Prelims

Half Title

Aging and the Family

Series Page

CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES: IN FAMILY RESEARCH

Series Editor: Sampson Lee Blair

Recent Volumes:

Volume 1:Through the Eyes of the Child Re-visioning Children as Active Agents of Family Life – Edited by Michael Abrams, Johnson Matthey, B. A. Murrer, Felix M. Berardo, and Constance L. Shehan, 2000

Volume 2:Families, Crime and Criminal Justice Charting the Linkages – Edited by Greer Litton Fox and Michael L. Benson, 2000

Volume 3:Minding the Time in Family Experience Emerging Perspectives and Issues – Edited by Kerry Daly, 2001

Volume 4:I ntergenerational Ambivalences New Perspectives on Parent–Child Relations in Later Life – Edited by Karl A. Pillemer and Kurt K. Luscher, 2003

Volume 5:Families in Eastern Europe – Edited by Mihaela Robila, 2004

Volume 6:E conomic Stress and the Family – Edited by Sampson Lee Blair, 2012

Volume 7:Visions of the 21st Century Family: Transforming Structures and Identities – Edited by Patricia Neff Claster and Sampson Lee Blair, 2013

Volume 8A:Family Relationships and Familial Responses to Health Issues – Edited by Jennifer Higgins McCormick and Sampson Lee Blair, 2014

Volume 8B:Family and Health: Evolving Needs, Responsibilities, and Experiences – Edited by Sampson Lee Blair and Jennifer Higgins McCormick, 2014

Volume 9:Violence and Crime in the Family: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences – Edited by Sheila Royo Maxwell and Sampson Lee Blair, 2015

Volume 10:Divorce, Separation, and Remarriage: The Transformation of Family – Edited by Giovanna Gianesini and Sampson Lee Blair 2017

Volume 11:Intimate Relationships and Social Change: The Dynamic Nature of Dating, Mating, and Coupling – Edited by Christina L. Scott and Sampson Lee Blair 2018

Volume 12:Fathers, Childcare and Work – Edited By Arianna Santero and Rosy Musumeci, 2018

Volume 13:The Work–Family Interface: Spillover, Complications, and Challenges – Edited by Sampson Lee Blair and Josip Obradović, 2018

Volume 14:Childbearing and the Changing Nature of Parenting: The Contexts, Actors, and Experiences of Having Children – Edited by Rosalina Pisco Costa and Sampson Lee Blair, 2019

Volume 15:Transitions into Parenthood: Examining the Complexities of Childrearing – Edited by Sampson Lee Blair and Rosalina Pisco Costa

Volume 16:Chinese Families: Tradition, Modernisation, and Change – Edited by Man-Yee Kan and Sampson Le Blair

Editorial Board

Anja-Kristin Abendroth, Bielefeld University, Germany

Clarence M. Batan, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

Eli Buchbinder, University of Haifa, Israel

Yu-Hua Chen, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Patricia Neff Claster, Edinboro University, United States of America

Teresa M. Cooney, University of Colorado-Denver, United States of America

Rosalina Pisco Costa, University of Évora, Portugal

Alda Britto da Motta, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil

Olufemi Adeniyi Fawole, University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Ana Josefina Cuevas Hernandez, University of Colima, Mexico

Man-Yee Kan, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Marion Müller, University of Tuebingen, Germany

Josip Obradović, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Christina L. Scott, Whittier College, United States of America

Ria Smit, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Heidi M. Williams, Virginia Tech, United States of America

Title Page

CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES IN FAMILY RESEARCH Volume 17

Aging and the Family: Understanding Changes in Structural and Relationship Dynamics

Edited by

Patricia Neff Claster

Edinboro University, USA

Sampson Lee Blair

The State University of New York (Buffalo), USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80071-491-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-490-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-492-2 (Epub)

ISSN: 1530-3535 (Series)

Contents

About the Editors

Prof. Patricia Neff Claster is a family sociologist and Professor at Edinboro University, USA. Her research interests center on gender, intimate and parent-child relationships, and child and adolescent development. Her most recent research focuses on different familial and structural factors that influence the educational, occupational, marital and parenting aspirations of American adolescents. She has also recently authored a chapter in a collaborative introductory sociology textbook, Introduction to Sociology: A Collaborative Approach, 5th Edition.

