on a sample of older rural adults. Predictor variables include socio-demographic, social network, and nutritional risk/support constructs; mediating variables include number of dietary changes attempted and whether the changes are successfully made; and criterion variables focus on psychosocial outcomes. The model is tested on a sample of 298 randomly selected respondents aged 60 years or more residing in five rural communities in Oregon. We find that those most likely to make dietary changes are women, married, and living in smaller households. The social network factors of density, range, and frequency of interaction negatively impact healthy dietary change. Among the most important nutritional support factors to have positive effects on dietary change are having a physician recommend changes in diet, and participating in a community food programme (women only). Successfully changing diet most clearly related to life satisfaction; results of other criterion variables were often complicated by marked gender differences.

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This paper reports on a survey conducted among elderly Chinese in Taiwan and Americans in eastern Oregon. The focus is on health status and selected social network characteristics (such as range, density, and percentage of relatives) as they relate to life satisfaction. In addition to examining differences among these and other variables in the two national samples, two hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis. The first hypothesis relates higher values of range and density to greater life satisfaction. The second is a test of the stress-buffering hypothesis. We then examine the data controlling for gender and conclude with a discussion and interpretation of both the national and gender differences yielded by this analysis.