ABSTRACT
In many of the available social and historical materials, there is general agreement that black elders have traditionally been treated with great respect in their families and other community organizations. This chapter focuses on stress and coping behavior among older blacks under conditions of involuntary residential relocation. The significance of the families, friendship networks, and churches that stand between the individual and society, to facilitate his or her release from hostile and socially oppressive others, is well documented. Positive adjustment might have been facilitated and/or distress alleviated through pre-retirement counseling aimed at assisting this man to prepare for the loss of his occupational role. Stressors are factors or forces that make demands upon the individual, in response to which various kinds of adaptive or coping behaviors occur. Forced residential migration or relocation, and related factors are selected for major attention. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