She served as the Guest Editor for Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Volume 7. She was the Guest Editor for Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Volumes 19 and 21, and she published research in Volume 18. She serves on the editorial board for several journals including Sociological Inquiry, Youth and Society and the Journal of Sociology and Social Work. Since 2016, she has served as the senior editor for Sociological Viewpoints.

Dr. Sampson Lee Blair is a family sociologist and demographer at The State University of New York (Buffalo). His research focuses upon parent-child relationships, with particular emphasis on child and adolescent development. In 2010, he received the Fulbright Scholar Award from the U.S. Department of State, wherein he studied parental involvement and children’s educational attainment in the Philippines. He has examined a wide variety of relationship dynamics within families. His recent research has focused upon marriage and fertility patterns in China.

He has served as chair of the Children and Youth research section of the American Sociological Association, as senior editor of Sociological Inquiry, Guest Editor of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, and on the editorial boards of Asian Women, Journal of Applied Youth Studies, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, Journal of Family Issues, Marriage and Family Review, Social Justice Research, Sociological Inquiry, International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, and Sociological Viewpoints. He also serves on the international advisory board of Tambara, which is based at Ateneo de Davao University, in the Philippines. In 2018, he was elected as Vice-President (North America) of the Research Committee on Youth (RC34), in the International Sociological Association.

He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and has taught abroad as a visiting professor at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan) in the Philippines, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and at East China Normal University (Shanghai) in China. Since 2011, he has served as the editor of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research.

About the Authors

Anna-Lena Almqvist is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden. Her research focuses on youth and their families and social policy issues, often in a comparative perspective. Recent projects concern youth with complex needs, families with two mothers, and men’s anti-violence work. She has recently published in Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Men and Masculinities, and Community, Work & Family.

Els-Marie Anbäcken is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Mälardalen University. Her research is within the field of gerontological social work, with several studies on aging and care in Sweden and Japan. In recent years, “living with dementia in old age” has become central in her comparative studies, preferably with ethnographic methods. Existential issues in later life care are especially in focus.

J. Scott Brown, Ph.D., is a Professor in and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Gerontology and a Research Fellow with Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focused on inequalities in aging and health as well as courses on statistical methodology. His research interests are focused on wealth and health inequalities across the life course with particular emphasis on gender and race differences in physical and mental health. He has published numerous research articles and book chapters in these areas across a broad spectrum of journals including Demography, Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Social Forces, and Social Science & Medicine. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Education Statistics. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences. He received a B.A. in History and Sociology from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, an M.S. in Applied Sociology from Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, Durham, NC. Prior to joining the faculty of Miami University, he was an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

Seung-won Emily Choi is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas Tech University. Her research focuses on family dynamics and their implications for aging and health disparities over the life course. Her recent work examines how intergenerational relationships influence health in later life in the United States, South Korea, and China. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Research on Aging, Social Science Research, and other journals.

Rosalina Pisco Costa is a Sociologist, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, and affiliated researcher at CICS.NOVA – The Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences, Universidade de Évora, Portugal. She has a graduation in Sociology and a Master’s degree specialization in Family and Population studies. She was an FCT and Calouste Gulbenkian student scholar at the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life of the University of Manchester, under the supervision of Carol Smart. In 2011, she completed her Ph.D. in Social Sciences by the University of Lisbon, and in 2012, she was distinguished with the Early Stage Family Scholar Award by the International Sociological Association. Her research covers a broad range of issues regarding families, gender and personal life, childhood, everyday life, mobilities, and consumption studies, while crosswise exploring QDA software, qualitative, sensory, and creative social research methodologies. She has published widely and internationally, and her work appears in key publications such as The Wiley Encyclopedia of Family Studies, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, and The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Economics and Society. With Sampson Lee Blair, she co-edited the volumes “Childbearing and the Changing Nature of Parenthood” and “Transitions into Parenthood: Examining the Complexities of Childrearing” (Emerald, 2020).

Mira Čudina – Nationality: Croatian. Education: elementary and high school finished in Zagreb, Croatia. Graduated Psychology, Filozofski fakultet, University of Zagreb, Ph.D. in Psychology, Filozofski fakultet, University of Zagreb. Employment: Teachers’ College, University of Zagreb, Croatia; part-time employment at Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb. Part-time employment at Croatian Catholic University, Zagreb, Croatia. Teaching Interests and Experience: The main interest: applying research in various fields of Psychology to give students modern knowledge in teaching process and methods (courses in Developmental Psychology, Teaching Psychology, Emotions, Motivation, Teaching Gifted children, and Psychology of reading), for undergraduate and graduate students. Membership in organizations: Croatian Psychological Organization. Participation at professional meetings. Actively participated in more than 25 domestic and six international meetings. Publications: Published six books as co-author, five books as the only author, and more than 30 research papers in Croatian and English language.

