The Perspectives of Older Greek-Australians Toward Changes in the Nature of Family Support: Implications for Family Care Policies

Internationally, public policies encourage “aging in place,” and the majority of older Australians requiring care in the community receive informal care, supplemented by publicly subsidized formal services. The effect of contemporary social changes on informal care in aging migrant communities is poorly understood. This articles explores the perceptions of older Greek-Australians toward changes in the nature of family support. Bicultural and bilingual researchers carried out in-depth interviews (n?=?27) and five focus groups (n?=?63 total participants) with older Greek-Australians in modern Greek. While “cultures of care” remain among Greek-Australian families, the means for a family to assist have shifted, and these compromises are met with considerable powerlessness among older Greek-Australians. Implications for policy include the need to better involve older migrants and their families in decisions about their care needs, potentially involving consumer-directed care models. Service providers may also need to adopt the use of new technologies to communicate with increasingly time-pressured family members.     

Cross-border journeys and minority monks: the making of Buddhist places in southwest China

This article investigates the practice and social meanings of cross-border journeys of Dai minority monks, in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. These journeys play a vital part in Theravada revivalism in this border region. In the early 1990s, the Dai monks left Xishuangbanna to pursue their Buddhist studies in Thailand, thereby experiencing Thai culture and society. I will show not only that transnational networks among the Tai peoples in the upper Mekong region have played a crucial role in this religious movement, but also that the transnational Theravada networks enable and are partly constituted by the cross-border journeys of Dai exiles and minority monks, which strengthen and enhance the Dai ability to persist, revive, and maintain their locality and cultural identity. It is these cultural practices which contribute to and formulate the making of Dai places within the power contexts of state displacement, regional trade and development in Southwest China.     

Anglophone marriage-migrants in Southern Europe: a study of expat nationalism and integration dynamics

Today marriage-migration remains the dominant form of naturalization in Italy and Greece, even for women from such high-income countries as the USA. Pilot studies of intra-OECD female migrants to Southern Europe show that the majority of them marry local men, consider their matrimony a mistake, and feel isolated. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive knowledge about dynamics of their socio-cultural integration or expat nationalism (although scholarship generally acknowledges a strong relationship between these two processes). Based on narrative-biographic interviews with 60 Anglophone female expatriates married to Italian and Greek men, our study explores the women's negotiation of culture within the context of their Italian and Greek families, and looks at emerging challenges for their integration. We show that these women are nationalistic and culturally stringent actors, who often find it extremely difficult fully to learn and integrate to the new cultures of Southern Europe.     

Family Relationships,Social Connections,and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Older Adults in International Migrant Families

This study explored whether and how family relationships and social connections influence depressive symptoms of older migrants and older adults in transnational families using the data gathered from a cross-sectional survey in Los Angeles, California, United States, and Beijing, China. Regression results showed that the older migrants reported significantly higher levels of depression than the elders in transnational families. The findings highlight the importance of maintaining close family relations and having large friendship networks for older adults in international migrant families.     

Peace in the Twenty-First Century: States,Capital, and Multilateral Institutions versus Positionality Arbitrage,Everyday Mobility,Networks, and Multi-verticality

The ‘long peace’ of the last 25 years has been marked by various debates on liberal-democratic peace, human rights, and cosmopolitanism. They are all linked with various forms of intervention—from development to peacebuilding and humanitarian intervention. This ‘interventionary system/order’ model has come under pressure from a range of different fronts. This article examines how peace and development may be rethought in a global framework if the previous version of a progressive framework (i.e. the liberal peace) is now being revised and intervention has shifted towards neo-liberal forms.     

Ageing in the bush: The role of rural places in maintaining identity for long term rural residents and retirement migrants in north-east Victoria,Australia

As a consequence of local population ageing, which is more pronounced in rural areas, the issue of maintaining a positive quality of life for rural older people is attracting significant attention. While environmental psychology theory has advocated the role of place identity in defining the self, there has been little applied research exploring how this occurs in later life. This exploratory, qualitative study (n = 16) utilises 6 and 7 identity process theory to investigate how rural older Australians (retirement migrants and long-term residents) use place to sustain and build a sense of self at a time when many are susceptible to age-related loss. The paper draws on the concepts of distinctiveness, continuity, self-esteem and self-efficacy in order to explore how place identity is supported and maintained. Findings suggest that rural places are beneficial in terms of identity maintenance, with differences between long term and more recent rural residents. Furthermore, findings also highlight that place-related change or growth can potentially threaten older people’s identification as a ‘rural’ person.     

