Maintaining solidarity across generations in New Zealand: Support from mid‐life adult to ageing parent

Abstract

This paper establishes the key factors influencing functional solidarity—the material and emotional support mid‐life New Zealanders provide to an ageing parent or in‐law. Using the theoretical framework of intergenerational family solidarity, empirical analysis draws on the 1997 Transactions in the Mid‐Life Family survey of individuals aged 40–54. Results indicate that mature, adult children with no partner and living far from their parent are the least likely to provide emotional and in‐kind help and will be more hesitant to offer emotional support to in‐laws compared to their own parents. Adult children of Christian background, and possibly those who are homemakers and not employed, are more likely to provide in‐kind help, but those in rural areas are less likely. Surprisingly, ill health, a large household, being employed, and continuing to provide help to a young adult child who has left home do not necessarily hinder the respondent in helping an ageing parent. The argument that intergenerational relations are increasingly subject to compromise as mid‐lifers face unprecedented demands for support from other generations needs critical consideration. Further analysis should consider the cultural significance of intergenerational transactions, and how they may be influenced by the cognitive‐affective dimensions of intergenerational family solidarity.     

Political Threat and Immigration: Party Identification,Demographic Context,and Immigration Policy Preference*

Objective. I propose that the effect of partisanship on views on immigration is context dependent. I argue that Republicans in counties experiencing high levels of immigration are more likely to support new immigration restrictions in contrast to Democrats and Independents than Republicans in counties with a relatively small foreign‐born population, and I suspect this is the case because Republicans in high‐immigration counties feel politically threatened by the foreign‐born residents, who are more likely to support Democratic candidates. Method. To test this theory, I create hierarchical logit models of views on immigration policy in which individual party identification interacts with the size of the local immigrant population. Individual‐level data were drawn from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey and county‐level contextual variables from the U.S. Census Bureau. Results. I find that the effect of partisanship on individual views on immigration is context dependent; native‐born Republicans are more likely to support immigration restrictions when their local community has a large immigrant population and Democrats less likely. Conclusion. In areas where immigration levels are low, partisanship is a weak predictor of immigration views. As the foreign‐born population increases, however, the views of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents increasingly diverge.     

Negotiating survival: undocumented Mexican immigrant women in the Pacific Northwest

Current analyses of Mexico–U.S. migration theory generally are based on socioeconomic contexts and decision-making processes of male respondents. Further, limited data available on undocumented Mexican immigrant women mainly address the Mexico–U.S. border area, and adjacent U.S. urban centers. Our qualitative study focuses on undocumented Mexican immigrant women residing in central Washington State, where the regional economy is dominated by agribusiness development and dependent on immigrant and migrant farm labor. This paper assesses propositions of neoclassical economic and social capital theories of international migration in explaining the women’s migration decision-making processes. Project data indicate that while the Pacific Northwest has been a primary migration destination for sometime, it now may be increasingly a second-stage U.S. migration site, following initial migration to more traditional destinations such as California.     

Service Barriers of Chinese Family Caregivers in Canada

ABSTRACT

Family caregiving is a stressful process, especially when the complexity of being an immigrant or ethnic minority is added. This paper examined service barriers experienced by Chinese immigrant family caregivers in Canada and the predictors of different types of barriers. Principle component analysis was performed with the barriers reported loading onto cultural barriers, administrative problems, circumstantial challenges, perceived negative quality of services, and personal attitudes. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the role of the culture-related factors in predicting service barriers, controlling for socio-demographic status of the caregivers'. The results show that financial factors significantly predicted the number and types of barriers reported by the caregivers. Culture-related factors were significant in predicting the total number of access barriers and the different types of barriers experienced by the family caregivers. The findings indicate the importance of culturally sensitive support for family caregivers in order to reduce the access barriers.     

Acculturation and Psychological Functioning in Asian Indian Adolescents

The objective of this exploratory study was to understand how Asian Indian immigrant families adjust to U.S. culture by examining factors that influence acculturation preferences or styles and how these styles may be associated with their children's psychological functioning, as measured by self‐esteem and academic performance. 85 U.S.‐born Asian Indian adolescents (45 girls; 40 boys) and one of their immigrant parents completed questionnaires about family demography, self‐identification, acculturation, and religiosity. Adolescents also completed a self‐perception profile. Results showed parents and adolescents had similar styles of acculturation. However, adolescents were more likely to self‐identify as ‘Indian‐American’ than were their parents. For both adolescents and their parents, integrated and assimilated acculturation styles were related to family SES, years of U.S. residence, and religiosity scores. Adolescents who had an integrated acculturation style had higher GPAs and higher scores on the self‐perception profile than did adolescents who were separated or marginalized. The findings lend tentative support for an integrated style of acculturation in promoting positive outcomes for first generation Asian Indian adolescents.     

