Dear Readers,
Welcome to the last issue of Volume 65 of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work. It features five articles and two media reviews. Topics focus on race-based disparities in precarious employment, the connection between social networks and COVID-19 related anxiety, imperatives for gerontological social work, depression-related coping strategies in the context of the pandemic, and older grandparents’ satisfaction with faith-based support while raising adolescent grandchildren.
The issue opens with Ferrer and colleagues’ narrative photovoice project that examines racial disparities in precarious employment across the life course with a focus on older immigrants in Canada; findings indicate immigrants experience racism, exclusion, structural barriers, role overload, but also hopefulness for the future. Next, Steward et al. address the Grand Challenge to eradicate social isolation and present findings from a survey study of the association between social network and COVID-19 anxiety. They note that a larger social network is associated with less fearfulness, but regardless of social network size, women and persons of color tend to experience more COVID-19 related fear. Article three, by Azulai and colleagues, reports qualitative content analysis results from the World Café at the 2018 Gerontology Symposium in Alberta, Canada, which aimed to gain insights from social work practitioners, researchers, and educators about the province’s needs for gerontological social work. Results identified numerous themes including imperatives related to social work education, integrated healthcare, aging policy, ageism, and advocacy. Article four, by Wang, presents findings from a mixed-methods cross-sectional telephone survey that examined depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older people in the context of COVID-19 and determined that naturally occurring coping strategies, such as being physically or socially active, were associated with fewer symptoms of depression. In article five, Peterson presents qualitative findings related to the lived experiences of older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren regarding their satisfaction with social support received from their faith community. The issue closes with two media reviews. The first, by Samanta, critiques Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, which argues that the persisting effects of earlier emotional and psychological experiences have been overlooked by the life course perspective paradigm. The second, by Lee, reviews Eyetsemitan’s book Death, dying, and bereavement around the world: Theories, varied views and customs and concludes the text would be beneficial to both undergraduate and graduate students toward understanding the concepts of death, dying, and bereavement across cultures.
I hope you enjoy reading the informative articles in this issue! Watch for a special issue on senior housing coming up in volume 66.