African American Elders: The Support Network of Generational Kin

Luckey, Irene

doi:10.1177/104438949407500203

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Similarly, we suggest that in families in which all of the children have graduated from university, mothers will be less likely to differentiate regarding which child they prefer to turn to for help with care or in the face of a crisis; this is because all children who completed university are likely to have similarly high levels of financial and informational resources and the time flexibility generally associated with professional occupations (Luckey, 1994;Merrill, 1997). We believe that the same processes will lead mothers to be less likely to differentiate in families in which all of their children are employed.…”

Section: Children's Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 94%

When Mothers Have Favourites: Conditions under Which Mothers Differentiate among Their Adult Children

2007

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Research has shown that mothers often differentiate among their adult children in terms of closeness and support; however, studies have not addressed why some mothers report preferences among children and others do not. To distinguish between mothers who do and do not report favouring some of their adult children, we used data from a within-family study in which 553 older mothers were interviewed about each of their children. Almost all of the mothers reported differentiating among their children regarding emotional closeness, confiding, or preference among caregivers. Multivariate analyses revealed that mothers' values and mother-child value similarity predicted which mothers differentiated among their children regarding closeness and confiding, whereas mothers' and children's demographic characteristics predicted which mothers differentiated regarding preferred caregivers. Black mothers were less likely than white mothers to differentiate when seeking a confidant; however, race played no role in mothers' likelihood of differentiating regarding emotional closeness or help during illness. Taken together, these findings indicate that differentiating among adult children is common; further, family-level predictors of mothers' differentiating mirror the patterns shown in dyad-level analyses of mothers' favouritism.

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Section: Children's Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 94%

When Mothers Have Favourites: Conditions under Which Mothers Differentiate among Their Adult Children

2007

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“…Moreover, the principle of substitution-a phenomenon in which nieces and nephews serve as children when an older person is childless (Luckey, 1994;Perry & Johnson, 1994)-is more prevalent among African Americans than among European Americans (Johnson & Barer, 1990;Troll, 1994). At the same time, interactions with acquaintances are less frequent among African Americans than among European Americans.…”

Section: Ethnic Differences In Social Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Patterns in Social Networks among European Americans and African Americans: Implications for Socioemotional Selectivity across the Life Span

Fung

Carstensen

Lang

2001

Int J Aging Hum Dev

231

187

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Socioemotional selectivity theory contends that as people become increasingly aware of limitations on future time, they are increasingly motivated to be more selective in their choice of social partners, favoring emotionally meaningful relationships over peripheral ones. The theory hypothesizes that because age is negatively associated with time left in life, the social networks of older people contain fewer peripheral social partners than those of their younger counterparts. This study tested the hypothesis among African Americans and European Americans, two ethnic groups whose social structural resources differ. Findings confirm the hypothesis. Across a wide age range (18 to 94 years old) and among both ethnic groups, older people report as many emotionally close social partners but fewer peripheral social partners in their networks as compared to their younger counterparts. Moreover, a greater percentage of very close social partners in social networks is related to lower levels of happiness among the young age group, but not among the older age groups. Implications of findings for adaptive social functioning across the life span are discussed.

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“…1 The focus is twofold: (a) to ethnographically contextualize the home-helper program and some of the people who use it through detailed description and (b) to consider how this program is conceptualized both by those who provide care and those who use the program. It can be argued that the home-helper program in Japan represents a compensatory approach to elder care (Cantor, 1991;Luckey, 1994;cf. Williams & Dilworth-Anderson, 2002), which relies on institutionalized 2 care systems to augment family-provided care and social support.…”

Section: Independence Security and The Intergenerational Social Conmentioning

confidence: 99%

Independence, Security, and the Intergenerational Social Contract: Home-Helper Services and Elder Care in Rural Japan

Traphagan¹

2003

Care Management Journals

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For several years, demographic trends and changing ideas about responsibilities for elder care in Japan have contributed to the desire, or need, for families to seek out new care approaches. This article focuses on one alternative to traditional approaches to caring for elder family members--the home-helper program that is available through the Japanese long-term care insurance program. Using ethnographic data collected in northern Japan, it will be argued that the home-helper program forms a compensatory elder care system that is intended to augment family-provided care and social support, rather than to promote independent living. This compensatory approach to elder care is based upon an intergenerational social contract in which it is assumed that some degree of dependence on family members is both an expected and preferred outcome of growing old.

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African American Elders: The Support Network of Generational Kin

Cited by 14 publications

References 14 publications

When Mothers Have Favourites: Conditions under Which Mothers Differentiate among Their Adult Children

When Mothers Have Favourites: Conditions under Which Mothers Differentiate among Their Adult Children

Age-Related Patterns in Social Networks among European Americans and African Americans: Implications for Socioemotional Selectivity across the Life Span

Independence, Security, and the Intergenerational Social Contract: Home-Helper Services and Elder Care in Rural Japan

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