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The study examines the effects of ethnic clusters and independent living arrangements on adaptation of elderly immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. The multigenerational living arrangements were compared with independent living in a dispersed ethnic community and in an ethnic cluster of public housing. The residents of the ethnic clusters of public housing reported poorer health, were more reliant on government resources, and experienced greater acculturative hassles. However, public housing residents reported significantly larger Russian-speaking and American social networks, greater American acculturation, higher social support from neighbors, as well as lower cultural alienation. In contrast, the multigenerational living arrangements were related to greater social support from extended family and higher extended family satisfaction. While, the independent living in the dispersed ethnic community was associated with smaller American social networks and higher levels of cultural alienation. The results highlight how the ecologies of different living arrangements are reflected in the nature of acculturative, social, and psychological experiences of elderly immigrants.

This paper shows empirically that many biologically childless elderly women in Latin America at the turn of the 21st century lived in extended family households, often as the sibling or aunt of the household head. (We focus on women because most censuses limit fertility data to adult females.) Such a high level of extended family living was unexpected given Nydegger’s comment about childless elders in cross-cultural perspective

The role of older women in the care and protection of vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa may be changing given increasing rates of orphanhood due to AIDS. Concern regarding their capacity to provide for children and implications for their health and well-being dominate the literature. However, studies have not yet examined the situation of older caregivers in comparison to their younger counterparts over time. In this study, panel data on 1,219 caregivers in rural Malawi between 2007 and 2009 is complemented by in-depth interview (N = 62) and group discussion (N = 4) data. Caregiver responsibilities, capacity to care for children, and implications for well-being are examined. Chi-square tests examine differences in these measures between older foster caregivers and younger foster caregivers, parents of orphans, and parents of non-orphans. Older women, in comparison with younger counterparts, are more stable as primary caregivers for orphans. Care by older women is particularly valued when younger family stability is threatened by burdens of orphan care. Qualitative data reveal many challenges that older caregivers face, most notably provision of food. However, survey data suggest that the capacity to provide food, schooling and other basic needs is similar among older and younger caregivers. Self-reported health status is generally poorer among older caregivers, however levels of emotional distress and social capital are similar among older and younger caregivers. Providing care for children in old age appears to entail a number of benefits. Older women committed to providing care and protection for children are important assets, particularly in the context of threats to child well-being due to HIV and AIDS. Bolstering older caregivers with material and social support to help sustain their key roles in fostering is a promising avenue for maintaining extended family responses to HIV and AIDS.

This article presents narrative accounts which illustrate ways that modernization and social change have transformed the daily lives of Abaluyia, especially older people, in rural western Kenya since the late nineteenth century. The narratives reveal history as lived experience, as observed and recorded by an anthropologist who has been doing research among Abaluyia in Bunyala and Samia over the past 25 years. The story involves continuity of cultural beliefs and practices, and it involves change-change imposed by the macro-events of globalizing processes, from colonialism to Structural Adjustment Programs, and change as people's adaptive responses to those processes, particularly how changing cultural practices have impacted elders. The grand narrative is historical, the overarching story of the incorporation of Kenya and Kenyans into the global political economy from the colonial period to the present. Other narratives are biographical, case studies of individuals from two extended families and their personal experiences of social change over the past century. The background narrative is autobiographical, the anthropologist's story of the practice of anthropological fieldwork and her own experiences and observations of social change in western Kenya. Since anthropological data over time become history, the approach here is both anthropological and historical.

The impact of immigration on parents left behind has been largely ignored in the literature. This exploratory study uses cultural specificity theory to examine the effect an adult child's emigration has on the familial support system available to the parents left behind, and on the parent's psychological well-being. Twenty-nine parents (age 55+) in India, who had adult children in the United States, were selected using snowball sampling. Qualitative interviews based on a semi-structured interview schedule were conducted during the fall and winter of 1997. Results show that although most parents do not live in an extended family, they receive support from extended family members. However, the biggest source of daily support comes from hired help. Hired help allows parents to live independently and decreases reliance on informal support systems. Since hired help is relatively inexpensive most parents can substitute help for their children. This does not alleviate feelings of loneliness and depression.

The paper presents an analysis of the relationship between the generation contract, pension schemes, fertility decline and the process of economic growth. It is shown that there is a close connection between the reproductive behavior of a population and social security in old age i.e. the introduction and effects of retirement insurances. The proof of this assumption is given by a historical analysis of the developed and a systematic analysis of the developing countries. The paper postulates that the intention to create a higher level of economic growth in developing countries will become effective if a change of the family-bound generation contract is brought about. A modern economy is not compatible with the traditional system of extended families. This thesis includes the assumption that a statutory pension scheme is not an economic burden but the very starting point of a social machine which triggers economic growth.

