The Long Shadow of Youth: Girls' Transition From Full-Time Education and Later-Life Subjective Well-Being in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether the timing and nature of women's transitions out of full-time (FT) education are related to later life subjective well-being and the life course experiences that might explain any associations seen. METHOD: Data are from women in wave 3 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who have participated in the life history interview and were aged 50+ at the interview (n=3,889). Using multichannel sequence analysis, we identified six types of transition out of FT education (ages 14-26). Regression models were used to examine associations between transition types and life satisfaction, quality of life, and depressive symptoms at age 50+. RESULTS: Women who made early transitions to married parenthood and FT domestic labour had lower levels of wellbeing on all three later life well-being outcomes (p&0.01), compared to women who made later transitions to family life and remained employed. Women who remained single up to age 26 also had lower life satisfaction (p&0.05) and quality of life (p&0.01) in later life than their counterparts who married and had children. These associations were explained by the life course socioeconomic and relationship pathways. Advantaged childhood socioeconomic circumstances and higher educational qualifications set 'Later Marriage and Later employment' women apart onto advantaged trajectories and a better quality of life later (p&0.01). DISCUSSION: The timing and nature of exits from FT education played a pivotal role in setting people onto lifecourse trajectories that influence wellbeing in later life for this older generation of women

Living with other women’s lives: ‘research resonance’ in the context of life history interviewing

This article reflects on the ways researchers are affected by their engagement with the stories they encounter in research. It proposes the notion of ‘research resonance’ to capture the experience of living with research participants’ stories, and by extension, their lives. The article draws on data collected for the ‘Girlhood and Later Life’ project, which investigated youth experiences and transitions to adulthood of women born between 1939 and 1952 in Britain. Reflecting on examples from a music elicitation exercise and life history narratives, the researchers on this project explore and conceptualise their experience of living with ‘sociological memories’. Their accounts address how life history researchers may be challenged or affected on a personal level through their professional practice. The article concludes by outlining the key implications of ‘research resonance’ for the craft of analysing life-course interviews

Introducing ‘resonance’: revisioning the relationship between youth and later life in women born 1939–52

This article proposes ‘resonance’ as a fruitful way of conceptualising the relationship between youth and later life and reflecting on its significance: resonance is how a person’s ‘youth’ is lived with in the present of their later life. Resonance revisions youth, engaging with the complexity of its presence in the lifecourse. Relinquishing a preoccupation with continuity and linearity, youth seen from the vantage point of later life contributes fresh insights into what matters for people and how. This conceptualisation emerged from a qualitative study of women born 1939–52 which revealed that experiences attributed to the teens and early twenties have a presence in a person’s later life in ways unrecognised in established approaches, namely longitudinal life-course studies and socio-cultural approaches. These resonances are often historically inflected such that some cohorts may live with their youth in later life in ways that distinguish them from their predecessors and successors

Dark Solitons in High Velocity Waveguide Polariton Fluids

We study exciton-polariton nonlinear optical fluids in the high momentum waveguide regime for the first time. We demonstrate the formation of dark solitons with the expected dependence of width on fluid density for both main classes of soliton-forming fluid defects. The results are well described by numerical modeling of the fluid propagation. We deduce a continuous wave nonlinearity more than ten times that on picosecond time scales, arising due to interaction with the exciton reservoir

Clinical Academic Research Internships: what works for nurses and the wider nursing, midwifery and allied health professional workforce

Nurse-led research and innovation is key to improving health experiences and outcomes and reducing health inequalities. Clinical academic training programmes for nurses to develop research and innovation skills alongside continued development of their clinical practice are becoming increasingly established at national, regional and local levels. Though widely supported, geographical variation in the range and scope of opportunities available remains. It is imperative that clinical academic opportunities for nurses continue to grow to ensure equity of access and opportunity so that the potential of nurse-led clinical academic research to improve quality of care, health experience and health outcomes can be realised. In this paper we describe and report on clinical academic internship opportunities available to nurses to share internationally, a range of innovative programmes currently in operation across the UK. Examples of some of the tangible benefits for patients, professional development, clinical teams and NHS organisations resulting from these clinical academic internships are illustrated. Information from local evaluations of internship programmes were collated to report what has worked well alongside ‘real-world’ set-up and sustainability challenges faced in practice. Clinical academic internship schemes are often opportunistically developed, making use of hybrid models of delivery and funding responsive to local needs and available resources. Key enablers of successful clinical academic internship programmes for nurses were support from senior clinical leaders and established relationships with local universities and wider organisations committed to research capacity building

Sexuality, Intimacy and Older Care Home Residents.

YESOver half a million people aged 65+ live in care homes (ONS 2011). Yet, sex, sexuality and intimacy and old people remain overlooked in social policy and professional practice (Hafford-Letchfield 2008). We explore narratives from a feasibility study based in Northwest England that consulted on the significance of researching sexuality and intimacy. We draw on narratives generated with two focus groups of professional carers (n = 16) and interviews with three residents, (two male and one female) and four female spouses (n = 7). All three types of stakeholders expressed concern about privacy and environmental impediments to intimacy (e.g. shortage of double rooms). However, distinct concerns were expressed by each group. Residents’ expressed scepticism that the topic was ‘too personal’, that old people were post-sexual or that sex/intimacy were part of range of needs and could be eclipsed by those relating to grand-parenting, avoiding isolation and personalization of care. Spouses emphasized the importance of intimacy over sex/sexuality as an indicator of the depth and longevity of a relationship but were concerned about unmet needs and loss of influence over their partners’ care. Obliged to meet a complex of legal, professional, ethical and interpersonal obligations, care staff articulated a need for guidance to help them support residents and their significant others. We conclude with practical recommendations that address barriers to enabling intimacy