中国的人口老龄化经济压力及其调控

运用作者提出的AECI指数法并借助人口模拟,对1980～2050年中国人口老龄化经济压力的强度、趋势和调控进行系统的定量分析和国际比较,发现:本世纪上半叶中国将面临巨大的人口老龄化经济压力,按中方案预测,2020年代中至2030年代末将是压力增大最快时期,压力高峰将出现在2040年前后,高峰时的压力将可能达到2010年压力的4倍;巨大的人口老龄化经济压力将有可能显著地削弱中国崛起的后劲;缓解未来人口老龄化经济压力必须以经济手段为主、人口手段为辅;在坚持计划生育基本国策的前提下中等幅度逐步放宽现行生育政策,既可有效地缓解未来人口老龄化经济压力,又可同时将人口规模压力控制在可承受范围内,这是调控中国人口老龄化经济压力的合理路径。     

老年人生活满意度年龄差异研究

用2002、2005、2008年中国高龄老人健康长寿调查数据,考察了年龄对老年人生活满意度的影响。研究发现,年龄因素影响老年人的生活满意度自评。年岁的上升对老年人的生活满意度既有积极影响也有消极影响。对于老年人来说,年龄对生活满意度的正向作用超过了负向作用,因此,老人的年龄越大,生活满意度评价越积极。进一步考察了年龄积极作用三个可能的来源,包括年龄成熟效应、同期群正效应、存活效应,发现年龄的积极作用主要是由年龄的成熟效应引致的。     

Marital Processes and Parental Socialization in Families of Color: A Decade Review of Research

Research published during the past decade on African American, Latino, and Asian American families is reviewed. Emphasis is given to selected issues within the broad domains of marriage and parenting. The first section highlights demographic trends in family formation and family structure and factors that contributed to secular changes in family structure among African Americans. In the second section, new conceptualizations of marital relations within Latino families are discussed, along with research documenting the complexities in African American men's conceptions of manhood. Studies examining within‐group variation in marital conflict and racial and ethnic differences in division of household labor, marital relations, and children's adjustment to marital and family conflict also are reviewed. The third section gives attention to research on (a) paternal involvement among fathers of color; (b) the relation of parenting behavior to race and ethnicity, grandmother involvement, neighborhood and peer characteristics, and immigration; and (c) racial and ethnic socialization. The article concludes with an overview of recent advances in the study of families of color and important challenges and issues that represent research opportunities for the new decade.     

What Are Strategies to Advance Policies Supporting Family Caregivers? Promising Approaches From a Statewide Task Force

Family caregivers are the cornerstone of the long-term supports and services infrastructure in the United States, yet they often contend with many challenges related to this role. Public policy has been slow to change, leaving many caregivers vulnerable to health and economic consequences. Using models of policy making, we identify barriers to advancing policies that support family caregivers and overcome policy drift. We draw on discussions from the California Task Force on Family Caregiving as it prepares state policy recommendations. Identified strategies include identification of caregivers in health care and workplace settings to promote political consciousness raising, collecting and reporting on data that frame caregiving as a policy problem, borrowing policies and language from overlapping fields to emulate their policy successes, and presenting supportive caregiver policies as solutions to other policy problems. By presenting specific strategic approaches to advance caregiving policies, we provide tools to address the growing gap between caregiver needs and policy responses.     

Patterns of Shared Religious Attendance and Positive Stepfamily Functioning

This study used data from Add Health to examine the relationship between shared participation in religious activities and positive stepfamily functioning as indicated by the closeness of the stepfather–stepchild bond, the closeness of the mother–child bond, the quality of the mother–stepfather relationship, the adolescent's perception of family belonging, and the stability of the mother–stepfather marriage. The study incorporated information on shared religious participation between adolescents and their mothers and stepfathers by examining whether adolescents reported frequently attending religious services or church‐related events with both parents, with one parent, or with neither parent. Shared religious attendance was positively associated with several aspects of stepfamily functioning above and beyond the positive association of family members’ engagement in other types of shared activities.     

Beyond Income: A Social Justice Approach to Assessing Poverty among Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease

ABSTRACT

How social workers define and assess poverty is a matter of economic and social justice. Recent conceptual and measurement advances point to a multidimensional definition of poverty which captures material, social, and political deprivations. Using data from a survey, this article describes how nephrology social workers assess poverty among older adults living with a chronic kidney disease (N = 52). Results suggest respondents already conceive of poverty as a multidimensional experience, support awareness-raising about poverty, and primarily assess poverty by employment status, income, access to transportation, and education. Opportunities to expand poverty assessment in future work are promising.     

Elder mistreatment in underserved populations: Opportunities and challenges to developing a contemporary program of research

ABSTRACT

This article provides an overview of the status of research on elder mistreatment among underserved populations in the United States, including gaps in our current knowledge base and scientific and structural barriers to growing research on the exploitation, neglect, and abuse of older people from diverse and disadvantaged ethnic/racial, geographic, sexual identity, and socioeconomic groups. High-priority areas in need of new elder mistreatment research with underserved populations are identified, and suggestions are given for how this research can be facilitated by researchers, university institutional review boards, and funding agencies.     

Lessons Learned From a Canadian Province-Wide Age-Friendly Initiative: The Age-Friendly Manitoba Initiative

The Age-Friendly Manitoba Initiative was launched in 2008. A formative evaluation we conducted in 2011 with 44 participating rural and urban communities demonstrates considerable progress, with virtually all communities having formed an Age-Friendly Committee and conducting a community assessment to identify priorities for action. The majority of communities implemented one or more age-friendly projects. Major barriers to becoming age-friendly identified by participants included lack of funding; lack of capacity, particularly in small communities; and lack of leadership or direction. The study highlights the importance of strong leadership at all levels of government (municipal, provincial, federal); the need to support communities, particularly rural ones, as they try to become more age-friendly; and the importance of ongoing promotion of age-friendliness locally and more broadly (e.g., provincially).