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The growing proportion of older people, especially the very old, is often thought of in negative terms such as the need for more health care. But the implications are wider and affect the future of family care as well as issues of intergenerational relations, employment, living arrangements and attitudes. This paper looks at the social implications of an ageing population on people and on services.
This article re-examines the meaning of the concept of respect within the context of a fast modernizing Asian multicultural society-Singapore. Two key findings emerge. First, the meaning of respect both from the perspective of the aged and the middle-aged generation has shifted from obedience to courteous behavior. Second, in the majority of focus groups members concurred that the degree of respect accorded to elders has in general decreased. The focus group methodology was used in this research. Bearing in mind the limited sample size (88 participants) these findings alert us to the need for social scientists to monitor perceptual shifts in meaning of concepts critical in the sphere of interpersonal relationships. The findings throw light on the subjective views of intergenerational relations within the family as well as the community. As such, they would be valuable to counselors, social workers, and family therapists.
This analysis examines the association between affectional solidarity in older parent-child relationships, and the parents' length of survival over a 14-year interval. It is hypothesized that close intergenerational relations have the capacity to reduce pathogenic stress among elderly parents, thereby enhancing their ability to survive. Direct and buffering effects of affectional solidarity, as expressed by 439 elderly parents, are tested using data from the U.S.C. Longitudinal Study of Generations collected between 1971 and 1985. Buffering effects are examined in the context of social decline and social loss experienced by the older parent. Hazard regression models indicate that greater intergenerational affect increases survival time among parents who experienced a loss in their social network, particularly among those who were widowed less than five years. Neither a direct effect of affection nor a buffering effect in the presence of social decline were found. It is concluded that the mortal health risks associated with the stress of being widowed can be partially offset by affectionate relations with adult children.
To analyse the influence of the sex of the transmitting grandparents on the occurrence of the congenital form of myotonic dystrophy (CDM), we have studied complete three generation pedigrees of 49 CDM cases, analysing: (1) the sex distribution in the grandparents' generation, and (2) the intergenerational amplification of the CTG repeat, measured in its absolute and relative values, between grandparents and the mothers of CDM patients and between the latter and their CDM children. The mean relative intergenerational increase in the 32 grandparent-mother pairs was significantly greater than in the 56 mother-CDM pairs (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.001). The mean expansion of the grandfathers (103 CTG repeats) was also significantly different from that seen in the grandmothers' group (154 CTG repeats) (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.01). This excess of non-manifesting males between the CDM grandparents' generation with a smaller CTG length than the grandmothers could suggest that the premutation has to be transmitted by a male to reach the degree of instability responsible for subsequent intergenerational CTG expansions without size constraints characteristic of the CDM range.
The contribution of major gene and multifactorial effects on variation of plasma apolipoproteins A1 and B has been tested in a large sample of population-based Israeli pedigrees. Our most parsimonious and best fitting model for both apolipoproteins is consistent with Mendelian transmissibility, with significant contribution of major genes (with 2 alleles recessive and dominant within each locus) and polygenes, but neglects effects of common sib environment as well as related intergeneration differences in polygenic effects. Total genetic effects explain 71 and 58% of phenotypic variance of APO-A1 and APO-B levels. The major genes account for about 44 and 32% of the variance in APO-A1 and APO-B, respectively, and the frequency of the recessive alleles determining the high level of apolipoproteins under the study in the Israeli population is in the vicinity of 40% at each locus.
In the spring of 2002, the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission into the Demographic Change finished its work and published its final report. The commission has been working for more than 10 years to analyze the challenges posed to the individual and society by the aging German society in a mid- and long-term perspective (up to 2050). The respective policy recommendations refer to the following issues: housing and living environments, intergenerational relations, family relations and other social networks, competence and productivity in old age, income security, demographic change and its effects on economic trends and the labor market, health, health care, long-term care and social services, migration and integration and the implications of the increasing cultural diversity in society and among the elderly.
