Relationships In Later Life Research Articles

Losing and Building Supportive Relationships in Later Life

Many American elders retire to age-restricted planned retirement communities in the Sun Belt, often choosing to live at great distance from supportive family and friends. The social costs and opportunities associated with these migrations are of interest to researchers as well as prospective retirees. This longitudinal study examined changes in supportive relationships reported by 255 residents of an age-restricted planned retirement community located in the Southwest. Residents reported on their sources of social support prior to relocation and after approximately four years of residence. Those who had relocated from distant (out-of-state) communities were contrasted with those who moved from the local metropolitan area. After four years, long distance migrants reported a social support deficit compared to what they had experienced in their previous communities. In contrast, local movers reported a significant increase in supportive relationships over the four-year period. These results held for a global (average) measure of support and more specific indices of emotional support and assistance with an ill spouse. However, long distance migrants appeared to be making more new friends within the confines of the community. The data suggest that, for some older persons, relocation to a local planned community might be more advantageous than a long distance move. Implications for environmental theories of aging and communication are discussed.

My closest friend

This paper discusses our fundamental need to have an intimate ally, a close friend in the form of an internalised, loving and loveable object. It will explore the origins of loving feelings as they relate to the infant's first love affair with mother and how this translates into relationships in later life. It will be argued that many patients in therapy will be needing to get in touch with the preverbal. It will be suggested that training in an infant observation is useful in gaining the skills to treat the infantile aspects of such patients. Projective identification and countertransference will be discussed, as well as the process of breaking through the false self to recognise the deep suffering that the baby and the small child faced as a result of being raised by a narcissistic parent. It will be suggested that psychotherapists may unconsciously be searching for their lost maternal objects in their patients, hence the need for the therapist to have had sufficient therapy in order to be attuned, but separate.

Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 4: Intergenerational Ambivalences: New Perspectives on Parent-Child Relations in Later Life

Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 4: Intergenerational Ambivalences: New Perspectives on Parent-Child Relations in Later Life

Intergenerational ambivalences: New perspectives on parent‐child relations in later life.

Intergenerational Ambivalences: New Perspectives on Parent-Child Relations in Later Life. Karl Pillemer & Kurt Luscher (Eds.). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. 2004. 357 pp. ISBN 0-7623-0801-X. $90.00 (cloth). Karl Pillemer and Kurt Luscher's (2004) edited volume is a satisfying extension to the original introduction of the intergenerational ambivalence approach presented in JMF (Luscher & Pillemer, 1998). Readers desiring empirical proof from earlier theoretical discussions (see JMF, 64(3) for a five-paper symposium) will find tangible evidence of both personal and social ambivalences experienced between generations. Thirteen chapters divided into four sections provide an organized path tracing the theoretical roots, conceptual dilemmas, and methodological issues for assessing ambivalence in intergenerational relationships. Empirical results from a mixture of European and U.S. scholars were especially compelling as validation for the concept of intergenerational ambivalence, as was the promising glimpse into studies with young adult samples. Family researchers using the ambivalence framework will find the collection useful and thought provoking. Pillemer and Liischer's (2004) edited volume belongs to the Elsevier series of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research. Consistent with most areas of gerontology, the volume presents work from a variety of disciplines including psychology, human development and family studies, sociology, and family therapy. The multidisciplinary approaches by the volume's contributors create different understandings of the ambivalence concept that at first appear problematic. The editors, however, believe that over time, the perspective is likely to become more clearly articulated and the field of study more integrated (p. 7). Regardless of multiple definitions, this volume advances the operationalization and methodological assessments of intergenerational ambivalences. The introduction written by the editors provides the rationale for needing a theory in family gerontology that addresses positive and negative features of intergenerational relationships. The editors maintain that they are not presenting a formal theory but rather illustrating a sensitizing concept for the study of parent-child ties in later life. Luscher's chapter follows with a historical sketching of ambivalence as a social science construct. Luscher is uniquely positioned to provide views on the origins of ambivalence because of his access to early and current German writings, which have a deep tradition in this field. The connections made between current-day theorizing and earlier positions from Bleuler, Freud, and Knellessen are particularly interesting. Readers familiar with Luscher's 2002 remarks in JMF and work with the Konstanz research group will recognize his heuristic model for dealing with intergenerational ambivalences, which are presented in detail (pp. 47-57). Chapter 4 written by Frank Lettke and David Klein is an alternate entrance point for the volume. This chapter begins the section on methodological issues and is a treasure of ideas for anyone planning or designing a study. A key feature of this chapter is the distinction between direct and indirect measurement of the ambivalence construct. Not surprising, different methodologies can yield results that are interpretable on various levels of the construct. Measurement issues are not entirely resolved in this chapter but instead are identified for the reader to consider. The next three chapters in the methodology section offer readers a selection of empirical studies that find compelling evidence for the individual experience of ambivalence in social relationships. Pillemer (Chapter 5) focused on a sample of older mothers and found that nearly 40% reported ambivalence with at least one adult child. Pillemer suggests from the measurement of ambivalence in his study that the concept is different from indicators of poor relationships. …