This study attempts to understand the Vietnamese-Australian grandparenthood and their changing roles and psychological well-being. Using a qualitative approach, thirty-six grandparents participated in four focus group interviews. The findings reveal that Vietnamese grandparents play many important roles such as those of living ancestor, family historian, role model, teacher, mentor, nurturer, crony and mediator although at a reasonably modest level. Through assisting the parents, it creates a vital bridge between grandparents and grandchildren. Grandparents' most important roles are the maintenance of good emotional relationships and support, and the construction of harmony and continuity in their modified extended families. To be able to assume these roles grandparents need to actively explore and accept new values and to adapt values to new cultural context. A successful grandparenthood brings happiness to the family and this in turn positively influences grandparents' life satisfaction and psychological well-being and enhances their quality of life.

Stages of help seeking during illness have been identified as follows: disease experience, symptom attribution, decision to seek care, and contact with care providers. These stages have not been evaluated amongst family caregivers of elders affected with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). Since minority families typically care for ADRD elders at home, it seems important to understand the help seeking of minority family caregivers in particular, and the role of religious/ethnic factors. Thematic analyses were conducted on in-depth interviews from 10 caregivers from 4 groups (total n = 40): African-American, Chinese-American, Puerto Rican, and Irish-American. Aside from the disease experience stage, where religious/ethnic themes were negligible, between-group differences existed in these themes at other stages. For example, themes of extended family support emerged around decision making, with much between-group variation. At the contact with providers stage themes of contacting religious or ethnic service organizations were present, again with between-group variation. Chinese-American and Puerto Rican narratives contained themes of language barriers to care, and a lack of culturally-competent services. Both Irish-American and African-American narratives showed themes of alienation from religious groups on the one hand, and using prayer to cope on the other. Narratives from all groups contained themes of religious and/or ethnic imperatives for providing care. Overall, findings reveal that religious/ethnic factors may both aid and impede the help seeking of caregivers.

For hundreds of years, Chinese societies have been living in extended family settings. However, the import of Western cultures and values are challenging the traditional Chinese practices in Hong Kong. This study assesses the community attitudes to living arrangements between elderly and their adult children in Hong Kong and to identify the factors which influence these attitudes. A random sample of 888 adult Hong Kong residents were telephone-interviewed. They were asked about their attitudes to living arrangements when they turned 60, if disabled and non-disabled. The relationship between these attitudes and the social and demographic characteristics of the respondents was also analyzed. Nearly 59% of the respondents preferred to live with their children if non-disabled. However, 43.5% of the respondents would be unlikely to want to live with their children if disabled. If non-disabled at 60, females, professionals or those who had lived overseas before preferred not to live with their children. Females also preferred not to live with their children if disabled at 60. Other factors, such as age, social class, education level and experience in living with elderly or looking after elderly had no effect on the respondents' preference. This study provides important information on the community attitudes to living arrangements between the elderly and their adult children in Hong Kong. These attitudes will shed light on the provision of housing and institutional care to elderly, as well as the family relationship and care pattern of the elderly in the future decades in Hong Kong and other communities which are undergoing rapid growth and 'Westernization'.

A cross-sectional, qualitative study was undertaken with a group (n = 10) of elderly Mexican-American men and women in an inner city congregate meal site of a large Midwestern city. The purpose of the study was to explicate: the older adults' residential preferences should they become unable to live in their own homes, and their beliefs about eldercare. Themes arising from the semi-structured interviews include: nursing homes as places of last resort, the desire not to be a burden to children, intergenerational differences in lifestyle, and extended family involvement in eldercare. Implications of the findings for helping professionals are discussed as are areas needing further investigation.

This paper focuses on assistance that externally-resident daughters provide for their aging parents in rural Tibet, China, to challenge the notion that rapid modernization invariably threatens family-based care systems for the elderly. The authors discuss social and economic changes associated with modernization that have created new opportunities for parents to send daughters out of their natal households in ways that can benefit them in old age. By investing in a daughter's education so she can secure salaried employment, or by helping a daughter establish a small business so she can earn an independent livelihood, the authors demonstrate how some externally-resident daughters represent a novel form of social capital that parents can draw on for social support. Daughters with income and freedom from extended family obligations are now providing elderly parents with (1) leverage against co-resident children who do not treat them well, (2) temporary places of refuge from ill-treatment at home, (3) caretaking services and financial support when they require hospitalization, and (4) financial resources independent of their household which they can use to pursue age-appropriate activities like pilgrimage. The authors conclude that this new form of social capital vested in externally-resident daughters is having a positive impact on the lives of the elderly in rural Tibet.