Julian McKoy Davis has a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Policy. She is a Lecturer, Social Gerontologist, and the Team Lead for Community Outreach at Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. She has extensive project management, adult education and social gerontology experience having worked in the aging industry since 2007. Her areas of expertise include: financial preparation for retirement, social policy, and aging, social care, as well as disaster risk reduction and emergencies for older adults. She joined academia in 2014 and has published eight peer-reviewed journal articles. She is a Board Member of the National Council for Senior Citizens and has professional memberships in the Gerontological Society of America, the Canadian Association on Gerontology, and the International Federation on Aging.

Denise Eldemire-Shearer is a Professor of Public Health and Ageing and Executive Director, Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. She is a Medical Doctor by profession and maintains her clinical practice. She has been an Advocate and Researcher in the field of aging for more than 30 years. Her research has contributed to major policy development in Jamaica and across the Caribbean region. She completed two national studies on the social and health status of Jamaican older adults with the first study informing the National Policy for Senior Citizens. She has published 98 peer-reviewed journal articles, completed four technical reports, and undertaken several consultancies, and she is both a local and regional authority on aging and aging issues. She received the Pelican Award for contribution to aging, in the UWI, Jamaica and the Caribbean Region. Her public service contributions include: Patron of the National Council for Senior Citizens, Chairman of the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons, Member, Medical Association of Jamaica, Foundation Member, Caribbean Public Health Association, and Chairman, Board of Supervision among others. She has professional memberships in the WHO Advisory Group on Ageing & Health, Member, Gerontological Society of America, Member, and American Public Health Association.

Ashley E. Ermer, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Science and Human Development at Montclair State University. Her research focuses on examining how the social environment matters for older adults, including forgiveness, in the context of health and social relationships. Her research pertains to social relationships, particularly romantic relationships and friendships, older adulthood, and well-being. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Science with a graduate minor in Gerontology Studies from the University of Missouri in 2017.

Emily Franzosa is an Assistant Professor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a Research Health Science Specialist at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. Her research focuses on developing collaborative interventions to support frontline healthcare workers, particularly home care workers, and more effectively integrate them into care teams. This work aims to leverage the expertise of the workers who perform vital day-to-day care but are often marginalized and excluded from decision-making around patient care and administrative policy. She is an expert in qualitative methods and has led several qualitative studies exploring home care workers’ contributions to quality care and the unique emotional demands of this work, and the impact of health system consolidation on the structure of healthcare jobs and access to care for older low-income and uninsured residents.

Cassandra L. Hua is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brown School of Public Health in the Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice. She has received her bachelor’s degree in Aging Studies from the University of South Florida. In addition to earning her Master’s in Gerontological Studies, she obtained her Doctorate in Gerontology from Miami University. She has additional certification in Geographic Information Systems and applied statistics from Miami University. She is interested in identifying ways to improve the quality of care provided to older adults in long-term services and supports (LTSS) through applied health services research. Although she is interested in the spectrum of LTSS, her current work mostly focuses on the assisted living setting. She has published work in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, the Journal of Applied Gerontology, and the Journal of the National Medical Association. She is currently working to identify factors associated with potentially preventable and injury-related emergency department use in assisted living settings, especially among vulnerable residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Other areas of interest include serious mental illness in assisted living and disaster preparedness in long-term care communities.

Dr. Phan Thi Mai Huong is a High Senior Researcher of the Institute of Psychology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) and an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Vietnam Graduate Academy of Social Sciences (GASS). She received her M.A. in Psychology in Seoul (South Korea) in 1997 and Ph.D. in Psychology in 2002 from VASS. In addition to teaching for graduate program in GASS, she has given lectures for graduate program in Vietnam National University at Hanoi and some Vietnam other Universities. Her publications include many books, articles in Vietnamese and some monographs, articles in English on Research Method on Psychology, Collectivism – Individualism and Self-concept, Emotion in Working Place, Marriage Satisfaction, Students’ Happiness at school, Children and Pocket Money, and Adolescence’s Apathy in Family. She is interested in doing research in emotion, educational, and social psychology.

