Timing Preferences for Women’s Family‐Life Transitions: Intergenerational Transmission Among Migrants and Dutch

This study examines the transmission of preferences regarding the timing of family‐life transitions of women among migrant and native Dutch families. We study how and to what extent parental preferences, migrant origin, and family characteristics affect the child’s timing preferences. We use parent and child data (N= 1,290) from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (2002, 2003) and the Social Position and Provisions Ethnic Minorities Survey (2002). Regression analyses reveal that parental timing preferences regarding family‐life transitions are strongly associated with the timing preferences of their children. Analyses also show that these preferences strongly vary by migrant origin, educational level, and religious involvement. The process of intergenerational transmission, however, is found to be very similar among migrants and Dutch.     

Equitable insurance premium schemes

We analyze the equity properties of insurance premium schemes where agents are partitioned into groups with different average accident probabilities and each individual has to pay a premium according to the average probability of the group to which it belongs. In particular, we examine the question whether choosing finer partitions to define these groups generates more equitable situations than coarser groups. Though it turns out that partitioning the agents into finer groups can never be Lorenz dominated by the coarser partition, it cannot be guaranteed that finer partitions represent improvements over coarser ones except in very restrictive circumstances. Received: 27 March 2000/Accepted: 28 August 2000     

Intergenerational Programs

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to provide an overview of the current state of intergenerational programming in one Canadian city. One-hundred and seven individuals in charge of programming in youth and seniors' organizations completed a telephone survey about intergenerational programs. More than one-third of organizations surveyed reported offering intergenerational programs, and the majority of these perceived their program to be successful. Participants added that there were no current overlaps in services, though a variety of gaps in and barriers to intergenerational programming were identified. There was also significant interest in and ideas for offering a diverse range of programs in the future. It was concluded that while interest in offering intergenerational programs was high, multiple barriers currently exist to offering such programs.     

An Intergenerational Perspective on Grandparent Roles

Abstract

This study provides an intergenerational perspective on grandparent roles. Data was collected from young parents (N = 105) and middle-age and older adults (N = 105). Both groups identified multiple roles as important for grandparents to initiate with young grandchildren: these included being a playmate as well as a friend, teacher, and role model. Intergenerational differences were also found with middle-age and older adults more likely than young parents to rank religious guide (p < .001) and family historian (p < .05) as important roles to enact with young grandchildren. However, the young parents were more likely than the older participants to predict that grandparents would be remembered by their grandchildren as fun, having high values, being a role model, and financially supportive (p < .001). Recommendations for future intergenerational research are recommended.     

Reflections on Intergenerational and Kin Connections

No abstract available for this article.     

Equitable opportunities in economic environments

 In this paper, we extend the axiomatic analysis of equitable opportunities developed in Kranich [6] from finite to continuous opportunity sets. This extended framework is amenable to economic applications. The main results establish conditions under which an ordinal ranking of profiles of opportunity sets can be represented by a cardinal advantage function which describes both the extent of inequality and the distribution of advantage among the agents. Received: 3 November 1993/Accepted: 18 December 1995     

School-Based Intergenerational Programs

Abstract

This paper focuses on experiences learned from being involved in the development of a sustainable school-based intergenerational program that simultaneously incorporated lifespan education into a Grade 2-3-4 curriculum. The program operated in an Australian primary school. A model was developed through this initiative that involved a tripartite collaborative partnership between school, university educators, and the primary school community (in particular its older adults). Older adult volunteers from the school's community were invited to teach students. Program monitoring consisted of contextual and observational analysis ensuring the program was sensitive to school culture and took account of participants' experiences. This monitoring process occurred throughout the planning, development, and implementation stages. Although school educators were always pressed for time, all participants actively contributed to the program. All of the educators saw purpose and worth in having the program. Ongoing support from teachers, the principal, and university personnel plus the provision of additional resources contributed to high student involvement and the overall success of the initiative. Having a school-based coordinator was found to be necessary, yet, for school educators, problematic because of constraints on their time. The findings from this project indicate that the older adult volunteers were enriched by their involvement in the program and able to provide meaningful learning experiences for students. As well, the study suggests that educators would be better prepared for implementing this area of learning opportunities if lifespan education were provided in their undergraduate and post-graduate courses as well as in professional development initiatives.     

Measuring Intergenerational Obligations

Researchers have defined intergenerational obligations in diverse ways, and they have used many labels and ways of measuring intergenerational obligations. Using vignettes, we compared responses to questions about what family members should do when another family member needed assistance (normative obligations) with responses to questions about what respondents would do if they were in the situation in the vignette (felt responsibilities). Felt and normative obligations were similar. When there were disagreements, respondents indicated they would help more than they thought the character in the vignette should. The results point to the need for researchers to clearly define their terms, and they must carefully select operational definitions that match the conceptual definitions used when studying obligations about intergenerational assistance.     

