The geographic distance separating aging parents from their children and its effects on aging parents is a social issue unique to North America and possibly Russia. Canada, the United States, and Russia are three of the largest nations geographically. This fact gives rise to the increased possibility of children migrating away from home and at further distances then any of the countries in Europe for example. This issue is important for social scientists to consider because of two reasons. First, the social support network for all people generally includes family members. It is sometimes difficult for aging parents to get the social support they need from their children when the are separated by such great distances. Secondly, if aging parents decide to eventually move closer to their children, they may lose the other half of their social support network, which includes neighbours and friends acquired over the years. By moving to a new place later in life, the aging parents may feel disconnected from society, and may not have the energy to form new relationships, which could put more stress on the adult children's time. I hope to gain insights into any regrets, elder parents (and, or grandparents) might have because of not having lived closer to their children and grandchildren. I also want to see how often contact is made with children and which children (particularly differences in gender and age of children) they are most in contact with. One unanswered question I have concerning this issue is what sort of regrets an elder parent might have from living far away from children. Some theoretical perspectives relevant to this issue include role theory, exchange theory, intergenerational interaction, and the theory of attachment. T... ... middle of paper ... ...distance on the family relationships of elder parents and children. It also helped identify that the reference child for the majority of elder parents regardless of geographic distance is usually a daughter. Any regrets experienced by an elder parent or grand parent as a result of being separated geographically from children was also explored. It was shown that while feelings of regret about having missed out on the development of grand children and the later lives of children, these feelings can be reduced if both elderly spouses are alive and healthy. It also helps when the elders are mobile enough after retirement to come and visit their children of their own accord. The finding that most reference children are daughters and that the daughters are usually living closer geographically leads us to questions about the implications of gender and family relationships.
Today we will find this rather strange; children who live with their parents are usually close to them. In addition, children were often used for financial assistance. gain through arranged marriages.
Going through the same thing every day can be comforting and change can create chaos in the everyday routine. After the youth leaves change will set in but will change the outcomes of the activities that occur. Some parents will enjoy the free time that has been presented and others will fade and not know what to do. Older generation parents have readjusted before and have had to change their life to incorporate the youth coming into their life; some transitions were easier than others. Some of the parents find that moving out of their community is not the way to change the pace of life that is occurring. Yet the change of moving would create a drastic change of pace; some of the parents in Ellis tell Carr and Kefalas, “They fear that the outside world will expect them to change too much of who and what they are” (21). Making a change would require something that most parents don’t have, and that would be wanting to leave. Most of the older generation are content with the life they have; yet the ability of having a change of pace is enticing.
Roberto, K. A., & Jarrott, S. E. (2008, January). Family Caregivers of Older Adults: A Life Span Perspective. Family Relations , 100-111.
The first topic that came up in the interview relates to idea of attachment theory. Attachment theory explains the human’s way of relating to a caregiver and receives an attachment figures relating to the parent, and children. In addition, the concept explains the confidence and ability for a child to free explore their environment with a place to seek support, protection, and comfort in times of distress (Levy, Ellison, Scott, and Bernecker, 2010, p. 193). Within attachment theory explains different types of attachment styles that children experience during early childhood. These attachment styles affect the relationships they continue to build in adulthood. The best attachment style happens when the parent is attuned to the child during his or her early childhood called secure attachment (Reyes, 2010, p. 174). In order for complete secure attachment, the child needs to feel safe, seen, and soothed. Any relationship that deviates from this model represents the anxious or insecure attachment. This means that parents or caregivers are inconsistently responsive to the children. Children who have these parents are usually confused and insecure. Some children experience a dismissive attachment where they
The two ethnic groups that the writer decided to observe are Italians and African- Americans’ families. In African-American families, the mother sometimes plays the role of the father and thus functions as the head of the family. This was the case of the family the writer observed. In addition, older children sometimes function as parents or caretakers for younger children. The concept of role flexibility among African-American families can be extended to include the parental role assumed by grandfather, grandmother, aunts, and cousins (Boyd-Franklin, 1989).
The risk factors of isolation include health and disabilities, gender, loss of a spouse, living alone, reduced social networks, transportation issues, place of residence, and aging. Among these factors, aging has higher correlation with other factors. Given that some studies (Hall, Havens, 1999) show that the risk factors are in fact additive, meaning that the presence of more than one risk factor compounds the risk of loneliness and social isolation, the importance of emerging population aging in Canada becomes more significant.
In the article “One Foot Out of the Nest: How Parents and Friends Influence Social Perceptions in Emerging Adulthood,” there was a study about emerging adulthood. The study aimed to understand about how attachment-related feelings toward friends and parents affect perceptions of new people and developing relational patterns during emerging adulthood.
Boyd, Monica and Doug Norris. “Leaving the Nest? The Impact of Family Structure.” Canadian Social Trends. 15 Oct. 1995: 14-17. SIRS. Family, 5, 58.
Several important themes emerged through this study. These themes are gender and family roles, family structure, and the effect of culture on the quality of family interactions. They will be discussed in the follow pages.
The family unit is as diverse as the societies they each represent. This sometimes can manifest traditional roles of doting mothers and providing fathers into a home with two sets of parents (Kurrien & Dawn Vo, 2004). Therefore, the involvement and importance of the extended family: grandparents and other family members such as aunts and uncles play a significant role in both its economic and social function.
In China, parents are allowed to sue their children for not visiting them often. This is a very extreme example of how culture influences people to live in multigenerational families, but nonetheless, this shows that a close knit family structure is very important in China. From a personal standpoint, I believe that many Asian families have multigenerational household. I know this to be true because I come from an Asian background. In South Korea, males usually always live at home with their parents even after marriage. Often times, women have to go live with their husband’s family. This was and still is one of the reasons why people want sons instead of daughters. But there are other factors that influence the formation of multigenerational households. The Modernization theory may explain why there are so few multigenerational households in America. The theory suggests that people have a desire to transform from a relatively rural way of life toward an urban way. This means that young people in rural areas have dreams of leaving their families and being successful in urban cities. The textbook states that this is also occurring in India as well. This phenomenon leaves the elderly to take care of themselves with no one to assist
Another interesting part of our discussion was related to the preference of inviting more the mother than the father to live with their children. I wondered why was that the case, and I came up with two possible explanations. First, usually, fathers in their younger years are more focused on bringing financial stability to home than to develop a rich and solid relationship with their children. Second, it may be possible that mothers result being more helpful to their adult children, regarding housekeeping and children’s care. These assumptions are based on traditional family roles performed by who are today our grandparents’
This paper will give information about the reasons why grandparents are required to take care of grandchildren, positive effects of raising grandchildren, challenges of taking care of grandchildren, and what grandparents can do to help them cope.
Past studies (Dunifon, 2013; Jæger 2012) supported this research focusing on the parenting roles of grandfathers based off our questionnaire (See appendix). Although the present findings did support past research, the two culturally different backgrounds provided a more in depth and broader spectrum analysis to the research.
The importance of family networks, for practical and emotional support in old age, is therefore vital. Studies shown that lack of family support predisposes towards institutionalization, destitution and dependency on third parts. Of course, family networks are not always perfect: some older people feel affected by family conflict. This emphasizes the fact that understanding old-age vulnerability is a very complex and personal task that requires examination not only of the size and composition of old people’s networks, but also of the quality of those relationships (Pritchard-Jones,