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Results for “Intergenerational Relations”

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PubMed2005

Mothers and daughters: intergenerational patterns of reproduction.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to assess intergenerational mother-daughter patterns of reproduction. METHODS: In 1966, 12 055 pregnant women in Northern Finland, representing 96% of all births in the region, responded to a questionnaire in mid-gestation. In 1997-98, the 31-year-old daughters born from those pregnancies were sent a questionnaire and 4523 (80%) responded. Reproduction was compared between all mother-daughter pairs (n=4523) and separately for the pairs (n=489) of similar age (mothers 30-32 years). RESULTS: The menarcheal ages of the mothers and their daughters correlated slightly (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.206). The probability of the daughter to be multiparous was higher if her mother was multiparous at the time of the daughter's birth than if she was not. No association in the rate of spontaneous abortions was found. The first pregnancy of the daughters born from unwanted pregnancies was more often unwanted than the first pregnancy of the wanted daughters, after adjusting for parity (P=0.004). The analysis of the age-matched mother-daughter pairs gave similar results. CONCLUSION: A positive association between mothers and daughters in menarcheal age, parity and desirability of pregnancy was found.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Geographic distance and contact between middle-aged children and their parents: the effects of social class over 20 years.

This research derives and tests hypotheses from two alternative conceptual models: the modified extended family model, and the changing family constraints model, which takes into account recent changes in work and family life. The hypotheses address social class differences in geographic distance and contact frequency between middle-aged children and their parents over time. Simultaneous probit models are used to analyze distance and contact as jointly determined outcomes with data from the USC Longitudinal Study of Generations and Mental Health. Results from these analyses indicate that children's 1971 educational aspirations and social class positions predict 1991 distance and contact between generations. Parents who have lower 1991 incomes, however, live farther from children and talk with them on the telephone less frequently than higher-income parents. Thus, the effects of early social class position support the modified extended family model, whereas the effects of current social class position support the changing family constraints model.

Communication↗

PubMed1998

Older parents' expectations of moving closer to their children.

Research shows that older parents engage in return migration in older to live closer to children from whom they receive care. However, less is known about how characteristics of adult children influence this process. Data for this analysis are from 5,382 older parents participating in the 1993/4 AHEAD national survey of adults aged 70 years old and older. Findings demonstrate that elderly parents who expect to move closer to adult children tend to be older, female, and have at least one child who is better-off financially than they are. Living alone magnifies the effect of poor self-rated health on expecting to move closer to a child. Random effects modeling of children's characteristics reveals that parents are more likely to expect to move closer to a daughter than to a son. Greater parental functional impairment was found to further depress the selection of sons. Overall, the findings suggest that older parents expect to move closer to adult children out of need and tend to select a target child with greater potential to provide support.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Custodial grandparenting and the impact of grandchildren with problems on role satisfaction and role meaning.

This study compared three groups of grandparents, attempting to disentangle grandparental role demands from child-specific problems as sources of role-specific and grandchild-relationship distress. Those grandparents raising grandchildren reported to demonstrate neurological, physical, emotional, or behavioral problems exhibited the most personal distress, the least role satisfaction and role meaning, and the most deteriorated grandparent-grandchild relationships. Custodial grandparents raising grandchildren reported to have few difficulties also differed in the ways listed above from those grandparents not raising their grandchildren and from those raising grandchildren displaying problems. For men, but not women, more positive grandparent meaning was associated with raising a grandchild. Significantly, custodial grandparents were more likely to be raising boys, suggesting that boys may be either more difficult for grandparents to raise or that boys react more negatively to the adverse circumstances under which grandparents assume care.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1998

Meeting filial responsibilities in brothers-only sibling groups.

OBJECTIVES: This research examined how sons in brothers-only sibling groups meet the needs of their elderly parents. METHODS: 49 pairs of brothers without sisters whose parents were 74 years of age or older participated in open-ended interviews to explain how their parents' needs were met. Inductive analysis of interviews identified elements of these brothers' approaches. RESULTS: Brothers were in routine contact with and performed "masculine" services for their parents. Brothers acted independently and expected to be asked rather than volunteering help to their parents, except during times of crisis and transition. They defined their parents as self-sufficient, even when their parents' situations were precarious, and acted to reestablish their parents' independence when it was threatened. They viewed their parents' use of informal networks and formal services as appropriate. Brothers' wives provided "gender-appropriate" services. Wives' levels of involvement appeared to be a function of the quality of their relationships with their parents-in-law. Wives who helped were part of a support network. DISCUSSION: Brothers' goals of maintaining or reestablishing independence for their parents matches most parents' wishes to be independent and not to burden their children. The brothers' goal of self-sufficiency for their parents precluded their wives being the sole providers of support to their parents.