Residential Stability and the Social Impact of Neighborhood Disadvantage: A Study of Gender- and Race-Contingent Effects

Is neighborhood disadvantage associated with social support? If so, does residential stability modify that association? And are there gender- and race-contingent patterns? Among a sample of adults aged 65 years and older, neighborhood disadvantage is associated positively with received and donated support among black women, but only in neighborhoods with higher levels of residential stability. In contrast, neighborhood disadvantage is associated negatively with donated support among white men and negatively with received support among white women, but only under conditions of low residential stability. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories about stress and community-level effects on social relationships in late life and draw linkages to the broader sociological discourse on social capital and collective efficacy.

Risk Factors for Potentially Harmful Informal Caregiver Behavior

Caring for a sick or disabled relative has been linked to compromised caregiver health, and risk factors for negative caregiver outcomes have been studied extensively, but little attention has been given to care recipient and caregiver health as risk factors for potentially harmful behavior by informal caregivers. This article explores such risk factors. Structured interviews from baseline assessment of the Family Relationships in Late Life Study. Three U.S. communities. Referred, volunteer sample of 265 caregiver/care recipient dyads. Caregivers were primarily responsible for care of an impaired, community-residing family member aged 60 and older and providing help with at least one activity of daily living (ADL) or two instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Self-reported care recipient demographics, cognitive status, need for care, and self-rated health; self-reported caregiver demographics, cognitive status, amount of care provided, self-rated health, physical symptoms, and depression. Care recipient reports of potentially harmful caregiver behavior, including screaming and yelling, insulting or swearing, threatening to send to a nursing home, and withholding food, were the main outcome variable. The following were significant risk factors for potentially harmful caregiver behavior: greater care recipient ADL/IADL needs (odds ratio (OR)=1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.03-1.22), spouse caregivers (vs others; OR=8.00, 95% CI=1.71-37.47), greater caregiver cognitive impairment (OR=1.20, 95% CI=1.04-1.38), more caregiver physical symptoms (OR=1.07, 95% CI=1.01-1.13), and caregivers at risk for clinical depression (OR=3.47, 95% CI=1.58-7.62). Potentially harmful caregiver behavior is more likely in spouse caregiving situations and when care recipients have greater needs for care and caregivers are more cognitively impaired, have more physical symptoms, and are at risk for clinical depression. This risk profile is similar to that for negative caregiver outcomes.

The Effects of Early Parental Death on Sibling Relationships in Later Life

The present study draws on elements of kinship and life course perspectives to examine the influence of parental death during childhood on adult sibling contact and closeness. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households ( N = 3,684), comparisons are made between adults who experienced early parental death and those with no history of childhood family disruptions, and between adults who experienced early maternal death and those who experienced paternal death during childhood. Results from Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analyses indicate that adults who experienced parental death during childhood do not have more sibling contact, but are closer to their siblings in adulthood than adults who grew up in intact families. In addition, adults who experienced maternal death during childhood have less sibling contact than adults who experienced paternal death, but there are not differences between these two groups in terms of closeness. These findings indicate that it is important to assess the long-term impact of early parental death on adult outcomes and that gender of the deceased parent may have more significant implications for some dimensions of adult sibling relationships than others.

