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This study examined end-of-life planning and whether common characteristics predicted completion of these decisions. Participants in the Nebraska End-of-Life Survey were asked whether they had heard about or completed five plans: a health care power of attorney agreement, a living will, a last will and testament, funeral or burial preplanning, and organ and tissue donation. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors of these outcomes. Predictors of completing end-of-life plans, including funeral and burial preplanning, included older age, higher household income, and higher religiosity. This suggests that all of these decisions may be part of an integrated planning process at the end of life. Further, results from this study indicate that the role of religiosity, found in this study to predict both financial and health care planning, warrants further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Imagining what one will be like as an older adult can be a difficult task at mid life, let alone during young adulthood. Yet, pondering senescence has positive benefits for young adults with respect to their future physical, financial and social well being. This article describes an exercise used with more than 300 introductory-level gerontology students to encourage them to visualize what life will be like at 67. Student and instructor evaluations support the usefulness of this exercise in going beyond the textbook in discussing the challenges and benefits of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events of September 11, 2001, seemingly changed the way Americans viewed the world and their sense of vulnerability. What is not clear is the impact 9/11 had on different age groups shortly after the attacks. A quasi-experimental design was employed to study the effects of 9/11 on 298 older and younger adults. Drawing on the work of Leon Festinger, this article explores the role of cognitive dissonance in discussing the reactions of older and younger midwesterners to the events of September 11 as well as their perceptions of President George W. Bush. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]