Aged↗

PubMed2000

"We had a nice little chat": age and generational differences in mothers' and daughters' descriptions of enjoyable visits.

Mother-daughter relationships are generally characterized by frequent contact and high levels of regard. Yet little is known about what mothers and daughters find enjoyable about their contact. Forty-eight pairs of older mothers (M = 76 years) and their middle-aged daughters (M = 46 years) and 44 pairs of middle-aged mothers (M = 47 years) and their young adult daughters (M = 21 years) (N = 182) described recent enjoyable visits. Younger mothers and daughters emphasized the daughters' entry into adulthood and the strength of their ties as agreeable, whereas older mothers and daughters focused on the larger kin network in describing their enjoyable visits. Some older mothers and daughters also made negative comments, suggesting greater individuation and less idealization of the relationship. Mothers in both age groups appeared to be more invested in the relationships than were their daughters. Implications for the strength of the mother-daughter tie are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Personality, relationship closeness, and loneliness of oldest old adults and their children.

This study examined the effects of personality, attachment, and dimensions of family solidarity on the loneliness of oldest old adults (i.e., 85 years and older) and their adult children. Parent-child dyads were formed with data collected from 100 parents and their children. Results from path analyses indicated that oldest old adults' loneliness was reduced by affection both for and from their children. Although an anxious personality decreased affection, perceptions of attachment to children increased feelings of affection. In addition, parents and children who had anxious personalities were more likely to be lonely, whereas loneliness was decreased for those with an extraverted personality. Children's loneliness also was decreased by association with their parents and by the quality of their friendships. Perceptions of childhood attachment to parents increased current affection and association with and fulfillment of parents' expectations.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Psychological well-being of Black and White grandmothers raising grandchildren: examination of a two-factor model.

A theoretical model predicting the positive and negative affect of caregiving grandmothers was tested with a sample of 867 grandmothers caring for a grandchild in households that did not include either of the grandchild's parents. Results confirm that the principles guiding a two-factor model of psychological well-being operate at the level of subjective role appraisals. Unique predictors of positive and negative affect as well as unique predictors of caregiving satisfaction and burden were identified. The stability of the model for Black and White grandmothers highlights the similarity of the experience across race.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

Social factors and mortality in the old-old in Israel: the CALAS study.

OBJECTIVES: Using a theoretical framework that divided social factors measures into structure, function, and social engagement, this study determined those aspects of social networks most significantly associated with 8-year, all-cause mortality among the old-old in Israel. METHODS: Jews (n = 1,340) aged 75-94 living in Israel on January 1, 1989, were randomly selected from the National Population Register; stratified by age, sex, and place of birth; and interviewed in person. Mortality was determined according to the National Death Registry (December 1997). RESULTS: After controlling for sociodemographics and measures of health, cognitive status, depressive symptoms, and physical function, the measures of social engagement that explicitly involved others were associated with a lower risk of mortality. No measure of the function of the social network was associated with risk of mortality. Living in the community without a spouse and with a child and living in an institution were significantly associated with a higher risk of mortality. DISCUSSION: The finding that participating in activities with people outside of the immediate family is associated with a lower risk of death has practical implications for helping the aging population and their families in their decision-making process. Lack of support for the hypothesis that those with more social support would show reduced risk of mortality may indicate that the positive effect of perceiving support and the negative effect of needing support may cancel each other out and result in no perceived effect. In this population, the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and the risk of mortality seems to be expressed through the living arrangements, with the sick and frail, both in institutions (higher SES) and in the community with a child or other (lower SES), having a higher risk of mortality. These findings are consistent with the use of children as a substitute for institutionalization, and imply that at least some cohabitation was the caretaking solution for the noninstitutionalized old-old who were of low SES, frail, and close to death.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2003

Application of the five-factor model of personality to intergenerational perception.