Life-Stage and Mobility: An Exploratory GPS Study of Mobility in Multigenerational Families,Ahmedabad, India

As the population of older adults in India grows, research is needed to plan a sustainable future for India’s older adults. This article reports results from a Global Positioning System (GPS)–based pilot study that examined the mobility of middle-class, older adults living in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Using mobility as a lens through which to examine the lives of older adults, we map potential research and identify policy areas of interest considering older adults in urban India. The study explores the role of life stage in mobility as well as the effects of gender and urban environment on mobility. Using this distinctive perspective on day-to-day life, we propose themes through which, using policy and planning tools, the living environments of older adults in Indian cities can be improved. These policy measures include focusing on walkability and pedestrian safety in residential areas and building on existing mixed land use to create high accessibility to goods and services in urban environments.     

Labour Mobility in East Africa: An Analysis of the East African Community's Common Market and the Free Movement of Workers

This article advocates an institutional perspective in analysing labour mobility, since rules governing cross‐border labour markets are an embodiment of access and participation rights, and can determine the formalisation or informalisation of work and the protection and benefits accrued by migrant workers. It examines the East African Community's Common Market Protocol of July 2010, which seeks to promote the ‘free movement of workers’ within the Community. It argues that there are contradictions and inconsistencies in implementing the Protocol and provides recommendations for addressing them.     

Getting by with a Little Help from Workplace Friends: Workplace Culture,Social Support,and Family Cohesion

Studies have shown a negative association between certain aspects of workplace culture and family functioning. Using a neo-institutional framework, we examine whether workplace social support moderates the influence of three features of workplace culture—time demands, work pressure, and work strain—on family cohesion. Analyzing survey data from 312 individuals in dual-earner relationships, we control for number of children, education, income, employment status, and occupational status. We find that workplace social support is directly associated with family cohesion but does not serve as a buffer between dimensions of workplace culture and family cohesion.     

The Role of Father’s Occupation on Intergenerational Educational and Occupational Mobility: The Case of Second‐Generation Chinese Americans in New York1

A considerable body of research has found a positive relationship between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s educational achievement and attainment. The predictive role of parents’ socioeconomic status generally applies for most racial and ethnic groups, but that association does not always hold for groups that exhibit high levels of education, such as Asian Americans. This article considers the role of parents’ education and occupation on children’s educational and occupational attainment for Chinese Americans aged 18–32. The results corroborate the positive link between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s educational and occupational attainments. Children of professionals command an educational and occupational advantage over children of entrepreneurs and children of manual workers. Yet, the children of entrepreneurs attend selective colleges and obtain professional occupations in proportions closely following those of the children of professionals. Although the educational attainments between the fathers who worked as entrepreneurs and those fathers engaged in manual work were comparable, it was the children of entrepreneurs who surpassed the children of manual workers with respect to educational and occupational achievement and attainment. This suggests that immigrant entrepreneurship contributes in the upward educational and occupational mobility of the children of entrepreneurs.     

Intergenerational Mobility in East Asian Countries: A Comparative Study of Japan, Korea and China

Abstract:  There have been fewer cross-national comparative works on social mobility in East Asian countries than in Western countries. The present study aims to explore the similarities and differences of intergenerational social mobility in three East Asian countries and to examine whether the Featherman–Jones–Hauser (FJH) hypothesis would fit well into the mobility tables for Japan, Korea, and China. Log-linear and log-multiplicative models are applied to the mobility tables of respondents' occupations according to the father's occupation in the three countries. The analysis of relative rates of mobility did not completely support the FJH hypothesis in a strict sense, even though it reasonably accounts for the total association of origin and destination in the three countries. My analysis demonstrates that a level of social fluidity has been higher in Korea and China than in Japan. Focusing on how relative mobility patterns differ between the three countries, intergenerational mobility in Korea is characterized by lower rates of class inheritance compared to Japan, while there seems to be a similarity between the patterns of social fluidity in Japan and Korea, even though they are to a certain extent deviant from Erikson and Goldthorpe's core model. In contrast to Korea, class inheritance rates in China are almost as large as in Japan. However, the mobility pattern between classes appears to differ substantially between the post-socialist and two capitalist countries. In particular, both downward and upward mobility between the white collar bloc and the unskilled manual position are more pervasive in China than in Japan and Korea. These results imply that sociologists interested in cross-national comparison of the social mobility between the East Asian countries should pay attention to both political institutions and the local labor market situatuion which can substantially affect social mobility.     

Social Support and the Mental Health of Family Caregivers: Sons and Daughters Caring for Aging Parents in Japan

The prevalence of depressive symptoms among family caregivers has been documented as a serious social problem that could threaten the lives of the elderly and their family caregivers. Social support is considered to be a promising remedy for this problem, although a comprehensive examination of the availability and effectiveness of social support that includes both formal and informal support across multiple dimensions remains limited. In addition, little research has been conducted in Japan on gender differences in stress processes. This study tried to fill those gaps by analyzing recent survey data on sons and daughters who are caring for their elderly parents. The results indicate that sons and daughters have similar levels of formal and informal support for daily care and advice, while there are some gender differences in regard to the availability of other types of social support. It was also found that many types of informal support were significantly associated with a lower caregiver burden for daughters, although this was not necessarily the case for formal support. General instrumental support from formal sources was even associated with higher levels of distress. For sons acting as caregivers, daily caregiving support was the only formal support that was significantly associated with their lower level of distress. Issues of formal support are discussed, in order to reduce the psychological burdens borne by sons and daughters who care for their parents at home.     