The effects of child sexual abuse in later family life; mental health, parenting and adjustment of offspring

Objective: To investigate links between child sexual abuse (occurring before 13 years), later mental health, family organization, parenting behaviors, and adjustment in offspring. Method: The present study investigates a subsample of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children an ongoing study of women and their families in the area of Avon, England. A sample of 8292 families met inclusion criteria for identifiable family type and completed self-report data on prior sexual assault. Further data were collected on life course variables, socioeconomic variables, psychological well-being, relationship quality, parent-child relationship quality, and children’s adjustment. Results: After adjustment for other childhood adversity, prior child sexual abuse was associated with a range of outcomes in adulthood, including current membership of a nontraditional family type (single mother and stepfather) poorer psychological well-being, teenage pregnancy, parenting behaviors, and adjustment problems in the victim’s later offspring. The relationship of child sexual abuse with aspects of the parent-child relationship in later life and with the offspring’s adjustment difficulties were mediated in part by mother’s mental health—chiefly anxiety. Conclusion: Findings indicate that child sexual abuse has long-term repercussions for adult mental health, parenting relationships, and child adjustment in the succeeding generation.

Mental health problems in young children

The Office for National Statistics 1999 survey of mental health problems in young people revealed that 10 per cent of five- to fifteen-year-olds are suffering from serious mental health disorders, interfering significantly with their ability to get on with their lives. The more we are able to do for children in the early years to build a secure foundation, the better equipped they will be to respond to difficulties and relationships in later life.

Psychology and the Aging Revolution: How We Adapt to Longer Life

Psychology and the Aging Revolution: How We Adapt to Longer Life

Attachment in African American and European American older adults: The roles of early life socialization and religiosity

The significance of attachment relationships in later life has recently emerged as an important topic of study. Yet little attention has focused on attachment dynamics among older minority adults. This paper extends the literatures on ethnicity, attachment, and later life by examining attachment patterns in two large community-dwelling samples of older (65 + years) African American (n=671) and European American (n=447) adults. Data gathered during face-to-face interviews included demographic information, adult attachment, early rearing experiences, and current religiosity. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that adult attachment dimensions were differentially predicted by childhood socialization patterns and current religiosity. Significant ethnic differences in relations between adult attachment and childhood socialization practices also were found. The results highlight the importance of examining contextual differences in attachment in later life.

“That’s very rude, I shouldn’t be telling you that”

This paper discusses narratives created during interviews with 23 older women (aged 61–90) about their experiences of sex and intimate relationships in later life. For analytic purposes, the paper understands narratives to be neither pre-existing nor a simple reflection of experience, but to be made moment-by-moment in the interaction between parties drawing on available cultural resources. Attention to the interactional situation in which the narrative is produced helps to explain the ways in which speakers perpetuate or resist dominant cultural storylines. Older women’s accounts of sexual relationships provide a particularly rich site for this analysis because a dominant cultural storyline of ‘asexual older people’ is often evident in popular culture. This storyline provides an important cultural resource which older women who are talking about sex can both draw on and resist in order to produce their own accounts. This paper uses a discourse analytic approach to discuss some of the moments in which speakers explicitly produce counter-narratives. These moments are visible to the analyst by the participants’ own orientations to telling a counter-narrative. The paper also considers parts of the accounts which the analyst identifies as counter-narratives, although the speakers do not orient to this. The analyst’s own position is thus implicated in the analysis and is reflexively considered.

New intimate relationships in later life

New intimate relationships in later life

The dilemma of repartnering: Considerations of older men and women entering new intimate relationships in later life

A significant percentage of men and women aged fifty and over attain new partner relationships after divorce or widowhood. Partner relationships investigated in this article include remarriage, unmarried cohabitation, and Living Apart Together (LAT). Drawing on the Dutch NESTOR-LSN survey data (n=4,494) as well as in-depth reinterviewing of repartnered older adults (n=46), this article examines elderly people’s main considerations in the decision making process leading to remarriage, a consensual union, or a LAT relationship.

