Australian Literature in Social Gerontology: A Content Analysis of Trends Since 1980

Australian social gerontology entered a new stage of development in the 1980s with the establishment of a number of research projects and educational programmes. The aim of this paper is to make a systematic review of the recent research literature and identify research achievements and knowledge gaps. A total of 158 research articles published in overseas and Australian academic journals are reviewed in terms of source of publication, author institutional affiliation, content and theoretical orientation, and research approaches. The findings show a steady increase In the volume of published material but a number of theoretical and methodological issues need further analysis. Notable gaps are in the psychological aspects of ageing, research by allied health professionals, studying ageing from a political economy perspective, and multi‐disciplinary and multi‐method approaches.