The perception held by respondents in a full range of age groups (young, middle-aged, and old) toward a full range of target age groups (young, middle-aged, and old) was studied in a multidimensional way. The five-factor model of personality was chosen as the model of intergenerational perception and the Gough Adjective Checklist was chosen as the measurement device. A total of 867 participants rated the degree to which they thought 300 different adjectives described people of various ages. Responses were factor analyzed, and the five expected factors were found. For Conscientiousness, the factor scores showed a linearly increasing pattern, with young children and children scoring lower, and the middle-aged, adults, elderly people, and the very old scoring higher. For Openness, the reverse trend was observed, but the real decrease started at the young adult age. For Neuroticism, factor scores were very low when the targets were children, very high when the targets were adolescents, and neither high nor low when the targets were middle-aged, elderly, or very old. For Introversion, the pattern of scores appeared U shaped, with adolescents and young and middle-aged adults on one side and the other targets on the opposite side. Finally, for Agreeableness, the middle-aged adults scored much lower than all the other targets. Overall, the age of the target effect explained on the average more than two thirds of the explained variance, whereas the age of the respondent variable explained less than one tenth of the explained variance. It appears that, in the population, a strong consensus is held concerning the attribution of personality characteristics to various age groups.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Racial differences in formal long-term care: does the timing of parenthood play a role?

OBJECTIVE: This article examines the association between race and the timing of formal long-term care (LTC) service use, both institutional and community based. It seeks to understand whether early parenthood predicts the timing of LTC use later in life and whether it in turn mediates the association between race and LTC use. In particular, it explores whether the lower rate of formal LTC use among African Americans is due in some part to the earlier inception of parenthood. METHODS: Linking measures from the 1989 National Long-Term Care Survey with Medicare claims (1989-1993), we model age at first use of institutional (skilled nursing facility) care and home health as competing risks using a Cox proportional hazards model. RESULT: Early parenthood accelerates first use of home health for Whites but delays first use for Blacks. The likelihood of any LTC use by race group converges as timing of parenthood increases. DISCUSSION: Differential effects of teen childbearing across race groups indicate differential vulnerability to LTC needs among early parents.

Black or African American↗

PubMed2005

Linking the two ends of life: what gerontology can learn from childhood studies.

This paper extends provocative ideas from the emerging interdisciplinary field of childhood studies to the field of gerontology. These ideas constitute a framework for building new kinds of theories and research on old people and old age-gathered around rights and responsibilities of and for old people; focused on their agency and social participation; concerned with the social problems of old people, as well as how old people are constructed to be social problems; anchored in their perspectives and voices; dedicated to describing and explaining both commonness and difference in their experiences and statuses; devoted to understanding old people as beings and becomings; and attentive to the interdependence of generations within families and societies. These commitments will require gerontology to strengthen its treatment of sociocultural phenomena, prompt more genuinely interdisciplinary scholarship, and advocate a wider range of research methods and data. A "new social studies of old people and old age," nurtured around these ideas, will also raise the visibility of old people and old age in science, public policy, and social life.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Grandmothers, caregiving, and family functioning.

OBJECTIVES: We used McCubbin's Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation ( McCubbin, Thompson, & McCubbin, 2001) to examine how demographic factors, family stress, grandmother resourcefulness, support, and role reward affect perceptions of family functioning for grandmothers raising grandchildren, grandmothers living in multigenerational households, and grandmothers not caregiving for grandchildren. METHODS: A sample of 486 grandmothers completed a mailed questionnaire. We used structural equation modeling to (a) test the effects of demographic factors (i.e., grandmother's age, race, marital status, and employment), family stressful life events and strain, grandmother's resourcefulness, subjective and instrumental support, and role reward on perceptions of family functioning for each grandmother group; (b) evaluate differences in the measurement and structural models between the grandmother groups using multisample analysis; and (c) test the model on the full sample, coding for caregiver status. RESULTS: The models did not differ significantly by grandmother group; therefore we assessed the composite model using a multisample analysis. We found general support for the resiliency model and equivalence of the models across grandmother groups. Less support, resourcefulness, and reward, and more intrafamily strain and stressful family life events contributed to perceptions of worse family functioning. DISCUSSION: Findings demonstrate the importance of the quality of family functioning for grandmothers in all types of families.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Ambivalent reactions in the parent and offspring relationship.