Intimate Relationships in Later Life

This article reviews the relationship statuses that are common for older adults today. It addresses the prevalence of various statuses among the older adult population as well as their consequences for economic, social, psychological, and physical well-being and adjustment. In addition, consideration is given to how the prevalence and experience of various relationship statuses may change in the next few decades given such demographic changes as reduced mortality, increased education and employment for women, and reduced standardization of the life course. Throughout the article, differences for older men and women are highlighted.

Effects of interpersonal control, perspective taking, and attributions on older mothers' and adult daughters' satisfaction with their helping relationships.

Older mother-adult daughter dyads (N = 44) were interviewed separately about 3 variables hypothesized to affect satisfaction with the help provided to mothers by their daughters: feelings of interpersonal control, perspective-taking abilities, and attributions made about the self and other dyad member during positive and negative helping interactions. The most important predictors of partner satisfaction were mothers' and daughters' ability to accurately perceive the partner's feelings about the helping relationship and their feelings of interpersonal control. The most salient predictors of mothers' and daughters' own satisfaction were the attributions they made about the partner during a negative helping situation and their feelings of interpersonal control. These findings underscore the importance of considering interpersonal psychological variables in research concerned with helping relationships in later life.

Intergenerational Ambivalence: A New Approach to the Study of Parent-Child Relations in Later Life

KURT LUESCHER University of Konstanz KARL PILLEMER Cornell University* Social scientific interest in intergenerational relationships between adults increased in recent years. However, there is a lack of theoretical work that allows for the integration of research findings. Further, there been a tendency to interpret intergenerational relationships within limited frameworks that emphasize either intergenerational or conflict. In contrast, we propose that ambivalence is a more useful organizing concept for understanding inter-generational relations. In this article, we argue that relationships between the generations in are structured such that they generate various types of ambivalence. We then discuss three aspects of intergenerational relationships that are likely to be ambivalent and propose an agenda for future research. Key Words: aging and family, ambivalence, intergenerational relations, kinship, theory. Interest in intergenerational relations among adults within the family grown dramatically over the past three decades, as demonstrated by research reviews and edited volumes from both sides of the Atlantic, all of which contain extensive bibliographies of recent publications (AttiasDonfut, 1995a; Finch & Mason, 1993; Hareven, 1996; Lye, 1996; Luscher & Schultheis, 1993; Suitor, Pillemer, Bohannon, & Robison, 1995). Indeed, the amount of empirical work on this topic made it one of the more vigorous research areas in contemporary sociology and psychology. The development of theory to integrate the host of findings, however, not kept up with empirical productivity. Research on aging and the family tended to respond to obvious social problems (such as caregiving for impaired relatives, housing, grandparents raising grandchildren), rather than consider theoretical issues (Lye, 1996). Perhaps the most popular organizing framework for understanding family relationships in later life is that which highlights intergenerational solidarity. A number of prominent researchers responded to Talcott Parsons's (1942, 1944) concern about the isolation of the nuclear family by proposing that extensive family actually existed (Litwak, 1965; Shanas et al., 1968; Sussman, 1959). Since the early 1970s, Bengtson and colleagues have continued and expanded this tradition in an influential series of articles and books (cf. Bengtson & Harootyan, 1994; Roberts, Richards, & Bengtson, 1991; Silverstein & Bengtson, 1997; Treas & Bengtson, 1988). The perspective been taken up by other researchers in the United States (Rein, 1994; Rossi & Rossi, 1990) and is also a reference point for European authors, although not without critical overtones (Attias-Donfut, 1995b; Bawin-Legros, Gauthier, & Strassen, 1995; Coenen-Huther, Kellerhals, & von Allmen, 1994; Donati, 1995; Finch & Mason, 1993). Some scholars have criticized the overly positive and consensual bias of the perspective. Research within the framework typically assumes that individuals' personal feelings-such as affection, attraction, and warmthserve to maintain cohesion in the family system (Sprey, 1991). Marshall, Matthews, and Rosenthal (1993) state that even the term solidarity indicates an emphasis on consensus. European writers have pointed out the value-laden origins of the term in proletarian movements and in religious social doctrine (Kleine, 1992; Luescher, 1997). As Roberts et al. (1991) themselves note, has been treated as the engine driving the pursuit of the common good within families (p. 12). Negative aspects of family life typically are interpreted in this view as an absence of solidarity. Research in this tradition tended to emphasize shared values across generations, normative obligations to provide help, and enduring ties between parents and children. However, at the same time that scholars in the tradition have emphasized mutual support and value consensus, another line of research focused on isolation, caregiver stress, family problems, conflict, and abuse (Marshall et al. …

