Presence Of Adult Children Research Articles

Parental status in later life and parents’ risk of cognitive impairment

Parental status can influence parents’ well-being in significant ways, but little research has examined its impact on older adults’ cognitive health in the U.S. Using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) 2011–2019, this study examines whether parental status is related to the risk of cognitive impairment among older adults in the U.S. We found that the presence of adult children (i.e., having at least one living adult child) was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment for older parents. Moreover, compared to childless older adults, older parents who had three and more children, who had adult daughter(s), and who had biological/adopted adult children displayed a significantly lower risk of cognitive impairment. This study highlights the importance of adult children as resources of support and caring that may benefit older parents’ cognitive health. The findings can help to identify the most vulnerable subpopulations among aging adults so that medical workers and policy makers can design effective strategies to protect cognitive function for those “at risk” older adults.

There at any distance? Geographic proximity and the presence of adult children in older Europeans’ core discussion networks

Adult children are key confidants for their aging parents, often providing emotional and advisory supports. Still, adult children are not a guaranteed presence in older people's core discussion networks. Geographical distance is a leading explanation for why some children are excluded from the confidant network, but we hypothesize that certain parent- and dyadic-level factors make these intergenerational ties more or less resilient to distance. Using wave six of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, we identified whether a living adult child was also a member of the parent's egocentric confidant network. We found that fifty-eight percent of children were excluded from a parent's network and that such network exclusion was more common the greater the distance between parent and child. Random slope logit models indicate that parents with higher education were less sensitive to longer distances when listing a child as a confidant, whereas poor parental health exacerbated distance consequences. We also observed regional differences, with Northern Europeans being more impervious to geographical distance than older adults living in areas of the continent considered most familistic. Together, results point to the contingency of distance, as a number of demographic factors and personal and social resources contribute to the elasticity of parent-child ties across geographic space.

There at Any Distance? Geographic Proximity and the Presence of Adult Children in Older People’s’ Confidant Networks

Adult children are key members of their aging parents’ close social network, often providing emotional and advisory supports. Still, adult children are not a guaranteed presence in older people’s core discussion networks. Geographical distance is a leading explanation for why some children are excluded from the confidant network, but we hypothesize that certain parent- and dyadic-level factors make these intergenerational ties more resilient to distance. Using wave six of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, we identified whether a living adult child was also a member of the parent’s egocentric confidant network. We modeled the effect of the child (Level 1) and parent (Level 2) characteristics on the exclusion of a child from the core network using hierarchical logit models. We found that fifty-eight percent of children were excluded from a parent’s network. Parents were more likely to exclude those who lived more than 25 km compared to children who lived within 5 km. The impact of distance was exacerbated among parents who were older, partnered, or had four or more children. Parents with higher education and good computer skills were less sensitive to longer distances when listing a child as a confidant. Finally, parents who had confidants outside of the nuclear family and who lived in Northern Europe were less likely to exclude a child over 100 km from their confidant network. Together, results indicate that a number of demographic factors and personal and social resources contribute to the elasticity of parent-child ties across long distances.

DO THE PRESENCE OF ADULT CHILDREN AND THEIR MARITAL STATUS MATTER FOR ACCESS TO THE PUBLIC LONG-TERM CARE SYSTEM?

Knowing how the presence of family affects access to the public long-term care system is important for evaluating the adequacy of the system. This study examined the relationship between the presence of adult children and their marital status, and access to a public system by examining the gap between self-reported care needs and the official certification as needing care under the Japanese public long-term care insurance system. Data from Japan’s 2016 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions were used. A total of 23,466 older adult claimants, aged 65 years and older were analyzed. Outcomes were whether or not claimants were officially certified as needing care under the system, and the relationship of the presence of both live-in and live-out children and their marital status were examined controlling for claimants’ age, gender, education, financial status, and physical and cognitive conditions. Females comprised 64.8% of the sample, and the average age was 83 years (SD=7.8). The percentage of claimants living with a single or married child were 25.2% and 26.9%, respectively, and 60.1% were parents of children who lived independently. The percentage who were officially certified as needing care was 68.5%. Logistic regression analysis revealed that claimants with a live-in child were less likely to be officially certified as needing care, and claimants with live-in a single child were less likely to be officially certified compared with those with a married child. Live-in single children may provide long-term care by themselves, and the excess burden on them needs to be further investigated.