Jinhee Hyun, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Daegu University, Korea. Her major research interests are trauma, abuse, community mental health, and clinical social work. She has recently published “Psychosocial support during the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea” in the Journal of Korean Medical Science, “Impact of client suicide on mental health social workers” in the Korean Journal of Social Welfare Education, and “The effect of resiliency training program for child protection agency counselors to prevent secondary traumatic stress” in the Journal of the Korea Contents Association.

Kenneth James is a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Master of Public Health Programme in the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry at the University of the West Indies. He is a Medical Doctor by profession and maintains his clinical practice. He has over 20 years’ experience in the field of public health as a physician and a researcher. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in addition to participating in several small community- and hospital-based studies, and two large national studies on aging; serving as Lead Statistician and Study Design Expert. He has professional membership in the American Public Health Association and the American Association of University Professionals.

Carl Johansson is an M.Sc. in Social Work and Ph.D. candidate in Social Work at Mälardalen University. In his doctoral thesis, he illuminates aging from the perspective of welfare theory of health, in an attempt to bridge the problem of giving culturally relevant care with reduced risk of othering older adults with an immigrant background.

Kazushige Kinugasa, Ph.D., was Professor and Dean of Faculty of Welfare and Health Science, Oita University, until March 2019. His research focuses on the “Values and Principles in Social Work Practice,” with fieldwork in the hospital and community. Recent projects concern “empowerment evaluation” of community activities for social work and community psychology. He has the role of supervisor for the community empowerment evaluation in Oita and Fukuoka prefecture. He has recently published “Empowerment Evaluation: For the community empowerment practitioners.” Fukumura Shuppan Publishing, Tokyo, August 2020.

Hien T. La, born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam, is currently working as a Senior Research Assistant at Peerless Insights, a market research firm based in San Francisco, CA. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Miami University in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Sociology (with Departmental Honors). She received the Betty Kent Memorial Undergraduate Research Award from Miami University’s Department of Sociology and Gerontology for her senior project, “The Relationship among Caregiving Duration, Paid Leave, and Caregiver Burden.” Her previous work – “Framing Boko Haram’s female suicide bombers in mass media: an analysis of news articles post-Chibok abduction” – was published in Critical Studies on Terrorism, an international, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that focuses on terrorism, counter-terrorism, and state terror. She is interested in exploring different areas of social policy, particularly education reform, economic inequality, access to health care, poverty, immigration, and political and sociological theory. In the future, she hopes to broaden her research skills and knowledge by pursuing a master’s degree.

Jin Sook Lee, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Daegu University, Korea. Her major research interests are currently family policy and population policy from a gender perspective. Her recent projects are focused on policy dynamics in child care policy caused by policy interest groups. She has recently published a research paper with the title “A study on the changing trajectory of domestic work time of married couples” in Korean Studies of Social Welfare.

Kelsey N. Mattingly is a Doctoral Candidate in Sociology at the University of Georgia. She holds a master’s from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s from the Mahurin Honors College at Western Kentucky University, both in Sociology. Prior to starting her doctorate she worked as an Analyst in higher education and is a former Fulbright scholar. Her main program of research focuses on social-psychological processes of well-being, gender, and emotion in social networks and family relationships in the context of aging and the life course.

Dr Nguyen Huu Minh is a High Senior Researcher of the Institute for Family and Gender Studies (IFGS), Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) and the President of Vietnam Sociological Association (VSA, 2017–2022). He is also a Professor of Sociology and Chair of Scientific Committee of Department of Social Work, Vietnam Graduate Academy of Social Sciences (GASS). He received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1998 from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. He is a Former Director of the IFGS (2005–2017), Former Editor-in-Chief of the Vietnam Journal of Family and Gender Studies (2010–2018), Former Vice-Director of the Institute of Sociology (1999–2005). In addition to teaching for graduate program in GASS, he has given lectures for graduate program in Sociology and Social Work in Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities at Ho Chi Minh City, Journalism Academy, and some other Universities. His publications include many books, articles in Vietnamese and some monographs, book chapters, articles in English on Urban studies, marriage studies, family relations studies, gender equality, and empowerment of women in Vietnam. He is interested in doing research on marriage and family relations, gender relation, and elderly people.

