Death at a Distance: A Study of Family Survivors

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Owen ◽  
Robert Fulton ◽  
Eric Markusen
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact

This paper reports the findings of a social-psychological investigation of bereavement conducted in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul over a period of twelve months. Information was solicited using both questionnaires and home interviews from 558 bereaved persons, including spouses (434), parents (85), and adult children (39) responding to the death of an elderly parent. Strong emotional ties were evidenced in each of the three subsamples and a wide variety of physical and emotional reactions were demonstrated by all three groups following the death. One of the most important findings of the study is that the type of relationship severed by the death is an important determinant of the nature of the grief experienced by survivors. For example, within the adult child sample, the data suggest that the death of elderly parents is less disruptive, less emotionally debilitating and generally less significant for surviving adult children in terms of the continuity and stability of established behavioral patterns than for the other two groups. The adult child group also displayed less illness during bereavement than either the surviving parents or surviving spouses and were less likely to utilize traditional funerary rituals. It is hypothesized that these observed differences reflect significant changes in the larger society, including 1) the nature and function of the nuclear family and its members, 2) institutionalization of the dying and professionalization of their care, and 3) cultural conceptions of the meaning of life and death. Discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of the findings as they relate to the impact of death, grief and bereavement on the contemporary family, as well as to specific issues relevant to practicing clinicians in their attempts to aid families coping with separation and loss.

scholarly journals There at Any Distance? Geographic Proximity and the Presence of Adult Children in Older People’s’ Confidant Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 512-512
Author(s):  
Markus Schafer ◽  
Haosen Sun
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Core Network ◽  
Geographic Proximity ◽  
Aging Parents ◽  
Intergenerational Ties ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Living Adult

Abstract Adult children are key members of their aging parents’ close social network, often providing emotional and advisory supports. Still, adult children are not a guaranteed presence in older people’s core discussion networks. Geographical distance is a leading explanation for why some children are excluded from the confidant network, but we hypothesize that certain parent- and dyadic-level factors make these intergenerational ties more resilient to distance. Using wave six of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, we identified whether a living adult child was also a member of the parent’s egocentric confidant network. We modeled the effect of the child (Level 1) and parent (Level 2) characteristics on the exclusion of a child from the core network using hierarchical logit models. We found that fifty-eight percent of children were excluded from a parent’s network. Parents were more likely to exclude those who lived more than 25 km compared to children who lived within 5 km. The impact of distance was exacerbated among parents who were older, partnered, or had four or more children. Parents with higher education and good computer skills were less sensitive to longer distances when listing a child as a confidant. Finally, parents who had confidants outside of the nuclear family and who lived in Northern Europe were less likely to exclude a child over 100 km from their confidant network. Together, results indicate that a number of demographic factors and personal and social resources contribute to the elasticity of parent-child ties across long distances.

Adult child migration and elderly parental health in rural China

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Chang ◽  
Yaojiang Shi ◽  
Hongmei Yi ◽  
Natalie Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
Child Migration ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of adult children migration on the health status of elderly parents. Increased labor migration in developing countries that lack adequate social security systems and institutionalized care for the elderly is a phenomenon that is important to understand. When their adult children go away to work, it is not clear what effect there will be on “left-behind” elderly parents. Design/methodology/approach This study employs nearly nationally representative data from five provinces, 25 counties, 101 villages and 2,000 households, collected from two waves of data in 2007 and 2011. This sample comprises a subset of households which include both elderly individuals (above 60 years old) and their grown (working-aged) children in order to estimate the impact of adult child migration on the health of elderly parents in rural China. Findings This study finds that adult child migration has a significant positive impact on the health of elderly family members. Practical implications These findings are consistent with the explanation that migration raises family resources, which in turn may contribute to better health outcomes for elderly household members. Originality/value This is the first paper to attempt to identify the relationship between household migration and the health of elderly parents within the Chinese context.

