Intergenerational Family Support following Infant Death

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana L. White ◽  
Alexis J. Walker ◽  
Leslie N. Richards

The death of a child is a traumatic, nonnormative family life event. Although parental bereavement has received substantial attention, little research has focused on extended family members affected by a child's death, and still less on how multiple family members perceive and respond to one another following the loss. Guided by a life course perspective, this article examines social support between grandparents and their adult children in the aftermath of infant death. Through structured, open-ended interviews, 21 grandparents and 19 parents from 10 families described how they provided support to and received support from their intergenerational partners. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Six categories of support were identified: being present, acknowledgment, performing immediate tasks, information, unskilled support, and no support. Most support was provided by grandparents to adult children rather than from adult children to grandparents. All families reported significant support from at least one grandparent and nearly all families described ambivalent relationships that complicated support. Gender, family lineage, and family history were major influences. Multiple family perspectives about a significant life event contribute to our understanding about the intersection between individual and family life.

2008 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie F. Sergeant ◽  
David J. Ekerdt

This qualitative study delineates motives for residential mobility, describes dynamics between the elder and family members during the move decision process, and locates the move decision within ecological layers of the aging context. Interviews were conducted with 30 individuals and couples (ages 60–87) who experienced a community-based move within the past year, and with 14 extended family members. Reasons for moving (from perspectives of both elders who moved and their family members) were grouped into four themes and eleven issues that influenced the move decision. These themes parallel the ecological context of individual health and functioning, beliefs and attitudes, physical environment, and social pressures. Late-life mobility is a significant life transition that is the outcome of an ongoing appraisal and reappraisal of housing fit with individual functioning, needs, and aspirations. Family members are an integral part of these decision and residential mobility processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (21) ◽  
pp. 210-219
Author(s):  
Noor ‘Aza Ahmad

Due to the pandemic of coronavirus or Covid 19, those who were working, studying, and building lives on their own before, are affected. Many employees, mostly young people becoming jobless. Now, it is a great deal of these young people or adult children to go back to live with their parents. In other words, these adult children and/or grandchildren have to stay together with their family members, normally with their elderly parents or grandparents or even extended family members. This paper seeks to discuss the obligation and rights of the parties involved as regards Family Law in Malaysia. This paper uses the library study method, in addition, to analyse the provisions related to Family Law matters, and also by looking at reported cases related to the abovementioned matters. Finally, this paper discusses the actions and recommendations of the said parties involved in order to cope with the challenges of staying together during the pandemic of Covid 19.


2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
CAROL SMART

This article attempts to account for the existence of parallel systems of values in families where grandparents condemn divorce, yet act to support their adult children when they face relationship breakdown. The article seeks to understand the context in which values are formed and how they can gradually become more complex and contradictory as social and personal contexts change. The article explores change across two generations of family relationships in order to add to the debate on whether commitments within families are in decline. It also addresses the question of how policies on families can be formulated given the complexity, and contradictory nature, of the values that family members hold.


Author(s):  
Joanna L. Grossman ◽  
Lawrence M. Friedman

This chapter deals with the complexities of succession, specifically in the ways money is shared with other members of the family. Family members not only earn money from work; some family members also inherit money from dead relatives, or get gifts from living ones. Other members give money away, during their lifetimes, or after death. Parents obviously have to pay for everything their children need, and grown children sometimes support old, sick, and destitute parents. When a family member dies, typically they leave whatever money or assets remain to members of the family. And while books, law school curricula, and legal practice treat family law and the law of succession as entirely different subjects, this chapter deals away with those distinctions in order to reveal how these subjects impact family life and family law.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-119
Author(s):  
Darcey K. Searles

Video-mediated technologies enable families with young children to participate in interactions with remote family members. This article examines how a family with young children uses the affordances of video conferencing to 'show' items or themselves. Findings indicate that there are two types of shows in these remote family interactions: those that are designed to receive identification, and those that are designed to receive appreciation and/or assessment. These shows are also often collaboratively produced between a child and her co-present parent. Finally, this paper considers the implications of these shows for our understanding of how families remotely participate in family life. Data are in American English.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-298
Author(s):  
Kholid Mawardi ◽  
Cucu Nurzakiyah

The results of the study found that the responsibility of religious education of children in the family of Tablighi Jama'ah differed in terms of several conditions, namely first, when parents were not going to khuruj where both parents were responsible for children's education; secondly, when the father goes khuruj, then the mother is responsible for everything including children's education; third, when both parents go khuruj, then the responsibility of the child is left to other family members such as grandparents or their first adult children; and fourth, when the child goes to khuruj, where parents are responsible for children's religious education both mother and father. The pattern of the religious education in the Tablighi Jama'ah family in the village of Bolang is formed from several similarities held in the implementation of religious education, one of which is the daily activity that is carried out by the Tablighi Jama'at family. Al-Qur'an becomes one of the material given to children in the ta'lim. Children are taught how to read the Qur'an and memorize short letters such as Surat al-Falaq, al-Ikhlas, and so on. In addition to al-Qur'an, in this ta'lim there is a special study in the Tablighi Jama'ah, which is reading the book of fadhilah ‘amal, and the last is mudzakarah six characteristics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 417-417
Author(s):  
Hyo Jung Lee ◽  
Jacobbina Jin Wen Ng