Aging is no longer an issue of concern only to industrialized countries. Recent estimates project that by the year 2000 there will be 590 million people aged 60 or older worldwide. Of these 590 million approximately 61% will be living in lesser developed countries. Thus, these countries will shortly face critical decisions concerning the impact of these aging populations on state plans for economic development. China, the country with the largest anticipated number of elderly in the world, provides an instructive case of how one developing country is attempting to balance the needs of the elderly with those of the nation as a whole. In particular the rapid aging of the Chinese population has prompted official concern about the financial implications of providing health care to increasing numbers of disabled or frail elderly. This paper reports the efforts of one study to determine the extent of disability and frailty among the urban elderly and the strategies they and their family members have developed to cope with it. The research was conducted between June 1987 and January 1988 in two neighborhoods of Canton, the capital of Guangdong Province. Two hundred households, each containing at least one member 70 years of age or older, were randomly selected from household registration lists. In each household a 1-2 hr interview was conducted with the elder (or, in the case of those too disabled to participate, a proxy) on the following topics: personal background, proximity and contact with kin, household composition and organization, health and functionality, use of medical services, work history, income sources, daily activities, and attitudes regarding intergenerational relations. The paper is divided into five parts addressing the following topics: (1) China and research on aging, (2) comparative data--problematic aspects, (3) methodological issues to consider when investigating disability, (4) the findings of the study, and (5) the significance of ideological, environmental, and political factors in mediating the experience of age-associated disability in China.
Despite the growing research on the living arrangements of elderly we know very little about intergenerational relations in Turkey. This research is a step towards this goal. The purpose is to assess whether urbanization and economic development at the aggregate level and modernity and secularism at the individual level result in a decline in coresiding and living nearby older family members in Turkey. Results obtained using multinomial logistic estimates are supportive of the hypotheses. There is a significant variation in coresidence and in the reasons for coresiding with older family members by regional development, urbanization, individual modernity and religiosity.
The major surface antigens of Escherichia coli are the cell wall lipopolysaccharides (LPS; O antigens) and the capsular polysaccharides (PS; K antigens). These polysaccharides are synthesized at the cytoplasmic membrane of the bacteria; the LPS are transported to the outer membrane, where they reside, whereas the PS are secreted into capsules. The LPS consist of lipid A covalently linked to the core oligosaccharide, which itself is covalently linked to the O-specific polysaccharide. The latter, which determines the O specificity of the bacteria may be neutral or contain negative charges (carboxyl groups or phosphate). The relatedness of E. coli to other genera (e.g., Klebsiella or Shigella) frequently is borne out by structural identity. This intergeneric relation is paralleled by similar pathogenic properties of the bacteria in question. The capsular antigens of E. coli are acidic polysaccharides, which can be divided into groups (I and II) on the basis of molecular size, nature of the acidic component, coexpression with O antigens, and temperature regulation of their biosynthesis. The major acidic components are hexuronic acid (mainly of Klebsiella-like group I) as well as 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-mannooctulonic acid, N-acetylneuraminic acid, or phosphate (mainly in Neisseria- and Haemophilus-like group II). Relatedness of encapsulated E. coli to encapsulated bacteria of other genera (Neisseria, Haemophilus, Klebsiella) is based on structural identity or similarity of the respective capsules. Identity not only refers to structure and serology of these capsules but also to the pathogenicity of the respective bacteria (e.g., E. coli K1 and Neisseria meningitidis b). Bacterial pathogenicity may be caused by the host's inability to raise an immune response to bacterial capsules (E. coli K1 and K5) because of the identity of the capsular polysaccharides and the host carbohydrates. This can be described as camouflage used by the bacteria as a strategem for bacterial virulence.
This paper outlines the development of a Caregiver Strain Index (CSI) with a sample of spouses, family, friends, and neighbors, aged 22 to 83, who provided varying degrees of care to recently hospitalized hip surgery and heart patients aged 65 and over. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the 13-item CSI on 81 cases was .86. Evidence of construct validity was obtained in three areas: ex-patient characteristics; subjective perceptions of the care-taking relationship by caregivers; and emotional health of caregivers. These results indicate that the CSI is a brief, easily administered instrument which identified strain within our sample of informal care providers. Further development of the CSI is being undertaken for predicting specific caregiver populations at risk. This simple index might be usefully included in any interview or assessment package that examines intergenerational relations involving dependency and care.
This study employs new data on Mexican-origin individuals aged 65 and older in the Southwestern United States to examine the impact of the age at which an individual immigrated to the United States on his or her sources of income and living arrangements. The data reveal that, in general, those who immigrated after the age of 50 are more dependent on their families than the native born or those who immigrated earlier in life. Although our findings must be interpreted cautiously because of small cell sizes, those who immigrated later in life are found to be less likely than the native born or those who immigrated earlier to have private pensions and Social Security income. They are also more likely to be living with their children and to be receiving money from them. We discuss the implications of recent restrictions on the eligibility of even legal immigrants for Supplemental Security Income on intergenerational relations and on the potential burden placed on the older immigrant's family, many of which may be seriously strained in hard economic times.