Being an adult child of an elderly person living in a nursing home: a phenomenological approach to the Turkish case

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pelin Önder Erol ◽  
Elif Gün
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Home ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Filial Piety ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Wide Range

Purpose A long-established cultural norm of filial piety may cause ambivalent feelings for adult children who are considered the primary caregivers for their elderly parents in Turkish culture, and whose parents have been placed into nursing homes. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight to the lived experiences of adult children of elderly people living in a nursing home in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon dramaturgical theory and phenomenological methodology, the authors conducted interviews with ten adult children whose elderly parents had been admitted to a nursing home in Izmir, Turkey. Multi-stage purposeful random sampling was used as the sampling scheme. Thematic analysis was performed to interpret the data. Findings Three themes emerged from the data: adult children’s coping strategies, the ways in which the adult children rationalize their decisions, and the ways in which the adult children manage the placement process. The interviews revealed that the adult children often feel like social outcasts and experience a wide range of difficulties, including social pressures, their own inner dilemmas, and negotiations with their elderly parents. Originality/value An exploration for the lived experiences of adult children relating to the nursing home placement of their elderly parents contributes an insight about the well-established cultural norms that produce feelings of ambivalence.

scholarly journals What Happens to the Health of Elderly Parents When Adult Child Migration Splits Households? Evidence from Rural China

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianxiang Li ◽  
Beibei Wu ◽  
Fujin Yi ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Tomas Baležentis
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Parental Health ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Child Migration ◽  
The Impact

There is little understanding about the effects of adult child migration on the health of elderly parents left behind in the light of economic contribution and time allocation (farm work and emotional cohesion). Using the pooled data from three latest issues of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in the rural areas, this study assesses the impact of child migration on parents’ health by employing instrumental variable approach to deal with the endogeneity problem. Overall, the evidence suggests that adult child migration impairs parental health as indicated by lower self-reported health (SRH), body mass index (BMI), physical activity of daily living (PADL), and higher depression score. Moreover, parents who are female, poorly-educated, and living with one adult child at least are the most vulnerable groups in terms of poor health outcomes. The negative impact of farming burden on the health of parents left behind outweighs the positive impact of economic support and emotional cohesion. Thus, child migration exerts a significantly negative impact on parental health. Establishing medical and social security systems for the elderly is important to complement the traditional family support in rural China.

scholarly journals Costs of Raising Grandchildren on Grandmother-Adult Child Relations in Black and White Families

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 393-394
Author(s):  
Yifei Hou ◽  
J Jill Suitor ◽  
Megan Gilligan ◽  
Destiny Ogle ◽  
Catherine Stepniak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Racial Differences ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Family Solidarity ◽  
White Families ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Child Relationship ◽  
White Mothers ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The cost of raising grandchildren on grandmothers’ mental and physical health has been well-documented; however, little is known about whether raising grandchildren also has a cost on grandmothers’ relationships with the adult children whose children the grandmothers have raised. Drawing from theories of exchange and affect, stress process model, and racial differences in intergenerational solidarity, we tested how raising grandchildren affects grandmother-adult child relations. Further, we explored the extent to which these patterns differed by race. To address this question, we used mixed-methods data collected from 553 older mothers regarding their relationships with their 2,016 adult children; approximately 10% of the mothers had raised one or more of their grandchildren “as their own.” Data were provided by the Within-Family Differences Study-I. Multilevel analyses showed that raising grandchildren was associated with greater closeness in grandmother-adult child relationship in Black families; however, in White families, raising grandchildren was associated with greater conflict in the grandmother-adult child relationship. Further, the differences by race in the effects of raising grandchildren on closeness and conflict were statistically significant. Qualitative analyses revealed that race differences in the association between raising grandchildren and relationship quality could be explained by mothers’ reports of greater family solidarity in Black than White families. Our findings highlight the ways in which race and family solidarity interact to produce differences in the impact of raising grandchildren on Black and White mothers’ assessment of the quality of their relationships with their adult children, consistent with broader patterns of racial differences in intergenerational cohesion.

scholarly journals LIVES WORSE THAN DEATH: ADULT CHILDREN ARE POOR AT ESTIMATING PARENTS’ QUALITY-OF-LIFE VALUATIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S636-S636
Author(s):  
Matthew Pichiello ◽  
Meghan McDarby ◽  
Elissa K Kozlov ◽  
Brian Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Feeding Tube ◽  
Health State ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Health States ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Adult children often help older parents make medical decisions when their health is compromised. To do so in a way that respects parent values requires children to know how their parent views health states and consequent quality of life. The current study compared older parent and adult child valuations of quality of life in different health contexts. Families consisted of older parents (n = 37) and their adult children (n = 66). Parents rated perceived quality of life in 14 compromised health states on a scale from 1 (difficult but acceptable) to 5 (not worth living). Children estimated how their parent responded to each health state, yielding an index of their knowledge of parent perceptions. Overall, parents described all compromised health states as less acceptable than adult children thought they would, t(99) = 2.19, p < .05. Notably, parents believed situations that caused financial or emotional burden to their family were much less acceptable than their children estimated. Children were more knowledgeable about parent valuations for more extreme circumstances, such as living with a feeding tube. Within families, children demonstrated only slight knowledge about parent quality of life valuations (kappa = .081). Across the entire sample of families, there was a broad range of knowledge (kappas = -.181 – .351), but at best, knowledge was still only fair. Results from this study suggest that adult children may underestimate the impact of compromised health states on parent estimations of quality of life, which could affect collaborations on healthcare decisions.

