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Italy is a frontrunner in the process of population ageing, which is affecting most high-income countries in Europe and elsewhere. Increasing longevity, paired with decreasing fertility and a much slower pace in the reduction of later life morbidity, has and will lead to an increasing mismatch between long-term care needs and resources. Within this context, it is important to understand the extent to which (scarce) care resources are distributed in society. As a matter of fact, inequality in access to long-term care in later life can add to pre-existing inequalities and further aggravate already existing disadvantages. In the present paper, we present a systematic review of existing studies focusing on the social stratification of access to long-term care among the older Italian population. Three dimensions of social stratification are considered: education, income, and wealth. Previous results suggest that education is a key factor in the unequal distribution of care resources, especially in terms of formal care. Regarding access to informal care and the role of income and wealth, previous literature reports mixed findings. The review also identifies several significant limitations in previous studies on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The experience of being sandwiched between support obligations towards both aging parents and adult offspring is likely to become more common and more relevant. We aim at assessing the effect of demographic and social sandwiching on the psychological health and subjective well-being of individuals experiencing these transitions, and to what extent, these effects vary across welfare regimes. Methods Data are from 63,585 individuals aged 50–75 participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We estimate within- and between-individual effects using hybrid regression models to predict depressive symptoms (EURO-D) and subjective well-being (control, autonomy, self-realization, and pleasure [CASP]). Results Among demographically sandwiched women, transitioning into social sandwiching and into supporting only parents was associated with a moderate but statistically significant increase in EURO-D and decline in CASP scores. The same association is not observed for male respondents. The pattern of variation among women living in countries characterized by different welfare regimes suggests that social sandwiching is less detrimental in Nordic regimes than in other welfare contexts. Discussion Results from the between-individuals part of the model indicate that there is a selection into social sandwiching of more healthy individuals into support roles. However, the within-individuals part of the model indicates that the transition into social sandwiching has a detrimental effect on women's (but not men's) psychological health and well-being. The explanations for this gendered effect of social sandwiching may be found in the "invisible" support provided by women and the gendered division of specific care tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies suggest that parental wealth has both primary and secondary effects on offspring's educational decisions, net of other measures family's socio-economic status. The article documents that there is a positive association between parental wealth and children's university enrolment in Italy, a country characterized by comparatively low levels of wealth inequality and a low enrolment rate in tertiary education. The positive association is confirmed when controlling for children's performance in secondary school, too. Moreover, complementing previous studies, the analyses explore the extent to which different types of wealth have a different effect on children's university enrolment, and on how this effect varies along the wealth distribution and depending on parents' educational level. A positive effect is found only for families with non-negative net wealth and up to the 35th percentile of the wealth distribution. A threshold effect is found for financial wealth as well, being the association positive and significant up to the median of the financial wealth distribution. Real assets show a positive, albeit weaker, association up to the 30th percentile. Next, parental wealth is found to be positively associated with a higher likelihood of enrolment at university only for children of parents with a lower secondary degree or less, whereas the effect is not statistically significant for children of parents with at least an upper secondary degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unemployment has a negative effect on the mental well-being of individuals who experience it. The well-being of the partners and children of these individuals is also negatively affected by this transition. Little is known, however, on the effect of the transition into unemployment on the mental well-being of the parents of unemployed people. This article analyses the association between child's transition into unemployment and parents' minor psychiatric morbidity, using the General Health Questionnaire score as a proxy. The effects of the length of the unemployment spell and the specific pathway into unemployment are investigated. Eventually, the moderating role of the national level of unemployment is also explored. Data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society are used. The results of the analyses indicate that child's transition into unemployment has a small, statistically significant, negative effect on mothers' mental well-being, whereas the effect on fathers' distress is negligible. The association between mother's mental well-being and child's unemployment does not vary by the duration of the unemployment spell, or by the specific path into unemployment (from employment, studentship, or other inactive status). Differently, the negative effect of child's unemployment on mother's well-being is larger at higher