Dr. Chitra S. Nair started her career as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Government K.N.M. College, Thiruvananthapuram under the University of Kerala in 2015. Her major research interests include gender, ageing, well-being, happiness, and quality of life studies. She is a Member of International Sociological Association, International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS), Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), Indian Sociological Society, and other professional bodies of national importance. She has published research works in books and international journals. She has presented papers at the conferences of ISQOLS at University of Innsbruck, Austria (2017), ISA World Sociological Congress at Toronto, Canada (2018), and Asian Conference on Gerontology at Tokyo, Japan (2019). She received Educational Grant Award from ISQOLS held at University of Granada, Spain in 2019 and Best Paper Award at the 4th Biennial International Conference on Ageing Well in 2020. Her ongoing research focuses on improving the quality of life and happiness of the aged people, social exclusion and human rights issues of the aged, life course of centenarians, and understanding the indigenous approaches to “Healthy Ageing.” Her social engagements include advocacy for aged through local self-governments, NGOs, student-level interventions, industrial partners, and academic institutions. As a member of the International Research Network of Hope Barometer at University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, she is collaborating with the Hope Barometer Survey along with 17 countries from across the world. She is an Internal Mentor for Walk With the Scholar Program and Scholar Support Program initiated by the Government of Kerala. Her orientations are toward Outcome-Based Education processes. She is also an Active Member of Fostering Linkages in Academic Innovation and Research (FLAIR) program by Collegiate Education Department and has received training from Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

Miho Obata is a Ph.D. candidate at Doshisha University and Master of Social Welfare Administration, Oita University. Her research focuses on the value of Social Work and Medical Welfare Policy. She is also currently a Medical Social Worker at Oita Pre. Kouseiren TSURUMI Hospital, an acute care hospital.

Josip Obradović – Nationality: Croatian. Education: elementary and high school finished in Zagreb, Croatia; graduated Psychology and Philosophy at Filozofski fakultet, University of Zagreb, achieved Ph.D. in Sociology, Filozofski fakultet, University of Zagreb. Employment: Department of Sociology, Filozofski fakultet, University of Zagreb; part-time employment at Institut for Social Research, University of Zagreb; Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb; Presently at Croatian Catholic University, Zagreb, Croatia. Fellowships: Ford Foundation Fellow: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley. Visiting Professorships: New York University, New York, USA, two times at University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA; University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Fulbright Professorship at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, USA. Visiting scholar: Aston University, Birmingham, Great Britain; Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; University of Warwick, Coventry, Great Britain. Teaching Interests and Experience: Teaching 14 different courses in Psychology and Sociology of work and marriage for undergraduate and graduate students in Croatian and English language at Croatian and North American universities. Invited lectures: Giving talks at about 30 universities in European, North, and South American countries. Membership in organizations: American Psychological Organization, American Sociological Organization, Croatian Psychological Organization, Croatian Sociological Organization. National Council of Family Relations. Participation in professional meetings. Actively participating in more than 50 domestic and international meetings. Publications: As co-author or co-editor published 14 books and more than 100 research papers in Croatian and English language.

Young Joon Park, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Daegu University, Korea. His research focuses on social welfare research methodology. His research on children and school social welfare focuses on causal relationships (SEM) through a panel study, which is secondary data analysis. He has recently published a study on child abuse, school adaptation with the title “End-of-life decision making in older Korean adults.”

Nekehia T. Quashie has a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of Utah, USA. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty Social Sciences at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the College of Population Studies at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Her research interests include population aging in low- and middle-income countries, family, health, migration, and social inequality. Her research agenda lies at the intersections of family, health, and well-being in later life to address how structural conditions, such as social welfare policies and socioeconomic inequality, shape families’ roles in social support and the well-being of older adults in a comparative international perspective. Her geographic areas of interest include Latin America and the Caribbean, South-East Asia, and Europe. Her peer-reviewed journal articles have been published in International Migration, The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences, The International Journal of Cardiology, The Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, the Journal of Applied Gerontology, and Ageing and Society. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Comparative Family Studies and has Professional Memberships in the American Sociological Association, the Gerontological Society of America, the Population Association of America, the European Sociological Association, and the European Association of Population Studies.

Brynn Thompson is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Butler Community College in Kansas. Her research focuses on the practical experiences of older adults in the United States. She holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from Wichita State University and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Aging Studies. Outside of academia she enjoys traveling, cooking, gardening, and spending time with her family and anthropologist husband, Bryan C. Thompson.