Theory suggests that aging parents and their adult children experience ambivalence (conflicting emotions) as a result of unclear norms governing the tie between them. This study investigated personality differences and relationship context differences in ambivalence, as well as the reactions of parents and offspring to each other. As part of the Adult Family Study, 474 individuals from 158 family triads consisting of a mother, father, and son or daughter aged 22 to 49 years completed telephone interviews, in-person interviews, and questionnaires. Multilevel models revealed that poor parental health and neuroticism in parents and offspring were associated with greater ambivalence. Surprisingly, investment in competing roles was associated with less ambivalence. Parents also experienced greater ambivalence when offspring scored higher on neuroticism, rated the parent as less important, or were less invested in their own spousal role. Parents' characteristics were not associated with offspring's ambivalence. Parents appear to react to their children's personality and achievements even after children are grown.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Filial piety and psychological well-being in well older Chinese.

Chinese older persons (N = 164) recruited from social centers responded to a survey instrument tapping the perceived filial behaviors of children (close vs not close), and the degree to which these behaviors matched personal expectations (filial discrepancy). Across all kinds of filial behaviors, providing attention when the parent was ill or distressed was perceived to be the least performed and was most discrepant with expectations. Whether the children were paying respect and whether they were providing care in times of illness or distress were most important in determining a sense of filial discrepancy in the parent. However, after functional limitations and financial strain were controlled for, only respect emerged as a consistent predictor of psychological well-being. These findings were similar whether the target was the closest child(ren) or less close children. There was no evidence that a child's overdoing his or her filial role was detrimental to the parents' well-being among the Chinese individuals in this study.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Intergenerational transfers and living arrangements of older people in rural China: consequences for psychological well-being.

OBJECTIVE: The migration of working-age adults from rural to urban China has altered traditional patterns of living arrangements and intergenerational support among elderly persons who remain in rural regions. This investigation examined how household composition and support exchanges with adult children influenced the psychological well-being of older parents in rural China. METHODS: Data derived from a 2001 survey of 1,561 parents aged 60 and older living in rural Anhui Province, China. We used multiple regression in order to estimate the effects of multigenerational living arrangements and intergenerational transfers of financial, instrumental, and emotional support on depression and life satisfaction in older parents. RESULT: Older parents living in three-generation households or with grandchildren in skipped-generation households had better psychological well-being than those living in single-generation households. Receiving greater remittances from adult children increased well-being and explained why living with grandchildren was beneficial. Stronger emotional cohesion with children also improved well-being. DISCUSSION: These results suggest that traditional family arrangements are beneficial in rural Chinese society as they represent the fulfillment of a cultural ideal. We discuss implications in the context of the corporate Chinese family, characterized by mutual aid and interdependence across generations, and its adaptation to social change.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Attrition of older adults in longitudinal surveys: detection and correction of sample selection bias using multigenerational data.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was (a) to investigate whether attrition due to death and nonresponse leads to bias in estimated growth-decline trajectories when only complete data are used in longitudinal research, and (b) to examine the extent of the bias and possible solutions. METHODS: The study sample was a subset of the Longitudinal Study of Generations and included data from 208 G1-G2 parent-child dyads and 538 G2-G3 dyads over 30 years. We used a latent growth-decline curve model based on full information maximum likelihood estimation in order to compare parents' and adult children's reports on older respondents' health and intergenerational solidarity by parents' attrition status. RESULT: Results indicated that attrition due to mortality biased estimates of respondents' assessments of their functional health status over time, and parents' perceptions of the quality of the parent-child relationship deteriorated more rapidly among those who died by Time 7, but nonresponse did not seriously bias estimates of these measures. Using proxies, we found that functional impairment increased more rapidly when children reported about parents, especially in advanced old age. DISCUSSION: These results support the use of full information in estimating growth curves where mortality is present but raise concerns when using child proxies to evaluate parental health or the quality of intergenerational relationships.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Concerns regarding adult children's assistance: a comparison of young-old and old-old parents.

This study describes differences between young-old (ages 60-74) and old-old (ages 75-90) parents' concerns regarding assistance provided by adult children. Old-old parents expressed more concern regarding amounts of help than did younger parents; there were no age differences in levels of concern regarding help outcomes. The percentage of children receiving parents' help and reliance on formal services predicted level of concern regarding help outcomes for the young-old parents, but not the old-old parents. Familism values and the extent of help received predicted level of concern regarding help amounts for the old-old parents, but not for younger parents. Implications for interventions to minimize parents' concerns and for further study of family assistance to the older people are discussed.

Aged↗