Adult Children’s Serious Health Conditions and the Flow of Support Between the Generations

The life course perspective suggests that serious physical or mental health conditions that limit the daily activities of any one family member are likely to be consequential for other family members as well. In this article, we explored whether adult children's serious health conditions affected the flow of expressive and instrumental support between mothers and both the offspring with health conditions and other offspring in the family. We used data collected from 369 older mothers (M = 78 years) regarding 1,338 of their adult children (M = 49 years), as part of the Within-Family Differences Study-II. Adult children with serious health conditions were more likely than their siblings to be given support by their mothers. The presence of adult children with health issues did not reduce mothers' provision of expressive or instrumental support to their children without health conditions. However, in families in which a higher proportion of children had serious health conditions, mothers received expressive support from a greater proportion of their healthy adult children than in families with a smaller proportion of adult children with health conditions. These findings contribute to a growing body of research demonstrating the ways in which conditions in adult children's lives affect their mothers.

Outward Migration from Large Cities: Are Older Migrants in Nairobi ‘Returning’?

ABSTRACTCircular and return migrations between rural and urban areas in sub‐Saharan Africa have persisted over time, driven by a combination of socio‐cultural, economic, and structural forces. Much of the literature on migration in Africa focuses on labour migration. However, old age also marks a stage in the life course often associated with migration. This paper examined the determinants of out‐migration among older people living in the slums of Nairobi. The paper used a prospective population study of 2,270 older people, followed up over a 3‐year period. The annual rate of out‐migration was 4%. Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to model the effect of ties to place and to socio‐economic capital on propensity to out‐migrate. The presence of adult children outside the city was a significant pull factor for both men and women. The propensity to out‐migrate decreased with length of residence in the slum. Attachment to the slum through participation in voluntary communal activities was also negatively associated with out‐migration, particularly for men. The poorest older people were more likely to leave the city, highlighting the effect of deprivation in triggering return migration. Looking at future migration intentions, only one in five older people reported that they intend to relocate from the slums, highlighting that, in the future, there will be a growing number of people ageing ‘in situ’ in poor urban areas. This has implications for policy makers concerned with the provision of services to vulnerable older people who may be unable to engage in livelihood strategies as health deteriorates with age. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Study on Determinants of Financial Preparation for Later Life Among the Elderly Who are Residing in the City Area

The purpose of the study was to examine the determinants of financial preparation for later life among the elderly. The respondents were 2,000 elderly residing in the city. The data were analyzed by statistical methods as frequency, chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis.<BR> The results of this study were as follows.<BR> 1. 38.0% of the elderly responded that adult children were responsible for caring the old parents.<BR> 2. 45.4% of the elderly wanted to live with their adult children.<BR> 3. 53.6% of the elderly prepared financial resources for their later life.<BR> 4. Gender, education, presence of adult children, income, subjective economic level, and chronic diseases were significant predictors of financial preparation for later life.<BR> Implications of the findings were discussed and the recommendations for the income maintenance policy for the elderly were presented.

Midlife Women's Employment and Pension Entitlement in Relation to Coresident Adult Children in Great Britain