Emma K. Tsui is an Associate Professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy in the Department of Community Health and Social Sciences. She studies the health and well-being of marginalized workers, in the context of the social, political, and economic forces that shape their work, health, and lives. In this way, her research illuminates the many ways that life at work and life outside of work and at home interact and overlap. In addition to understanding these dynamics, her research seeks to make worker-informed policy recommendations and to develop participatory interventions to improve worker health, particularly in the area of work stress. She is also an Expert in the use of qualitative research to study worker health, and has experience using both longstanding qualitative methods like ethnography and oral history, as well as more emergent methods, like digital storytelling. Her current research on home care workers’ experiences of client death is funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Douladel Willie-Tyndale has a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health. She is a Lecturer and the Coordinator of graduate Gerontology Programmes at the University of the West Indies (UWI). She is the Team Lead for Research and Training at the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre, UWI. She is committed to undertaking research that improves the health and well-being of individuals and populations. Since 2006 she has been involved in health research at different levels, beginning with graduate training in epidemiology and progressing to participate as Co-investigator for a few studies conducted in Jamaica. She has interests in the areas of sexual and genitourinary health of older adults, social participation, and aging, as well as the built environment and older adults. She has published 15 peer-reviewed journal articles, two technical reports, and participated in two national studies on aging. She is a Member of the Mona Campus Research Ethics Committee (UWI) and has professional memberships in the Gerontological Society of America and the International Federation on Aging.

Yiqing Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Western Carolina University. She earned her Ph.D. in 2016 from the University of Utah. She also holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool, UK. As a sociologist studying health and aging, she has been interested in how the cultural, political, psychosocial, familial, and community factors affect the health and aging experiences of different cohorts in China and in the United States. Her work involves both statistical analysis of large sample secondary data and various forms of primary data collection involving survey, mixed-methods design, longitudinal qualitative interviews, and diary method.

Zhenmei Zhang is a Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. Her research interests include family dynamics and health in the United States, China, and South Korea, the influence of early life environment on cognitive aging, and racial and ethnic disparities in health. Her recent projects, supported by the National Institute on Aging, investigate marital biography and the risk of dementia among older Americans. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Journal of Marriage and Family, Research on Aging, and elsewhere.

Foreword

In Greek mythology, the story of Tithonus has long served as a lens through which aging has been regarded and defined. Although he was mortal, Tithonus was in love with Eos, the Goddess of Dawn. Recognizing that their relationship would come to an end with his eventual death, Eos asked her father, Zeus, to grant Tithonus immortality. As is often the case with myths, a horrible twist ensued, as Eos neglected to ask that her father grant Tithonus eternal youth, in addition to immortality. As a consequence, she remained young, while her lover continued to age, ultimately losing both his physical and mental capacities, along the way. Unable to die, he became a decaying husk, causing even his lover to recoil in fear and disgust. Aging is most certainly a natural and normal aspect of life, as we all grow older and, like Tithonus, begin to experience diminished capacities, as a consequence. Of course, while aging is a process through which we all, as individuals, will experience, it is also a process which affects families, both in terms of family structures and family relationships.

Understanding aging within the familial context begins with the recognition that, just as individuals age, so too do families. Borrowing the perspectives of developmental psychology, which emphasize the stages of life through which individuals pass, family life cycle theorists have long pointed to the fact that families go through an analogous series of developmental stages. Typically beginning with young couples with no children, families begin to establish roles and normative expectations concerning the nature of family structures and relationships. As both parents and children age, their relationships begin to change, as well, and they move as a family through the various stages. Ultimately, children begin to exit the home, going off to establish their own adult lives, while parents typically remain, and begin their passage through middle adulthood and their elderly years. These later stages, involving a multitude of issues concerning aging, are the focus of researchers from a wide variety of disciplines.

Families have a multitude of issues which accompany aging. Individual family members, as they age, often require assistance from younger members. Frequently, adult children, and even grandchildren, provide physical assistance, emotional support, and financial aid to elderly family members. In many instances, such support is reciprocal, with elderly family members supporting younger ones. These forms of assistance can, at times, place considerable strains and burdens upon families. Of course, aging also impacts the nature of relationships, not only across generations, but also those within generations, such as sibling relationships. And, understandably, aging affects spousal relationships, as the additional concerns about physical, cognitive, and financial stressors are often quite problematic, causing considerable burdens. Across all of these issues, it is also necessary to recognize that aging does not occur within a social vacuum – aging and its ensuing impact upon families will vary tremendously across cultures, social classes, and most notably, across gender.