This study examined an entire residential block of a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Southern California. The investigation focused on a comparison of the frequency of exiended and nonextended families using structural (household residents) and functional criteria (interaction and exchange) and the reasons nuclear families did not have their grandparents in those household units. Of 48 households, 8 units contained other elements besides the nuclear family. Of these eight, only five units contained the grandparents. Using functinal criteria, however, all were extended family households. A low number of multigenerational families based on the structural criterion may not reflect preference, but merely the physical limitation imposed by the number of children. The larger the size of the family, the higher the incidence of nuclear families because it is impossible for the grandparents to be in all their children's households. Unless variables that affect the availability of kin for an extended family, such as rate of fertility or housing availability, are controlled, the assumption that frequency of multigenerational family households reflects cultural or economic choices may be inaccurate.

In rural western Kenya, older Samia women, often victims of forced marriage in youth, are refusing traditional widow inheritance (remarriage) and renewed male domination after a husband's death. They make their refusals in the strategic public discourse of funeral speeches. The ability of older women to bring about change in female roles and power is related to their positions in extended families and support from 'saved' Christians. Examination of Samia women's everyday resistance to patriarchal power reveals the dynamics of gender relations within the overlapping power structures of kinship hierarchies, marriage, and religion (Christianity). It is also an example of religious renewal as a force in social change.

This paper identifies various kinds of risk and uncertainty observable in rural areas of developing countries and explains the relative importance of those pertaining to disability and old age. It compares the modern system (based on old age pensions and social security) for mitigating or coping with these risks with the traditional intrafamilial support mechanisms. The paper concludes that, when the traditional system is functioning smoothly, it can address these needs at far lower cost than the modern system. The efficiency and viability of the traditional system can be considerably enhanced by the presence of social norms, on the one hand, and of strategic instruments in the hands of household heads, on the other. Since both of these defenses are often undermined prematurely by modernizing influences, the paper identifies possible actions for avoiding or postponing the effects of such influences.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic has left large numbers of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Botswana has an HIV prevalence rate of approximately 40% in adults. Morbidity and mortality are high, and in a population of a 1.3 million there are nearly 50,000 children who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. The extended family, particularly grandparents, absorbs much of the childrearing responsibilities. This creates large amounts of additional work for grandmothers especially. The embodied capital model and the grandmother hypothesis are both derived from life history theory within evolutionary ecology, and both predict that one important factor in the evolution of the human extended family structure is that postreproductive individuals such as grandmothers provide substantial support to their grandchildren's survival. Data collected in the pre-pandemic context in a traditional multi-ethnic community in the Okavango Delta of Botswana are analyzed to calculate the amount of work effort provided to a household by women of different ages. Results show that the contributions of older and younger women to the household in term of both productivity and childrearing are qualitatively and quantitatively different. These results indicate that it is unrealistic to expect older women to be able to compensate for the loss of younger women's contributions to the household, and that interventions be specifically designed to support older women based on the type of activities in which they engage that affect child survival, growth, and development.

A sample of 152 Turkish university students responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitudes toward their elderly relatives. Attitudes toward elderly relatives and their presence in the home were generally positive, as would be expected in a traditional society. However, students' plans for their own old age indicated an orientation toward personal freedom and independence, rather than tradition. Males were more likely than females to foresee living with their children in old age, and females were more likely than males to mention a desire for independence. It was concluded that the extended family is losing its status as the ideal family type in Turkey, although close, cooperative family relations are still regarded as the norm.

The story of aging in Bangladesh may be quite different, depending on whether one is a woman or a man. There are rewards for the woman if she manages to become the head of the domestic realm of an extended family, but even this is brief, as she loses that role when her husband dies. The old man, however, does not relinquish his authority nor hand over the economic reins until his own death. Male and female roles cannot be said to converge in old age, let alone cross over, as described for a number of societies. Only in their roles as grandparents do males and females share similar behaviors.

The rural Arab elderly in Israel live in a society undergoing rapid social, political and economic change. Family relations, as expressed in intergenerational interaction, are intensive, frequent and mutually supporting, and probably not motivated by the overt needs of the old. The findings on the household history of the investigated population indicate that the establishment of separate household by young couples, at marriage, is not a "modern" phenomenon. This fact helps to explain the positive attitude toward the single generation household found in this study. The data indicate that family structure and household structure, as well as intergenerational interaction basically have not been affected by the rapid changes occurring in the political and economic structure of the rural areas.