This paper provides a critical exploration of the assumptions and narratives underpinning the development of social policy initiatives targeting caring relationships based upon family ties. Using a narrative approach attention is drawn to the ways in which family identities are open to a far greater range of negotiation than is assumed by policy. Drawing on the United Kingdom as a case example, questions are posed about intergenerational relations and the nature of late life citizenship. The comparatively recent invention of narratives supporting 'informal care' and the link with neo-liberal and 'third way' notions of active citizenship are explored. As is the failure of policy developments to take into account the diversity of care giving styles and the complexity of caring relationships. It is argued that the uneven and locally specific ways in which policy develops enables the co-existence of a complex range of narratives about family, caring and ageing which address diverse aspects of the family life of older people in often contradictory ways.
The study of Freud's personal conception of writing and his use of it illuminates a significant aspect of his relationship with others, and also his sense of his own heroic greatness. In two related periods of his life, acts of writing--which were notably overdetermined in Freud and which informed as well as facilitated a distinctive kind of self-expression--gave rise to veritable (w)rites of passage. In those periods, the transferential dynamics in Freud's relationships with Fliess, his daughter Anna, and certain important analysands were expressed in ways connected with the content and process of various types of writing, including editing and translating. In sum, there is something still to be discovered in Freud's attitudes to his writing and to related intergenerational transactions between analysts and analysands who engage together in compositional activities.
The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and cross-cultural data have converged to exert a profound influence on social scientists and ordinary people. Through the use of these tools, social scientists of the 1700s and 1800s concluded that family patterns in northwest Europe had undergone many substantial changes before the early 1800s. These conclusions were accepted until the last several decades of the 1900s, when almost all were seriously challenged; many were declared to be myths. Further, the developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and the conclusions of generations of social scientists created a package of ideas--developmental idealism--that subsequently became a powerful influence for family change in many parts of the world during the past two centuries. This developmental idealism has been a substantial force for changing living arrangements, marriage, divorce, gender relations, intergenerational relationships, and fertility.
Although research has examined marital satisfaction in later life, little is known about the specific relationship challenges that older couples experience. Thus, the objective of the study was to explore the challenges older couples face. Data came from the USC Longitudinal Study of Generations. Qualitative analysis was conducted on 105 older couples, with an average age of 69, who responded in 1997 to an open-ended question about difficulties, disagreements, and disappointments in their marriage. Ten themes emerged from the data. In order of frequency, they were leisure activities, intimacy, finances, no problems, personality, intergenerational relations, household concerns, personal habits, health issues, and work/retirement. Comparisons in responses were made for age, gender, marital quality, length of marriage, and health. In addition, the dyadic data were examined for patterns within the relationship.
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In 1976 and 1982 two surveys about traffic and public transportation in the Federal Republic of Germany were undertaken. Four aspects which are meaningful for gerontological research are presented, i.e. possession of a driving license, ownership of a car, availability of a car in the own household and preferred transportation. The data are given for different age groups. These four aspects can be regarded as indicators for motor mobility. Far more people in younger age groups are in possession of a driving license than in older age groups. The same can be shown for the ownership and availability of a car. Compared with the 1976 data only few elderly people in 1982 had stopped using a car. So we can expect that German elderly people of the future will possess a driving license and drive a car in far greater numbers than elderly people today. The better possibilities of motor mobility will have consequences about traffic planning and psychological research about accidents, services for the elderly, and intergenerational relations.
During recent years universities have increasingly attracted men and women of middle age and old age. On the basis on a sample of appr. 350 fully enrolled students age 45 and over, drawn from the official 1980 students' census in Lower Saxony, we describe the group of older students in terms of age, sex, education, and social status, in order to compare their characteristical structure to the normal students. We, furthermore, formulate hypotheses on their attitudes toward learning in later years, their motives to choose the university, and their personal as well as social aspirations. Obvious are their need to orientate themselves in a critical life situation, and their need to actualize knowledge and skills in order to minimize the adverse effects of social segregation. We perceive the middle aged and older persons' return to university studies as a paradigm both for an individual's active reaction toward prescribed social obsolescence, and as a valuable attempt to reestablish intergenerational relations.