Over the past century, demographic shifts have served to create many of the aging issues which contemporary family researchers are now examining. Within the majority of modern, post-industrialized societies, life expectancy has increased, while fertility rates have declined. A combination of urbanization, increased materialism, and cultural change has all contributed to these demographic shifts. Many societies now have expanding populations of the elderly, with substantially smaller populations of youth. Such population change has consequences for everything from intergenerational relations to familial norms concerning the role of elderly family members. Simply, aging and its related consequences have moved to the forefront of familial concerns. Within this volume of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, a collection of researchers from around the globe examine many of the aforementioned issues within families, as they relate to how aging affects family structures and relationship dynamics.

In terms of the provision of care to elderly family members, the variations across cultures can sometimes be quite substantial. In order to better illustrate such differences, Els-Marie Anbäcken, Anna-Lena Almqvist, Carl Johansson, Kazushige Kinugasa, Miho Obata, Jinhee Hyun, Jinsook Lee, and Young Joon Park examine how societal change has affected the roles and familial expectations regarding elderly care. In “Older Adults and Care: Reshaped Family Roles in Societal Change. A Comparative Study between Japan, South Korea, and Sweden,” their team of researchers find that, while government programs and assistance for the elderly have changed, the role of family in such care is undergoing change, as well. Nguyen Huu Minh and Phan Thi Mai Huong find a similar trend in their research concerning elderly care in Vietnam. In “The Care of Older Adults in The Vietnamese Family and Related Issues,” they find that, although traditional cultural norms place the responsibilities of elderly care upon their respective families, there is a wide array of social, economic, and demographic changes which have made such care increasingly difficult and tenuous. As with many countries, government social services are needed to take on the burdens of elderly care, but such programs and policies are often slow to be created and implemented, which can lead to considerable challenges for the elderly.

The care of elderly family members, while often performed by family members, is also supplemented in very tangible ways by paid caregivers. In “ “Family Members do Give Hard Times”: Home Health Aides’ Perceptions of Worker–Family Dynamics in the Home Care Setting,” Emily Franzosa and Emma K. Tsui examine the experiences of home health aides, with a particular focus upon their perceptions of the relationships they have with family caregivers. They find that home health aides regard themselves as essential to the care of their elderly patients, but that there is a delicate nature to their roles, relative to those of family caregivers. In their study, they offer several useful recommendations for how home health agencies could better define and negotiate the boundaries of care with family members. The dilemmas encountered by paid caregivers is further illustrated by Hien T. La, Cassandra L. Hua, and J. Scott Brown, in “The Relationship among Caregiving Duration, Paid Leave, and Caregiver Burden.” Using a large sample of paid caregivers, they find a significant linkage between the length of care and the overall burden borne by caregivers. The burdens upon caregivers are quite substantial, and given their tendency to increase over time, there exists a need for support programs for the caregivers.

While elderly family members who are in need of care is a frequent focus of researchers, care, and support within families can also occur wherein the elderly members of families are the care providers. In such instances, a multitude of factors can impact the forms and patterns of support. In “Gender Differences in Grandparent Caregiving and Life Satisfaction of Older Jamaicans,” Nekehia T. Quashie, Julian G. McKoy Davis, Douladel Willie-Tyndale, Kenneth James, and Denise Eldemire-Shearer examine patterns of caregiving provided by grandparents. Using data from a large and nationally representative sample from Jamaica, the team of researchers finds that while there remains a gendered dimension to caregiving, both grandfathers and grandmothers experience significant increases in life satisfaction, as a consequence of their provision of care. Understandably, the roles played by grandparents, and their subsequent impact upon grandmothers and grandfathers, may vary from one culture to another. In “Caregiving Grandmothers and Depressive Symptoms in South Korea,” Seung-won Emily Choi and Zhenmei Zhang analyze data from a large survey of aging in South Korea, with a specific focus upon how grandparenting affects the mental well-being of grandmothers. In their study, they find that active involvement in grandmothering is associated with declines in depressive symptoms, for those who live in multigenerational households with age. However, non-caregiving grandmothers are shown to experience increases in depressive symptoms with age.

