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Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

BACKGROUND: This research report presents findings on ‘start in life’ from a qualitative study of 90-year-olds from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. The study aimed to contextualise the LBC1921 cohort in time and place, describe cohort members’ experiences of family and schooling and stimulate further...

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Autores principales: Lapsley, Hilary, Pattie, Alison, Starr, John M., Deary, Ian J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818499/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27036657
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-016-0246-x
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author Lapsley, Hilary
Pattie, Alison
Starr, John M.
Deary, Ian J.
author_facet Lapsley, Hilary
Pattie, Alison
Starr, John M.
Deary, Ian J.
author_sort Lapsley, Hilary
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This research report presents findings on ‘start in life’ from a qualitative study of 90-year-olds from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. The study aimed to contextualise the LBC1921 cohort in time and place, describe cohort members’ experiences of family and schooling and stimulate further inquiry into the relationships between ‘start in life’ and risk and resilience factors relating to longevity and healthy ageing. Scottish education and family life in the early 1930s are briefly described. METHODS: Life review questionnaire: A qualitative Life Review Questionnaire was developed, requiring free-text handwritten responses. Its ‘Start in Life’ section focused on schooling and family support. Sample: Wave 4 of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 involved testing 129 members near to their 90(th) birthday. They reside largely in Edinburgh and its environs. The Life Review Questionnaire was administered to 126 participants, 54 % women. Qualitative analysis: Thematic analysis was the qualitative technique used to categorise, code and extract meaning from questionnaire text. Narratives were extracted from the data to present illustrative stories. RESULTS: Narratives of start in life gave contextual description. Thematic analysis showed LBC1921 members enjoying their schooling, highlighting teachers, academic achievement, school activities and school friendships. Personal qualities, family circumstances and aspects of schooling sometimes hindered educational performance. Family life was recalled mostly with warmth and parents were often portrayed as valuing education and supporting learning and development. Family adversity from poverty, parental illness and parental death was often mitigated by support from parents (or the remaining parent). Overall, most cohort members believed that they had got off to a good ‘start in life’. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative investigation of ‘start in life’ adds context and richness to quantitative investigations of the sizeable LBC1921 cohort, stimulating fresh insights and hypotheses into the relationship between child risk and resilience factors that may influence ageing. It demonstrates the utility and wider application of the Life Review Questionnaire. Although the surviving cohort is not representative of their childhood peers, their words provide insight into the processes of weaving experience and memory into a rich texture of meanings that may help create wellbeing across a lifetime.
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spelling pubmed-48184992016-04-03 Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 Lapsley, Hilary Pattie, Alison Starr, John M. Deary, Ian J. BMC Geriatr Research Article BACKGROUND: This research report presents findings on ‘start in life’ from a qualitative study of 90-year-olds from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. The study aimed to contextualise the LBC1921 cohort in time and place, describe cohort members’ experiences of family and schooling and stimulate further inquiry into the relationships between ‘start in life’ and risk and resilience factors relating to longevity and healthy ageing. Scottish education and family life in the early 1930s are briefly described. METHODS: Life review questionnaire: A qualitative Life Review Questionnaire was developed, requiring free-text handwritten responses. Its ‘Start in Life’ section focused on schooling and family support. Sample: Wave 4 of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 involved testing 129 members near to their 90(th) birthday. They reside largely in Edinburgh and its environs. The Life Review Questionnaire was administered to 126 participants, 54 % women. Qualitative analysis: Thematic analysis was the qualitative technique used to categorise, code and extract meaning from questionnaire text. Narratives were extracted from the data to present illustrative stories. RESULTS: Narratives of start in life gave contextual description. Thematic analysis showed LBC1921 members enjoying their schooling, highlighting teachers, academic achievement, school activities and school friendships. Personal qualities, family circumstances and aspects of schooling sometimes hindered educational performance. Family life was recalled mostly with warmth and parents were often portrayed as valuing education and supporting learning and development. Family adversity from poverty, parental illness and parental death was often mitigated by support from parents (or the remaining parent). Overall, most cohort members believed that they had got off to a good ‘start in life’. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative investigation of ‘start in life’ adds context and richness to quantitative investigations of the sizeable LBC1921 cohort, stimulating fresh insights and hypotheses into the relationship between child risk and resilience factors that may influence ageing. It demonstrates the utility and wider application of the Life Review Questionnaire. Although the surviving cohort is not representative of their childhood peers, their words provide insight into the processes of weaving experience and memory into a rich texture of meanings that may help create wellbeing across a lifetime. BioMed Central 2016-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4818499/ /pubmed/27036657 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-016-0246-x Text en © Lapsley et al. 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lapsley, Hilary
Pattie, Alison
Starr, John M.
Deary, Ian J.
Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921
title Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921
title_full Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921
title_fullStr Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921
title_full_unstemmed Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921
title_short Life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921
title_sort life review in advanced age: qualitative research on the ‘start in life’ of 90-year-olds in the lothian birth cohort 1921
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818499/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27036657
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-016-0246-x
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