New Labour, Work and the Family

New Labour has put support for the family at the core of its notion of the “strong community”. Across a range of policy areas the Labour government can be seen to be developing a direct and explicit family policy. But what kind of community is the government trying to shape by these policies? On the one hand, Labour appears to support the family as the basis of a more moral, dutiful and cohesive community. On the other hand, the government has given weight to policies that support social inclusion in the community through paid work. This paper examines whether there is a tension in Labour’s social policies between its emphasis on the importance of stable family life and the primacy given to paid work. Are critics like Ruth Levitas right when they argue that the government’s emphasis on paid work devalues, and is unsupportive of, unpaid work, especially caring for children and other family members? Alternatively, can this combination of communitarianisms—community as “stable family” and community as “paid work”—be seen to be marking out some “third way” on the family? We shall show that different aspects of the government’s family policies reflect different perspectives and policy agendas within New Labour and third‐way thinking more broadly. And while recognizing the tensions between work and the family, we shall suggest that they are often overstated and fail to give sufficient weight to the complementary aspects of Labour’s welfare reforms.     

Valuing Diversity and Interest in Intergroup Contact

The present research examines ways in which valuing diversity relates to interest in intergroup contact among members of minority and majority status groups. Using open-ended responses, Study 1 reveals that ethnic minority group members are less likely to perceive that diversity is valued than ethnic majority group members, yet those who perceive that diversity is valued tend to express greater interest in intergroup contact. Surveys of Black and White respondents (Study 2) and ethnic minority and majority respondents (Study 3) indicate similar trends. Moreover, these studies consistently show that valuing diversity uniquely predicts interest in intergroup contact among majority group members, whereas perceiving that outgroup members value diversity predicts interest in intergroup contact among minority group members. Implications of these findings for understanding the role of diversity in intergroup relations, and reformulating aspects of intergroup contact theory, are discussed.     

Informal support and psychological well-being of older Chinese community residents

Social support is a critical factor in the well-being of older Chinese adults. Studies have found positive relationships between social support and psychological well-being. The findings, however, vary by kind of support. This article examines the relationships among objective and subjective social support from family members and close friends and three measures of psychological well-being, including loneliness, depression, and life satisfaction. The study sample consisted of 298 elderly Chinese community residents from Chongqing, China. The relationships between objective social support from family and friends and psychological well-being were, for the most part, not statistically significant. The relationships between subjective social support and well-being were fairly robust and statistically significant.     

变迁与延续：中国家庭代际关系的类型学研究

本文结合中国家庭代际关系研究注重居住安排与功能性交换的传统，从机会结构和功能实现两个维度构建了分析框架，并提出了四种代际关系的潜在类型：紧密型、工具型、独立型和扶持型。对一项全国性抽样调查数据的潜在类别分析表明，该分析框架有助力于我们理解代际关系的不同形态，并对其发展趋势有更好的认识。鉴于工具型成为主要类型以及独立型和扶持型关系的出现，代际关系呈现变迁的趋势。尽管传统的紧密型关系不占主导，但通过工具性交换或父母的扶持维持着代际的有效联结，赡养和反馈关系得以保留，体现了代际关系的延续。代际关系类型受到子代和亲代社会经济地位的显著影响，体现了社会不平等的再生产。     

Family Disruption and Support in Later Life: A Comparative Study Between the United Kingdom and Italy