Families and family roles are constantly evolving in conjunction with changing societal characteristics, yet in many instances, familial norms and expectations have existed for a considerably long time. In “The Meaning of ‘Filial Piety’ to Older Chinese Parents,” Yiqing Yang uses qualitative data, collected in rural China, to examine how one of the core traits of Chinese families – filial piety – is perceived by contemporary elderly family members. While China has undergone considerable change over recent decades, involving economic, political, and cultural change, filial piety is shown to remain as a core element of family life. There is, though, a recognition that, like so many other facets of family, filial piety does appear to be evolving. The perceptions of elderly family members can have far-reaching effects upon younger family members, as well. In “Geography Matters. The Role of Non-cohabiting Elderly in the Individuals’ Perception about the Quality of Life in a Medium-sized Portuguese City,” Rosalina Pisco Costa investigates how younger family members regard elderly family members, and the associated impacts which such perceptions have upon their lives. Through the use of qualitative data, she finds that younger family members have a very positive perception of older parents and grandparents, but also that the proximity of these family members has influence such perceptions. Demographic change, and particularly change involving residential patterns, may have substantial consequences for the perceptions of the elderly, as well as their involvement with other family members. The context of culture is again illustrated in “Being Women and Growing Old: Social Construction of Identities and Experiences of Ageing in Contemporary Indian Families.” Using a mixed methodology approach, Chitra S. Nair examines how family structure and roles within Hindu families may affect the well-being of elderly women in India. Above and beyond the feminization of aging, demographic changes and traditional gendered norms often result in elderly women leading somewhat isolated lives, detached from familial roles. Nonetheless, the family represents the most important social context for older women.

The familial context, involving everyone from adult children, grandchildren, and extended kin, is certainly an important part of elderly individuals’ lives. However, understanding aging and the family also requires an examination of the more intimate and personal relationships of the elderly. In “Sexual Satisfaction in Long-term Marriages: Studying the Effect of Nonsexual Predictors in Old Couples,” Josip Obradović and Mira Čudina investigate the sexual satisfaction among long-term couples. Using data from older married couples in Croatia, they find that, while sexual factors are reliable predictors of sexual satisfaction, there are also a wide variety of nonsexual factors, such as emotional intimacy, recreational intimacy, physical attractiveness, participation in key decision-making, and marital quality, which likewise influence partners’ perceptions of sexual satisfaction. Kelsey N. Mattingly, in “Parental Divorce and Social Support Networks in Younger and Older Adults: Extending Modes of Biographical Disruption,” further explores the disruptive impact of parental divorce upon the social support networks of adult children. Through the application of biographical disruption models, the findings suggest that the long-term effects of parental divorce are rather complicated, but do have substantial consequences for the relationships and support networks of adult children.

Relationships in later life are often fraught with difficulty, as the aging process itself sometimes hampers individuals’ ability to remain active with their respective peer networks. In “Social Network Experiences of Older Adults: Differences by Gender and Relationship Status,” Ashley E. Ermer explores how relationship status and gender are associated with the social network experiences of older adults. Using a nationally representative sample from the United States, the study reveals how marital status produces a substantial effect upon the extent to which older adults are actively engaged with their social networks. Although gender differences are shown to be quite substantial, these differences are also intertwined with marital status. In the final chapter of this volume, Brynn Thompson examines the relationship between sexual satisfaction and marital satisfaction, among older adults. The sexual lives of elderly couples are often frequently overlooked by researchers, but in “Marital Satisfaction in Older Adults,” the sexual quality of their relationships is shown to have considerable impact upon marital satisfaction. Gender, along with other factors, are also shown to influence marital satisfaction, but the findings do underscore the need for researchers to address the effects of sexual behavior upon other aspects of elderly individuals’ lives.

This volume of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research proposed a closer examination of how aging and its related processes affect families, both in terms of structural and relationship dynamics. Around the globe, there are numerous forms of societal change, including demographic shifts, urbanization, economic growth, political upheavals, and cultural transitions, to name just a few. Collectively, these are changing the nature of aging itself and, of course, the lives of elderly family members. The studies included in this volume demonstrate that aging has far-reaching effects upon families, involving not just the elderly themselves, but all other family members and even those within their larger peer networks. By examining the nature of aging within the familial context, including its impacts upon the elderly and their respective families, researchers and practitioners may yet achieve a better understanding of new directions for future research and new ways of assisting those who are in need of aid as they go through the aging processes. We extend our sincere gratitude to all of the authors for their important contributions to this volume, and also to all of the anonymous reviewers who provided thoughtful and detailed reviews.

Patricia Neff Claster

Sampson Lee Blair