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    Loneliness, social support and lifestyles in gay and heterosexual women : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1990) Johnson, Janet
    Lifestyle, social support and loneliness in gay women have been poorly documented. Further to this no comparisons have been made with heterosexual women in these areas. The present investigation assessed lifestyle, social support and loneliness and involved two samples, 87 heterosexual women and 63 homosexual women. Of particular interest in the area of social support was support offered by family and friends, as perceived by the respondents. Lifestyle variables were studied to possibly offer an explanation if any differences were found between the two groups. Loneliness was assessed as a multidimensional construct involving four types of relational deficits. Finally variables predicting loneliness were explored. Results indicated that the gay women suffer relationship deficits in the areas of family and community. They also perceived less support from the family than the heterosexual women, and had less kin in their support network, relying on friends more in times of need. This may be because friends of the gay women, both heterosexual and homosexual, tended to react more positively than parents, to finding out about their lesbianism. The variables of perceived support were the main predictors of family and friends loneliness in heterosexual women. These and variables associated with lesbianism, such as feelings of isolation and who was first told, were found to be the best predictors of the different areas of loneliness in gay women. The results suggest that gay women have become alienated from their families and society in general.
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    Escape to the beach : pre-retirement in-migrants' narratives of change, place and identity : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Pennell, Stella Maria
    The pre-retirement cohort (45-65 years) that migrates within Aotearoa New Zealand remains largely ignored in social research. This cohort encompasses people experiencing an emergent mid-life life-stage characterized by increased fluidity between previously distinct phases such as work and retirement. Once relocated, in-migrants seek ways to become endogenous actors in their new locale and construct new identities. A change of habitus is required to successfully navigate the transition from city-dweller to ‘local’. One avenue to achieve this is to engage with local volunteer organisations for the development of attachment to place, identity and for the re-narration of life-meaning. This qualitative research took place in Mercury Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula, Aotearoa New Zealand, with pre-retirees who in-migrated from city locations and who sought volunteer roles in local community organisations. My initial exploration looked to understand how social capital is manifest for these individuals in their volunteer roles in their new location. Findings suggest the existence of a paradox within that development of social capital: participants’ narratives indicate that they unconsciously seek to reproduce the very conditions from which they sought to escape, as associated with urban stressors such as workplace stress, urban pressures, financial considerations, social isolation and the demands for ‘efficiency’ of new-capitalist workplaces. More particularly, the paradox plays out in the development of new forms of habitus by which participants might embed themselves within the community.