Global population aging has led to considerable disquiet about future support for frail older people; however, the determinants are poorly understood. Moreover, most industrialized societies have witnessed considerable changes in family behavior (e.g., rises in divorce and declining fertility). Such trends may have adversely affected the support systems of older people; nonetheless, only recently has research begun to address this issue. Employing data from the longitudinal British Household Panel Survey (1991–2003) and the 1998 Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie "Famiglia, soggetti sociali e condizione dell'infanzia," we investigated the association between family disruptions due to divorce, separation, or death and three key dimensions of informal support: (i) frequency of contact with unrelated friends (among all respondents aged 65 years and over); (ii) co-residence with children (among unmarried mothers aged 65 years and over); and (iii) regular or frequent help received from children (e.g., household assistance including care) among parents aged 65 years and over. In addition, we conducted a comparative investigation of the relationship between family disruptions and the use of home care services (i.e., health visitor or district nurse; home help; meals-on-wheels) among parents aged 65 years and over. Our findings suggest that in a culture like the U.K.'s, where relations between kin are primarily influenced by individualistic values, support in later life appears to be primarily related to need, whereas in societies with a strong familistic culture (like Italy's), support is received irrespective of the older person's individual characteristics.     

Family and community support among older Chilean adults: the importance of heterogeneous social support sources for quality of life

Family and community social networks act as social resources that promote well-being at advanced ages. In this study, we analyze the association between social support received from personal social networks (social support from various family members and friends) and community social networks (social support from neighbors and the neighborhood, age, ethnic, or religious group peers and formal social support networks) and quality of life (QoL) for a sample of older Chilean persons (n = 777). The results confirm that social support from family (partner, children, and extended family) and friends, integration in the community (neighbors) and social support from informal systems (social groups) are associated with QoL. Moreover, the model including both types of support explains 25.8% of variance in QoL. The results and their possible implications are discussed.     

A Family Affair: The Labor Market Experience of Immigrant Spouses

Objective . This research examines the role of the family in the immigrant settlement process by assessing the labor supply behavior of immigrant spouses. Methods . We make use of a unique data set—the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), which provides detailed demographic, human capital, and labor market information for both principal applicants and their spouses. Results . Family circumstances such as the presence of young children, partners' hours of work, and family income are important determinants of labor supply. Similarly, human capital, particularly English language ability, is closely related to hours worked, and there is some evidence that spouses' employment is related to the visa category of their partners. Conclusions . Since immigration is not a solitary undertaking, evaluations of immigration policy and the economic status of immigrants that ignore interactions between family members may be inaccurate in their representation of the financial health and economic contributions of immigrants.     

Women and the Family in the British Welfare State: The Thatcher/Major Legacy

This paper reviews the moral agenda of Thatcherism, in terms of maintaining traditional family structures, family roles and family responsibilities for economic support and personal care of family members. It asks to what extent and in what ways this agenda was promoted during the eighteen years of Conservative rule; to what extent contradictory forces within Thatcherism and elsewhere undermined this agenda; and what have been the consequences for women in family and public life. The marketization of life, pursued under Thatcherism, contributed to undermining the family form which has traditionally underpinned the market. Deregulated labour markets and spreading owner-occupation in an unstable housing market have been important contributions to family breakdown, insecurity and women's access to—and need for—jobs. The idea of family responsibility was promulgated, but in practice family members have become less able to support each other.
Nevertheless, one consequence of these changes has been a stronger position for women as women by the end of this Conservative era. Access to paid work makes women less dependent within families and improves their access to public politics. Social policies geared to the Beveridge-type family had become increasingly threadbare and some changes—such as policies enabling lone mothers to do paid work—had been forced by the increasing mismatch between family realities and the Beveridge model. Many changes owed more to the women's movement than to Thatcherism, but Thatcherite policies played a (largely unintentional) part.     

Different Effects of Acculturative Stress and Family Life Stress on Depressive Symptoms among Married Vietnamese Immigrant Women in South Korea

Married Vietnamese immigrant women often face multiple stressors related to sociocultural adaptation and new family lives in South Korea. The purpose of this paper is to identify the different influences of acculturative and family life stress on depressive symptoms among Vietnamese immigrant wives. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 301 married Vietnamese immigrant women residing in South Korea. The study utilized linear regression analysis to test the relationships between the variables. The findings show that both acculturative and family life stress are positively related to depressive symptoms. Family life stress influences depressive symptoms to a greater extent than acculturative stress. The study emphasizes the significance of family‐related stress on mental health among married Vietnamese immigrant women in Korea and provides some implications for research, clinical practice, and policy.     

