Evaluation Research and Social Gerontology

Abstract

The development of the sociology of aging and, more particularly, social gerontology has been strongly influenced by the demographic imperative of a growing older population, which, in turn, has led to a proliferation of programs and policies focusing on the elderly and their well-being. As a consequence, one would expect that evaluation research would play a prominent role in the creation of knowledge in these fields. This article presents an assessment of the amount and type of evaluation research that has been published over the past 9 years in seven mainline research journals concerned with social gerontology. The assessment indicates that, contrary to what would be expected, evaluation research has been incorporated into the general literature of social gerontology to a limited degree. As in many other social science fields, evaluation research has been and continues to be treated separately from basic research in social gerontology and the sociology of aging -a circumstance that may not optimize accumulation of knowledge.