Childhood Autism and Proactive Family Coping: Intergenerational Perspectives

This article considers the value of intergenerational and specifically, grandparental support, in the management of adaptive tasks posed by raising a young child with autism. The tasks addressed range from accessing early intervention to enhancing family social functioning. We note unique social, financial, and health-related stressors faced by families of children with autism. We outline an innovative, stress theory-based framework, the Autism Proactive Intergenerational Adaptation (APIA) Model, which delineates the role of grandparents in contributing to family adaptation to the stresses of raising a child with autism. We focus on proactive family coping strategies in building resilience and ameliorating the adverse impact of stressors on quality of life (QOL) for individual family members and for the family unit. We discuss barriers and facilitators of intergenerational alliances involving grandparental participation and support.     

Elderly Parents’ Need for Help and Adult Children's Moving Decisions

Recent changes in Finnish welfare policies have increased the need for family involvement in eldercare. This article uses qualitative interviews to study working adult daughters’ reasons for moving in with their parent(s). Coresidence was linked to the parents’ need for support, but also to the daughters’ life situations, family histories, the availability of welfare services, and cultural norms and values. The interviewees used the “familist” and “independent life” discourses in their speech. The familist discourse was used to argue for coresidence as a natural continuation of family traditions and life history, whereas the independent life discourse was used to legitimize the need for alternative care options and having a home of their own.     

Marital Separation/Divorce

A review of the literature was conducted to determine the current knowledge base regarding the impact of marital separation or divorce on the individual. The review focused on the literature in psychiatry, psychology, and social work, but also included related disciplines, such as family law. The findings indicate a focusing of research questions since the early 1970's, particularly in defining the process of divorce and differential impact of the various stages across gender. However, some gaps still exist within the literature, pointing toward additional research questions, such as in the area of treatment, and the impact of initiator status.     

代际支持对农村老年人认知功能发展趋势影响的追踪研究

利用西安交通大学人口与发展研究所2001年、2003年和2006年"安徽省农村老年人生活状况"跟踪调查数据,采用个体增长模型,结合农村实际,详细分析代际间双向的经济支持、生活照料和情感支持对中国农村老年人认知功能发展趋势的影响。结果发现,双向的经济支持和情感支持能够减缓老年人认知功能的衰退速度,但是,老人从成年子女处获得日常照料却加速其认知功能的衰退速度,代际支持的显著影响力会以老人的需求为中心产生不同的变化。     

西部欠发达地区农村贫困的影响因素

现阶段,我国针对西部欠发达地区农村的扶贫政策效应在一定程度上呈弱化之势,其关键原因就是没有根据不同的致贫因子采取合适的减贫政策。事实上,所有的致贫因子大体上都可以归类于贫困代际传递和贫困陷阱两种致贫模式,深刻比较和分析二者的异同,厘清这两种模式的致贫机理,对于制定合理的反贫困战略以破解欠发达地区农村的长期贫困问题具有很强的政策含义和理论意义。     

Intergenerational Relationships and Union Stability in Fragile Families

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well being Study (N= 2,656), we examined the association between intergenerational relationships and parents' union stability five years after a baby's birth. Results showed that more amiable relationships between parents and each partner's parents, and more time children spent with paternal grandparents, were associated with increased odds that parents were co-residing by the time their focal child was age five. More time that children spent with maternal grandparents reduced union stability, although this result was not robust to methods that better address selection. These findings underscore the importance of the broader social contexts affecting couple stability. Findings further suggest that even amidst changing demographic conditions, intergenerational family ties are important for couples-and by extension-their children.     

Parental Education and Family Dissolution: A Cross‐National and Cohort Comparison

This is the first study to systematically analyze whether the association between parental education and family dissolution varies cross‐nationally and over time. The authors use meta‐analytic tools to study cross‐national variation between 17 countries with data from the Generations and Gender Study and Harmonized Histories. The association shows considerable cross‐national variation, but is positive in most countries. The association between parental education and family dissolution has become less positive or even negative in six countries. The findings show that the association between parental education and family dissolution is generally positive or nil, even if the association between own education and family dissolution is in many countries increasingly negative. The authors find suggestive evidence that the association is related to the crude divorce rate, but not to the generosity of the welfare state in these countries. The implications of these findings for understanding the stratification in family dissolution are discussed.     

Offspring Migration and Parents' Emotional and Psychological Well‐being in Mexico

In Mexico, offspring migration disrupts familial norms of coresidence and geographic proximity. This article examines how an adult child's migration, both domestically and to the United States, affects the emotional and psychological well‐being of parents who remain in the place of origin. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (N = 4,718), the authors found limited evidence that parents whose offspring emigrated to the United States experience worse outcomes than parents of offspring who did not migrate. Although they found that offspring U.S. migration was not associated with changes in parents' overall depressive syndrome, a child's U.S. migration increased the likelihood of experiencing loneliness and led to a lower likelihood of recovery from parental sadness over time. Children's domestic migration did not affect parental well‐being. These findings add to a growing body of literature that should be considered when assessing the broader impact of migration on family members who remain behind.     

When the Kids Live at Home: Coresidence,Parental Assets,and Economic Insecurity

This study uses National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort data from 1994 through 2012 (N = 16,108 person‐years, 4,671 individuals) to investigate how coresidence with adult children influences asset levels among parents. It applies hybrid mixed effects regression models that partition between‐ and within‐person variation to estimate parental savings and financial assets over time and across different households. The results suggest that coresidence with adult children led to decreases in parental assets and savings. In the years in which their children lived at home, parents held 24% less in financial assets and 23% less in savings when compared with the years when adult children were not present. By expanding previous research that shows a relationship between increasing economic insecurity, limited wealth, and the rise in coresidence among young adults, this study also offers broader implications for the interconnectivity of financial hardship across generations.