COVID-19, (im)mobilities and blockages: Re-thinking mobilities of migrant women in Northern Ireland

This article deals with the recent COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected mobilities in Northern Ireland. Drawing on the findings of in-depth interviews with migrant women and elements of autoethnographic research, the author discusses how migrant women reshape their mobilities in the context of global pandemic. The article looks into how COVID-19 has reinforced the existing mobility regimes and how waiting has become an important part of migrant women strategies. To this end, it examines waiting as both passive and active condition. It then explores politics of mobility and transgressive powers involved in migrant women trajectories.     

Family Structure and Quality of Life of Elders in Rural China: The Role of the New Rural Social Pension

Using data from a survey in Ankang district of Shaanxi province of China in 2011, this article examines the protective effect of the New Rural Social Pension (NRSP) on quality of life of rural elders, as well the moderating effect on association between family structure and quality of life. An instrumental variable approach is used. NRSP is shown to significantly improve the quality of life of rural elders, and a robustness check shows that this effect is consistent across different sets of subgroups. Compared with the elders who have at least one son, the quality of life of those who are childless or have only one child is significantly lower. The NRSP is more likely to significantly improve the quality of life of one-child elders. In addition, the associations between the NRSP and the different facets of quality of life of the elders are significant except for the facet of sensory abilities.     

From Face-to-Face to Facebook: The Role of Technology and Social Media in Adoptive Family Relationships with Birth Family Members

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study of 77 individuals in 40 couples (same-sex and heterosexual), who had adopted publically, privately, or internationally, examined parents' engagement with their child's birth family via technology (e.g., texting, e-mail, social media) through the lens of the Couple and Family Technology frame-work (Hertlein & Blumer, 2014 Hertlein, K. M., & Blumer, M. L. C. (2014). The couple and family technology framework. New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). Parents used three approaches to contact: active, passive, and no contact. Regardless of approach, some parents described concerns about boundaries. Couples were generally in agreement in their perspectives on engaging with birth family via technology. Practitioners must be know-ledgeable about management of relationships via technology and help adoptive families set healthy boundaries.     

Juvenile Delinquency in Search of a Practice Model: Family Health,Differential Association,and Social Control

ABSTRACT

Historically, practice research on juvenile delinquency has often been guided by the theories of differential association and social control. However, current research indicates that no matter what theory of delinquency is pursued, it has had little effect on decreasing juvenile arrest and violent crime rates. This article will explore the dynamics of the theories of differential association and social control in relation to juvenile delinquency. These linear, normative, and deficit-based theories are then contrasted with family health practice, an alternative theory and intervention model which focuses on the multiple forms and needs of families and their strengths. Specific family health practice principles and interventions are suggested for practice with families in which juvenile delinquency occurs. Finally, a case example utilizing family health interventions is presented.     

Dementia Caregiving in the Context of Late‐Life Remarriage: Support Networks,Relationship Quality,and Well‐being

Caregiving research has not accounted for increasingly diverse and complex marital and family histories of older Americans. The authors examined social relations and care‐specific positive and negative support networks among late‐life remarried wife dementia caregivers (N = 61) to determine associations among network structure, relationship quality with and support received from network members, and global assessments of family and stepfamily disagreement on caregiver well‐being. Own family and friends predominated in the social relations and positive networks. Although over half (54%) of respondents included a stepfamily member in their positive networks, stepchildren comprised the largest group (35%) in the negative networks. Larger negative networks and actively negative interactions were related to greater caregiver burden, and more global disagreement with stepfamily was associated with greater depression and burden. The findings illustrate the complex nature of support and the value of targeted examinations of caregiving support dynamics among late‐life remarried older adults and stepfamilies facing health demands.     

Parenting in Context: Impact of Neighborhood Poverty,Residential Stability,Public Services,Social Networks,and Danger on Parental Behaviors

This prospective longitudinal study examined the unique and combined effects of neighborhood characteristics on parental behaviors in the context of more distal and more proximal influences. With a sample of 368 mothers from high‐risk communities in 4 parts of the United States, this study examined relations between race (African American or European American), locality (urban or rural), neighborhood characteristics, family context, and child problem behaviors, and parental warmth, appropriate and consistent discipline, and harsh interactions. Analyses testing increasingly proximal influences on parenting revealed that initial race differences in warmth and consistent discipline disappeared when neighborhood influences were considered. Although generally culture and context did not moderate other relations found between neighborhood characteristics, family context, and child behaviors, the few interactions found highlight the complex influences on parenting.