Using the stress and coping model, this article explores how older adults prepared for and coped with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Interviews with a sample of 122 displaced adults, 60 years of age or older, provided insights regarding the daily hassles they faced that included securing basic resources, facing communication difficulties, and finding transportation. Positive thinking, modified thinking, staying busy, and spirituality were categories that emerged from the qualitative analysis of 119 participants and explained coping by displaced older adults. Our findings reflect what and how older adults coped with a disaster and have implications for disaster preparedness.

In 2005, the National Science Foundation funded a number of projects to study the impact of Hurricane Katrina. The current article provides an overview of several research approaches used to conduct post-Katrina research. Each method had some advantages and disadvantages. The post-disaster context meant that experience from traditional survey methods often did not apply. Comparisons of advantages and disadvantages associated with each sampling method serve to

Guided by an ecological perspective, the authors examined event, individual, structural/cultural, and family/community factors that shaped the psychological well-being of older adults displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. The authors first established the negative effects of displacement on psychological well-being by comparing displaced older adults with permanent Baton Rouge residents. Displaced older persons' psychological wellbeing was positively related to their age and physical health. Older displaced women coped with displacement better than men. Avoidant coping was negatively related to the older adults' well-being, whereas spiritual coping showed no effect. The functioning of older persons' family was positively related to their psychological well-being, whereas dependence on people outside immediate family showed a negative relationship. Income, education, and race were largely unrelated to psychological well-being. Findings provide implications for future studies regarding the relationship between disaster and psychological well-being and provide practitioners with suggestions for work with older adults displaced by disasters.

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We used community-based participatory research with four tiers of governance and grounded theory methods to examine the lives of Alaska Native grandparents rearing grandchildren in a rural community. We explored the reasons Native grandparents reared or are rearing their grandchildren, challenges rearing grandchildren, and the joys of grandparenthood. We used their words to broaden the grandparenting research by focusing solely on Native People living in a rural, arctic climate. Culture, values, and traditions explain the unique reasons grandparents cared for their grandchildren; values and common concerns of all grandparents describe the challenges of grandparenthood; pride and joy, the value of love, and traditional ways of living made clear the joys of Alaska Native grandparents rearing their grandchildren. After the discussion, we offer considerations for future research.