From the Editor

Social support is accepted as a significant predictor of mortality and morbidity among older adults. The definitions of social support vary, ranging from ones that emphasize communication—verbal and nonverbal (Albrecht & Adelman, 1987)—to ones that identify potential members of the support network such as neighbors, friends, and family members (National Cancer Institute, n.d.). A widely accepted definition of social support emphasizes the intersection of communication and relationships that lead to a specific outcome—“improves coping, esteem, belonging, and competence” (Gottlieb, 2000, p. 28). Two of our featured articles speak to the importance of social supports for aging women with attention to the role of relationships. In the first article by Buttler, “Older Lesbians Receiving Home Care: Formal and Informal Dimensions of Caregiving,” the author discusses the vulnerability of unpartnered women who experience a level of isolation. The second article, “A Phenomenological Study of Romantic Love for Women in Late Life,” by Moore and Sailor, seems to suggest that romantic love in late life can be an antidote to the physical and emotional loneliness some older women experience.

Some older women may not view romantic love as an option for themselves, due in part to one of the myths of aging that promulgates the idea of older women as asexual. However, in the article “Unscripted: Exploring Representations of Older Unpartnered Women’s Sexuality” by Montemurro and Chewning, the authors’ case study of one media portrayal of women’s sexuality in the television program Hot in Cleveland debunks the myth of sexual decline among aging women.

If we subscribe to the notion that unpartnered women are more vulnerable to feelings of loneliness, experience isolation from social support networks, and experience romantic relationships in later life as an antidote to loneliness, it is essential to understand other factors that may influence how older women perceive their bodies. Two featured articles speak to women’s concerns about their body and weight—“Psychological Predictors of Eating Pathology in Older Adult Women” (by Midlarsky, Marotta, Pirutinsky, Morin & McGowan) and “I Am a Fat Baby, Who Moved to a Fat Child, Who Moved to a Fat Teenager, Who Moved to a Fat Adult”: Women’s Reflections of a Lifetime of Body and Weight Concerns” (by Pila, Solomon-Krakus, Egelton, & Sabiston). These concerns about body weight transcend developmental stage, appearing to persist across the life span (see Pila et al.), and related symptomatology—i.e., eating pathology—among older women parallels the presentation of younger or middle-aged women (see Midlarsky et al.).

Social support among older women is not merely transactional but dimensional. It intersects with physical and psychological health apparent in medical and health-care situations. It intersects with sexuality and across developmental trajectories. Finally, a word about the diversity of articles in this issue. The pieces feature a range of approaches to intellectual exploration as represented by the variety of disciplines represented—script analysis, qualitative inquiry through the use of interviews and phenomenological approaches such as Moustakas’s qualitative Transcendental Phenomenological Method, and survey research. I appreciate the work that the authors have invested in exploring these topics from a diversity of perspectives. These contributions are of great importance as our society continues to have gendered conversations.