levels of unemployment at the country level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the photoexcited triplet state of free-base 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (H2TPPS4−) has been investigated by advanced Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) techniques combined with quantum chemical calculations. The zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters, D and E, the orientation of the transition dipole moment in the ZFS tensor frame, and the proton hyperfine couplings have been determined by magnetophotoselection-EPR and pulse electron-nuclear double resonance spectroscopy. Both time-resolved and pulse experiments exploit the electron spin polarization of the photoexcited triplet state. Comparison of the magnetic observables with computational results, including CASSCF calculations of the ZFS interaction tensor, provides an accurate picture of the triplet-state electronic structure. The theoretical investigation has been integrated with a systematic analysis on the parent free-base porphyrin molecule to assess the effect of the sulfonatophenyl substituents on the magnetic tensors. Additionally, the magnetophotoselection effects are discussed in terms of tautomerization in the excited singlet state of H2TPPS4−. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although older migrants in Southern Europe are increasing in number, relatively little attention has been paid to their care needs and resources. The availability of informal care is an important determinant of wellbeing in later life and norms regulating filial obligations have an important role in affecting the quality and quantity of support received. Using data from a qualitative survey conducted in Italy, this article sheds light on the social norms regulating filial obligations towards older parents among natives and three groups of immigrants: Maghrebis, Chinese and Filipinos. The results indicate a number of commonalities between the four different groups considered, such as: the principle of delayed reciprocity at the basis of filial support obligations; a gender bias in attributing the most psychologically, physically and time-demanding caring obligations to adult daughters and daughters-in-law; and a preference for intergenerational residential autonomy shared by Italian, Filipinos and, to a lesser extent, Maghrebi respondents. At the same time, numerous differences emerge between natives and immigrants, and between immigrant groups. The most significant differences are observed regarding: the possibility of resorting to a paid care-giver, which is more common among Italians and, to a lesser extent, Filipino respondents; and a stronger gender bias among the Chinese and Maghrebi groups, i.e. they attribute the majority of personal care responsibilities to daughters and daughters-in-law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of childlessness in European societies, its consequences have become a matter of concern. Studies in this field, however, have concentrated on what childless people lack and need in terms of social, financial and moral support. In contrast, this article focuses on what childless people give to their families, friends, unrelated others and to society at large. Using 2004 data on social support and financial transfers given and received by people aged 50 or more years in ten European countries from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the analyses show that the support networks of childless older people tend to be somewhat weaker than those of parents and that links with members of the younger generations in the family are stronger for parents than for those without children. The results also indicate, however, that the differences in transfer behaviour between parents and childless adults are small, and that the support networks of the childless are more diverse than those of parents, and characterised by stronger links with ascendants and lateral relatives and with nonrelatives. Moreover, people without children tend to be more intensely involved in charities and comparable organisations. KEY WORDS--childlessness, generational link, intergenerational support, intergenerational transfers, family networks, charitable giving. Ageing & Society 29, 2009, 1261-1274. [C] Cambridge University Press 2009 Doi: 10.1017/S0144686X099033X Printed in the United Kingdom

In this introductory article for the special issue on Childlessness and Intergenerational Transfers, we first discuss the prior research literature and then overview the presented contributions. Up to now, childless older adults have been treated for the most part as both homogeneous and a problematic group. This does not do justice to the different pathways to childlessness: there are those who actively forgo having children, those who defer births so long that they involuntarily become childless, and those who are not fecund or lack a partner. It also neglects the changing social profile of the childless, e.g. the shift from less educated to more highly-educated women. Most importantly, it fails to recognise what childless older people give to others. The studies presented here aim to redress these two deficits in previous research. They examine how the consequences of childlessness are mediated by the pathways to and motivations for being childless and by factors such as gender, education and marital history, and they also examine what childless older adults provide to their families and to society at large. Such adults establish strong linkages with next-of-kin relatives, invest in non-family networks, and participate in voluntary and charitable activities, and broadly do so to a greater extent than older people with surviving children. KEY WORDS--childlessness, social participation, intergenerational transfers, social networks. Ageing & Society 29, 2009, 1171-1183. [C] Cambridge University Press 2009 doi: 10.107/S0144686X09990341 Printed in the United Kingdom