Vital Conversations with Family in the Nursing Home: Preparation for End-Stage Dementia Care

Family members of persons with advanced dementia may be asked to make complex treatment decisions without having adequate knowledge regarding the risks and benefits. This 6-month, prospective, randomized trial tested the effect of an intervention consisting of a face-to-face, structured conversation about end-of-life care options with family members of nursing home residents with advanced dementia. A comparison group received only social contact via telephone. Structured conversations between a palliative care team and intervention group family members included goals of care and how best to achieve those goals, and provision of psychosocial support. Psychosocial support was also provided via telephone at three 2-month intervals. Family members participated in three telephone interviews: baseline, 3, and 6 months. Specific advance directives for persons with dementia were extracted from medical records. Results showed that intervention families had higher satisfaction with care than comparison families at the 6-month time point, and they were more likely to have decided on medical options listed in residents' advance directives (Do Not Resuscitate, Intubate, Hospitalize) over time. Study findings reinforce the need for increased education and support for families around issues of end-of-life care decisions for advanced dementia.     

Contributors to well-being of Chinese left-behind families: A dyadic perspective from family resilience and grandparent–grandchild relationship

There is evidence that grandchildren and grandparents in Chinese left-behind families (CLBF) suffer from immense life stressors. The well-being of both generations is of great concern. Guided by the family adjustment and adaptation response model and ecological model of well-being, the present study aimed to investigate the dyadic associations between family resilience and subjective well-being (SWB) of left-behind grandchildren and grandparents. Furthermore, we explored the extent to which relationship quality accounts for such reciprocal associations. A sample of 130 left-behind grandparent–grandchild (GP–GC) pairs completed self-reported questionnaires. Actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) revealed that both grandchildren's and grandparents' reported family resilience positively associated with their own SWB but not the other's SWB. Grandchildren's and grandparents' perceived relationship quality mediated the association between their perceived family resilience and their own SWB. Moreover, grandchildren-perceived relationship quality mediated the association between grandchildren-perceived family resilience and grandparents' SWB. Meanwhile, grandparent-perceived relationship quality mediated the association between grandparent-perceived family resilience and grandchildren's SWB. The findings highlighted the significance of family resilience and relationship quality in boosting the two generations' SWB in CLBF. The results also suggested that left-behind grandchildren and their grandparents depend on each other. Future intervention programs could be benefitted from integrating the enhancement of family resilience and improvement of grandparent–grandchild relationship quality to promote the well-being of left-behind family members.     

Family Preservation and Elders

Abstract

Family preservation is a rapidly growing practice approach. Initially developed for families when there was imminent risk of placement of a child, it is now applied in a number of different settings. This article discusses the application of family preservation in families with elder members and includes a presentation of the major principles and values of family preservation practice, an illustration of the application of family preservation to a family with elder members, and a discussion of the implications of this practice approach.     

Parental Mental Illness,Family Living Arrangements,and Child Behavior

The association between family living arrangements and children's behavior problems is examined in 306 children with mentally ill parents. Children living with alternative families (with adoptive or foster parents or with other relatives) display fewer behavior problems than children living with two biological parents, a single biological parent, or a biological and a stepparent. The proportion of mentally ill family members and the degree of mother-child discord explain the vanations in children's behavior problems among the different living arrangements. Thus, in placement decisions, the prevailing legal principle of safeguarding the integrity of the child's biological family should be weighed against the mother-child relationship and the mental health of the family members.     

Foster Care: How We Can,and Should,Do More for Maltreated Children

Foster care provides round-the-clock substitute care for nearly 700,000 U.S. children who are temporarily or permanently separated from their family of origin each year. Each state manages its own foster care system according to federal regulations. Despite numerous large-scale federal policy reforms over the past several decades, substantial concerns remain about the experiences and outcomes of children in the foster care system. The most recent effort to reform foster care, the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, attempts to both reduce the use of foster care and increase the quality of care. In this report, we review how policy has shaped the experiences and outcomes of children in foster care, where policy has succeeded, and where it falls short of achieving its goals. We then identify opportunities for federal and state policy to better support the safety, health, and well-being of children in foster care.     

纸润墨香——藏书、家刻与女性著述《玉台画史》之成书关系

在西方经验中,社会性别关系更多地表现为冲突与对抗,而在中国,虽然男女两性间的冲突长期存在,但是共容与互动却是不容忽视的。清代女性史家汤漱玉的专题记载女性画家之史书《玉台画史》的付梓刊刻、留存与世、其夫婿的鼎力支持及其同汪家四世藏书之间的关系昭显出,艺术创作无关性别,优秀的文化艺术是男女各取所长共同缔造的。