Are the Aged Ex-Family?: An Inquiry into the Place of the Aged in Family Life with Special Reference to the Treatment of the Aged in Sociology Textbooks on the Family

Abstract

T WO fragments of conversation recently overheard raise questions pertinent to present inquiry. first was: Q.Do you have a living upstairs? A. No, just an elderly couple. second: Q. Who lives in that house? A. Just our and my grandmother. Immediately one wonders: If elderly couples and grandparents are not families or members of families, what are they? Obviously they were once considered members of families. When and how did they lose their status? At what or under what circumstances do people become ex-family? What have sociological books on to say of role of in family? As preliminary to a study of Role of Aged in Different Types of Southern Family, author made a reconnaissance of sociological literature on family.1 It was assumed that logical place to look for material on role of older people in would be in sociology books on family. A detailed analysis was made of references to the aged or age in tables of contents and indices of 20 books by outstanding sociologists or books that have been used widely as college texts.2 Of these 20 books, 8 have no reference to old or in either table of contents or index. Two of them contain brief mention of problems of older people in paragraphs dealing with other topics, but apparently do not consider subject of sufficient importance to list it in index. Six other books have less than one page each dealing with subject and four have from one to four pages. Most of these deal with a single aspect, as loneliness in old age or marriage and long life. Only two books, both published within last five years, treat subject at all comprehensively. Cavan's Family contains a chapter on The Later Years of Married Life, which deals with both later middle and old age.3 And Elmer's Sociology of Family devoted a whole chapter to Old Age.4 Both of these writers give quite full treatment to role of and social and psychological as well as economic factors facing them. If sociologists known to believe an important subject for sociological study include only 50 pages out of 10,697 in books on family, is it because are considered ex-family? Does family by definition exclude aged? What are recognized functions of family? Is responsibility for included among them? Do live an extra-family existence? If not, what is role of in American life? What do books on have to say about place of aged? Are considered as assets or liabilities? Do books on prepare student for old age?