Adult children labour migration and parent health: evidence from Indonesian panel data

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfiah Hasanah ◽  
Bayu Kharisma ◽  
Sutyastie Soemitro Remi
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Labour Migration ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This study aims to explore the impact of adult child labour migration on the health of parents and the possible mechanism that contributes to the health of families left behind. Design/methodology/approach Several indicators of parents’ health are analysed and several subgroups – parents of migrant sons, parents of migrant daughters, parents aged 50+ and parents who live in rural areas are investigated. The data from Indonesia Family Life Survey are used and the fixed effects method is used to address potential endogeneity and instrumental variables are applied in the sensitivity analysis. Findings The labour out-migration of adult children has a positive and significant association with the health status of the parent left behind. The parents of migrant children are more likely to have a better self-rated health status, fewer episodes of morbidity symptoms, fewer unhealthy days, fewer visits to outpatient care and are less likely to be on medication than the parents of non-migrant children. Research limitations/implications The study design in a longitudinal setting, however, there is a relatively many years gap between waves could provide insufficient statistical power for measuring health variations. Future studies should consider to explore possible health outcomes for parents who co-resided with an adult child and the types and severity of various disease conditions. Practical implications Highlights challenges in health-care provision for older people in Indonesia and the possible contribution of health disparities in developing countries. Originality/value Explores the impact of out-migration of adult children on the health of parents left behind, using very recent data of over a long period of a longitudinal design.

scholarly journals Adult Children’s Perspectives on Their Role in Their Parent’s Hearing Healthcare Processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 871-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel M. Heacock ◽  
Joseph J. Montano ◽  
Jill E. Preminger
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Linear Process ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Communication Management ◽  
Patient Journey ◽  
Hearing Aid Use ◽  
The Impact

AbstractCommunication partners play an important role in the hearing healthcare (HHC) process of the person with hearing impairment (HI). However, present research focuses mainly on the role of the spouse; the role of the adult child is often overlooked or understated.The aim of the study was to describe the role of the adult child in the HHC process of a parent with HI.Using a qualitative study design, participants described their role in their parents’ HHC process and the impact of a parent’s HI on their relationship and communication in individual semi-structured interviews.Twelve adult children of ten parents with HI participated; two sets of siblings were included to gain different perspectives on the HHC process within the same family.Thematic analysis, a qualitative method to explore participant’s perceptions and viewpoints, was used as the method of analysis.The superordinate theme discussed most frequently by participants, communication management, was bolstered by three ideas or pillars: facilitating HHC, communication strategies, and encouraging hearing aid use. Adult children saw themselves as advocates or supporters of their parent’s HHC by taking an ongoing and active role in promoting successful communication rather than a role in directing their parent’s HHC actions. Within each pillar of communication management, participants’ perceptions and actions were modulated by the varying levels of effort and a desire to ask questions to better understand how to help their parent, which in turn influenced their awareness of the HI and HHC options, often resulting in the adult child putting forth new effort.Whereas the patient journey is often presented to the patient as a linear process, the adult children instead viewed the process of communication management as an ongoing and continuous cycle. The audiologist should be encouraged to involve adult children in the HHC process, as adult children play an important role in everyday communication management.

scholarly journals Adult Children’s Problems and Mothers’ Well-Being

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Pillemer ◽  
J. Jill Suitor ◽  
Catherine Riffin ◽  
Megan Gilligan
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Parental Preference ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Parent Child Relationships ◽  
Detrimental Impact

This article explores whether understanding of the effects of children’s problems on older parents’ well-being can be advanced by exploring differences in parent–child relationships within families. Using data from a study in which mothers reported on all adult children, we addressed the question: Do patterns of maternal favoritism moderate the impact of children’s problems on psychological well-being? Based on the literature on the effects of children’s problems and on parental favoritism, we hypothesized that problems in the lives of favored adult children will have a more detrimental impact than when they affect unfavored offspring. Results revealed strong and detrimental effects of any offspring’s problems on mothers’ well-being; these effects occurred, however, regardless of parental preference for an adult child. The findings suggest that the well-documented effects of parental preference may be limited in domains such as problems and difficult transitions in adult children’s lives.

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