Considering the Relevance of Childhood Religious Experiences Through Centenarian Oral Histories.

The current study explored a sub-sample of 57 narrative focused on childhood religious experiences from the Oklahoma Oral History Project. Analyses identified three primary themes connected to childhood religiosity, including transmission, accessibility, and socializing. First, transmission of religiosity during childhood dependent upon a parent or grandparent. A second theme involved accessibility, which highlighted various advantages and disadvantages regarding child and family ability to attend religious services. Such opportunities and barriers were centered upon three subthemes involving rurality, transportation, and infrastructure. Finally, socializing represented a third theme. In particular, church attendance during childhood created unique opportunities for early-life socializing with family, friends, and neighbors. As a whole, key themes indicate that religiosity during childhood may be vital to the early formation of social opportunities and connections that may support positive and adaptive developmental processes in human longevity. Findings have implications relative to advancing conceptual understanding of the impact of childhood religious experience on developmental outcomes among long-lived adults.

The Lived Experiences of African American Centenarians: Narrative Exploration From a Life Course Theory Perspective.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine examples of inequality experienced by African American centenarians throughout the life course. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were derived from 111 oral history transcripts from the Oklahoma Oral History Project. A subsample of all centenarians who identified as African American (n = 12) was utilized. An interpretive phenomenological approach and thematic analysis were used to review and code each narrative. RESULTS: Findings revealed 2 themes: (a) historical time and place with subthemes on family lineage, segregation, discrimination, and racism, and societal changes; (b) resource buffers against inequality with subthemes on multigenerational transmission, support and cultural connectedness, religion and spirituality, and self-reliance. Several centenarians acknowledged having grandparents who were slaves and others reported hidden family lineage due to complicated mixed-race dynamics. Work histories were affected by the historical era, with limited "domestic" positions for women. Experiences with education varied, with one centenarian commenting on his legacy of teaching at historically Black schools whereas others expressed difficulty in keeping up with school and regret for not finishing. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: This is one of the first studies to explore life course experiences specific to African American centenarians. Centenarians in this study possessed survival skills and various support systems including community and religious/spiritual support, perhaps buffering against the impact of cumulative racial inequality.

Keeping the ball in the air: contact in long-distance friendships.

As people continue to be more mobile, maintenance behaviors for long-distance friendships will continue to be a part of the relocation experience. In this qualitative study, 25 women age 45 and over, who had relocated a number of times, were asked to talk about how their friendships had transitioned to being long-distance relationships and what current maintenance behaviors entailed. Communication was a major theme involving electronic mail (e-mail), Christmas cards, telephone calls, and visits. Results from the current study suggest that maintaining the perception of the existence of a well-connected social support system could be accomplished with a single, annual contact. Further, the long-distance friendship biographies explored in this study provided characteristics of friendship maintenance behavior that could be grouped into three main categories forming a proposed typology of long-distance friendship maintenance.