Abstract This study aims to investigate whether attitude and perception on late-life death and dying, end-of-life care plans and preferences could be better understood from current values shared between aging parents and their adult children in the multi-cultural city-bound country, Singapore. We are in the process of interviewing 20 aging parent-adult child dyads. Up to date, six semi-structured interviews were completed and transcribed. We performed Content analysis to analyze the transcripts. Preliminary findings showed that both aging parents and adult children rarely discussed this issue, although parents had their own plans or preferences. The major barriers against open conversations about death and dying of aging parents include: the perception of not-yet time to talk about this issue (without knowing when the right time is) and tendency to have conversations about death in tandem with finances, but not death itself. Although specific end-of-life care plans or arrangements were not thought out thoroughly, aging parents expressed a high level of trust and reliance on close family members’ decisions regarding their end-of-life care. They tended to agree on joint decision-making process within family, even though adult children had no or unmatched ideas about their aging parents’ end-of-life wishes. This did not necessarily align with previous findings in Western countries, underscoring individuals’ control over their own death and dying process. Open conversation within family, family-involved advance care planning, or joint decision-making processes may be warranted to promote quality of life and death in older Singaporeans and well-being of their family members of all ages.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 811-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN KNODEL ◽  
JIRAPORN KESPICHAYAWATTANA ◽  
CHANPEN SAENGTIENCHAI ◽  
SUVINEE WIWATWANICH

ABSTRACTThe consequences of adult children's migration from rural areas for older parents who remain behind are keenly debated. While the mass media and international advocacy organisations favour an ‘alarmist’ view of desertion, the academic literature makes more sanguine assessments using the ‘household strategy’ and ‘modified extended family’ perspectives. We examine the relationship between the migration of adult children and various dimensions of older parents' wellbeing in Thailand using evidence from a survey that focused on the issues. The results provide little support for the alarmist view, but instead suggest that parents and adult children adapt to the social and economic changes associated with development in ways not necessarily detrimental to intergenerational relations. The migration of children, especially to urban areas, often benefits parents' material support while the recent spread of cell phones has radically increased their ability to maintain social contact. Nevertheless, changing living arrangements through increased migration and the smaller family sizes of the youngest age groups of older people pose serious challenges for aspects of filial support, especially at advanced ages when chronic illness and frailty require long-term personal care. Dealing with this emerging situation in a context of social, economic and technological change is among the most critical issues facing those concerned with the implications of rapid population ageing in Thailand and elsewhere.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Murray

The circumstances of children upon leaving the Charleston Orphan House were strongly influenced by their circumstances upon arriving. Most of these children were bound out as apprentices after a few years; a large, and growing, minority of them returned to their families; and others died or ran away from the institution. Those with widowed mothers who maintained close ties with them—as evidenced by the children's literacy—were most likely to resume family life after their mothers remarried. Those who had been delivered to the orphanage by other family members or by public officials tended not to be so fortunate.


10.2196/14171 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. e14171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah ◽  
Julia Meredith Hess ◽  
Jessica R Goodkind

BackgroundConflicts around the world have resulted in a record high number of refugees. Family separation is a critical factor that impacts refugee mental health. Thus, it is important to explore refugees’ ability to maintain contact with family members across the globe and the ways in which they attempt to do so. It is increasingly common for refugees to use information and communication technologies (ICTs), which include mobile phones, the internet, and social media sites, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber, for these purposes.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore refugees’ perceptions of the impact of communication through ICTs on their mental health, the exercise of agency by refugees within the context of ICT use, especially their communication with their families, and logistical issues that affect their access to ICTs in the United States.MethodsWe used a constructivist grounded theory approach to analyze in-depth interviews of 290 adult refugee participants from different countries, who were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a community-based mental health intervention.ResultsAnalyses showed that communication through ICTs had differing impacts on the mental health of refugee participants. ICTs, as channels of communication between separated families, were a major source of emotional and mental well-being for a large number of refugee participants. However, for some participants, the communication process with separated family members through digital technology was mentally and emotionally difficult. The participants also discussed ways in which they hide adversities from their families through selective use of different ICTs. Several participants noted logistical and financial barriers to communicating with their families through ICTs.ConclusionsThese findings are important in elucidating aspects of refugee agency and environmental constraints that need to be further explicated in theories related to ICT use as well as in providing insight for researchers and practitioners involved in efforts related to migration and mental health.


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