influence of dependent children on women's employment has been extensively researched, but there has been an implicit assumption that older children have no effect on women's employment. We argue that the presence in the home of adult children, defined here as those aged over 16, has implications for women's need and opportunity for paid employment. This in turn impacts on women's opportunity to accumulate pension entitlements and hence on their financial well-being in later life.In this article, we first examine the association between the presence of adult children living at home and British women's employment from age 40 to 59. Second, we examine the association between presence of adult children and women's enrollment in an occupational pension plan, controlling for hours of work.MIDLIFE WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENTOver the last two decades, British and American women's employment has increased substantially (Martin & Roberts, 1984; Spitze, 1988), especially for women aged under 45. This trend is generally viewed as bringing increased financial independence for women. However, almost all the increased employment for British women has been part-time, while the number of women in full-time employment has risen very little (Hakim, 1993).Only half of British women who are employed work full-time, in contrast to the United States where the majority of employed women work full-time. low rate of full-time employment among younger women with dependent children is linked to the lack of child care provision in Britain (Arber & Gilbert, 1991; Dex & Shaw, 1986; Harrop & Moss, 1993; Joshi, 1984), but the persistence of part-time work among midlife women, whose children do not require child care, needs to be explained.Women's attitudes and preferences are likely to play a part in influencing their participation in paid employment; yet their options are constrained by such factors as their family's financial need (Oppenheimer, 1977), their health, their potential earnings, the availability of employment, husbands' wishes (for married women), and the pressure of domestic work including child care (mainly among younger women) (Martin & Roberts, 1984).Part-time jobs, as well as being lower paid, tend to be lower in the occupational scale (Hakim, 1993) and less likely to offer fringe benefits such as an occupational pension plan (Ginn & Arber, 1993; Sinfield, 1986). Having a pension is important to financial well-being in later life (Arber & Ginn, 1991; Ginn & Arber, 1991), increasingly so as the value of the British state basic pension declines (Evandrou & Falkingham, 1993).CORESIDENT ADULT CHILDREN AND WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENTAn emerging literature in the U.S. has been concerned with adult childrens' coresidence with parents (Ward & Spitze, 1992), in terms of prevalence (Aquilino, 1990), intergenerational and marital relationships (Aquilino & Supple, 1991; Suitor & Pillemer, 1987, 1988; Umberson, 1992; White & Edwards, 1990), and the return of adult children to the parental home following divorce (DaVanzo & Goldscheider, 1990). There is, however, little research on how the presence of adult children in the home relates to midlife women's employment. As noted by Moen (1991, p. 135), The middle period of adulthood in women's lives has been a neglected area of study, with little known about the dynamics of women's work and their marital and parental roles in midlife.The overwhelming majority of women in Britain and the U.S. who take a career break to have children reenter the labor market well before the empty nest stage of the life course (Dex & Shaw, 1986; Elias & Main, 1982; Yeandle, 1984). In research on women's employment, the age of the youngest child (under 16) is often used to indicate women's life-course stage. However, among midlife women, there is generally no distinction made between women with a swollen nest (where adult children are still at home), an empty nest (where all children have left home), and women who have never had a child. …

Parent-Child Relations and Parent's Satisfaction with Living Arrangements When Adult Children Live at Home

Data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households were used to explore (I) the influences on parents satisfaction with having coresident adult children; (2) the nature of parent-child relations in coresident households; and (3) the impact of childrens adult role status on parent-child relations and satisfaction with coresidence. Structural equation models estimated with LISREL VI showed that parental satisfaction with the presence of adult children (age 19-34) in the home was highly related to parent-child conflict and to the level of positive social interaction between parent and child. Childrens financial dependency and unemployment were associated with increased parent-child conflict. The return home of divorced or separated children and the presence of grandchildren in the home decreased parents satisfaction with the coresident living arrangement. Overall however the majority of parents were highly satisfied with the coresident living arrangement and described mostly positive relationships with their adult children. (authors)

The Presence of Adult Children: A Source of Stress for Elderly Couples' Marriages?

Recent national data indicate that increasing numbers of adult children continue to live or return to live in their parents' homes. Although a substantial amount of research has been directed toward understanding how the presence of young children affects parents' marital relationships, little attention has been paid to the effects of the presence of adult children on elderly parents' relationships. In the present study a random sample of 677 elderly residents of the Boston metropolitan area was used to examine this issue. Contrary to expectations, the analysis indicated that the presence of adult children had no effect on elderly parents' marital conflict, even when age, educational attainment, health, and gender were controlled. An analysis of data on respondents sharing a residence with an adult child showed that marital conflict was strongly related to the frequency of parent-child conflict.