Empowerment-Oriented Social Work Practice: Impact on Late Life Relationships of Women

SUMMARY Empowerment interventions promote egalitarian, strengths-based relationships through education, self-help, mutual support, consciousness raising, and social action activities. In this paper we describe the influence of empowerment-oriented group intervention on the relationships of older women. We conducted qualitative interviews with the women who participated in the group and the social workers who staffed the intervention activities. The findings suggest that, in addition to other empowerment outcomes, the older women participants developed sustaining relationships with each other and often seriously considered the nature of their other late life relationships. Thus, empowerment-oriented interventions can enhance the quality of life for older women, including the development and support of meaningful interpersonal relationships.

Behavioral Families and Multiple Causes: Matching the Complexity of Responses to the Complexity of Antecedents

1. E. dimming and W.E. Henry, Growing Old: The Process of Disengagement (Basic Books, New York, 1961). 2. R.W. Levenson, L.L. Carstensen, W.V. Frie sen, and P. Ekman, Emotion, physiology, and ex pression in old age, Psychology and Aging, 6, 28-35 (1991). 3. M.P. Lawton, M.H. Kleban, D. Rajagopal, and J. Dean, Dimensions of affective experience in three age groups, Psychology and Aging, 7, 171? 184(1992). 4. L.L. Carstensen and S. Turk-Charles, The sa lience of emotion across the adult life span, Psychol ogy of Aging, 9, 259-264 (1994). 5. L.L. Carstensen, Motivation for social contact across the life span: A theory of socioemotional se lectivity, in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 40. Developmental Perspectives on Motivation, J. Jacobs, Ed. (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1993). 6. L.L. Carstensen, Social and emotional pat terns in adulthood: Support for socioemotional se lectivity theory, Psychology and Aging, 7, 331-338 (1992). 7. P.B. Baltes, K.U. Mayer, H. Helmchen, and E. Steinhagen-Thiessen, The Berlin Aging Study (BASE): Overview and design, Ageing and Society, 73,483-515(1993). 8. F. Lang and L.L. Carstensen, Close emotional relationships in late life: Further support for proac tive aging in the social domain, Psychology and Ag ing, 9, 315-324(1994). 9. B.L. Fredrickson and L.L. Carstensen, Choos ing social partners: How old age and anticipated endings make people more selective, Psychology and Aging, 5, 335-347 (1990). 10. L.L. Carstensen and B.F. Fredrickson, Ag ing, illness and social preferences, paper presented at the International Congress of Psychology, Brus sels, Belgium (July 1992). 11. R.W. Levenson, L.L. Carstensen, and J.M. Gottman, Long-term marriage: Age, gender and sat isfaction, Psychology and Aging, 8, 301-313 (1993).

Social Isolation and Social Support: An Applied Perspective

Considerable empirical evidence substantiates the importance of social networks and support to health and well-being among the elderly. But considerably more research is necessary before successful interventions can be more generally implemented to positively alter an elder's network. In this article, the authors discuss social supportand isolationfrom an appliedperspective. They have combined presentations originally made at a National Institute on Aging-sponsored symposium on applied gerontology held in August 1992. They make some general observations concerning the field of applied social relations in later life, describe the mental health aspects of these relations, list some fundamental principles and existing technology for this field, describe the use of a brief screening instrument for social isolation developed by one of the authors (Lubben), and explore varying domains of knowledge concerning elder soical relations. They conclude by outlining some areas that they see as requiring the attention of an applications perspective to social support and isolation m the near future.