Intergenerational preference orderings

This paper investigates preference orderings on infinite horizon intergenerational consumption streams. The trade-offs inherent in the selection of moral precepts for an intergenerational preference ordering are made explicit by establishing the mutual inconsistency of an appealing set of axioms.I am grateful to Don Campbell for many valuable discussions and comments. I have also benefitted from the comments of Mike Peters, participants in the Theory Workshop at the University of Toronto, and from a referee and editor of this journal.     

Approval Voting on Dichotomous Preferences

The aim of this paper is to find normative foundations of Approval Voting when individuals have dichotomous preferences. We show that a social choice function is anonymous, neutral, strategy-proof and strictly monotone if and only if it is Approval Voting and interpret this result as an extension of May’s theorem (Econometrica 20:680–684, 1952). Then, we show that Approval Voting is the only strictly symmetric, neutral and efficient social choice function. This result is related to a characterization of Baigent and Xu (Math Soc Sci 21:21–29, 1991).     

An Intergenerational Perspective on Family Ethical Dilemmas

No abstract available for this article.     

Intergenerational Programming in Asia

Abstract

Based on concerns about the common social challenges in Asia and the desire to bridge this part of the world with the established intergenerational field, the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis at the National University of Singapore organized the first international conference in Asia on intergenerational programming in Singapore in March 2002. This conference, entitled “Re-engaging the Generations: Intergenerational Programming in Social Services,” attracted participation from both government and non-governmental agencies in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Japan, as well as representatives from the U.S. and Sweden.

The Singapore conference is used as a “data source” by which to examine the terrain of intergenerational programs and possibilities in Asia. Highlights are drawn from the presentations conducted at the conference and from the interaction and discussions that took place among the participants. Particular attention is paid to conference participants' efforts to ascribe meaning to the concept of intergenerational programming in their respective societies. In describing the conceptions and models of inter-generational programming highlighted at the conference, this article aims to address some of the common challenges related to intergenerational program development in many Asian countries and underscore some of the distinctive aspects of programs found in this region.     

Intergenerational Theory in Society

ABSTRACT

Now that the 21st century is underway, society is changing more rapidly than ever. People of all ages are facing new kinds of psychological and interpersonal issues. They are living longer and pioneering new kinds of family patterns and relationships. Given this, then, how can intergenerational programs and relationships both adapt to these new contexts and serve to help people better meet these new societal demands and changes? This article extends, deepens and elaborates upon earlier efforts by describing new societal trends that affect people in the life span, selecting some relevant concepts, exploring them, and suggesting how they might enhance our understanding. Given that this is the postmodern age in which there are questions rather than answers, the discussion of each concept ends with questions for future theory construction.     

An Intergenerational Retreat Revisited

Abstract

This qualitative research focused on the residual impressions of an intergenerational storytelling group retreat 4 years after the initial experience. During the retreat 5 women, ages 62 to 80, met with 7 adolescent girls, ages 13 to 15, during a weekend of storytelling that focused on female development. This was a single-gendered experience of non-related participants. The women shared personal experiences from their youth around the topics that included dating and peer influence, fashions, and puberty. The adolescents also discussed, described, and reflected their own experiences with the women. At the time of the follow-up interviews the adolescents ranged in age from 17 to 19 and the women 66 to 84. The retreat experience positively influenced both the adolescents and the older women four years later by building self-confidence, increasing the tendency to engage in new endeavors, and to be more open to others different from themselves.     

Intergenerational Initiatives in Sweden

ABSTRACT

It is pointed out in this report that the intergenerational perspective is conspicuous by its absence in Sweden, compared to several other countries where specific programmes exist for activities across generational boundaries. Activities across generational boundaries have also been a specific area where financial incentives for local projects have been provided in recent years through the government's project, Freedom of Choice/Older People and Public Health. But despite these efforts, comprehensive and systematic measures to develop and strengthen contacts across generational boundaries have been few and far between in Sweden. Instead, official measures within various areas have targeted different groups, often defined in terms of their age and stage of life course.     

Perspectives on Intergenerational Aspects of Aging and Diversity

Abstract

This paper considers a number of interrelated dimensions that are crucial to the developing intergenerational field: research, policy, practice and theory. The paper argues first, that research (and indeed evaluation) underlies, and is fundamental to, facilitating and understanding the linkages between practice, policy and theory. It further argues that breaking down the barriers between research, policy, practice and theoryparticularly in terms of the language we use- is key if we are to fully realize the potential of this developing field. An early intergenerational study undertaken by the author is used as a tool to illustrate some of the ways in which the field has progressed over the last twenty years. The paper concludes with thoughts and suggestions about the dilemmas and challenges remaining for those in the field.     

Eliciting Donor Preferences

Most charity organizations depend on contributions from the general public, but little research is conducted on donor preferences. Do donors have geographical, recipient, or thematic preferences? We designed a conjoint analysis experiment in which people rated development aid projects by donating money in dictator games. We find that our sample show strong age, gender, regional, and thematic preferences. Furthermore, we find significant differences between segments. The differences in donations are consistent with differences in donors’ attitudes toward development aid and their beliefs about differences in poverty and vulnerability of the recipients. The method here used for development projects can easily be adapted to elicit preferences for other kinds of projects that rely on gifts from private donors.