Familial Predictors of Alcohol and Drug Use-Related Problems Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults

This study evaluated whether recent family member alcohol and substance use problems (ASP) and density of family ASP (i.e., number of members with ASP) predict alcohol-related problems and drug use-related problems among middle-aged and older adults. Data were drawn from participants (age 42–93 years, n = 2168) in the longitudinal Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS). Poisson regression models revealed that adults’ alcohol- and drug use-related problems were predicted by similar problems among family members. In particular, parent and partner ASP, but not child ASP, predicted alcohol-related problems in the middle-aged and combined samples, while only partner ASP predicted participants’ drug use-related problems. In addition, density of family ASP predicted alcohol-related problems, but not drug use-related problems. There were no gender interactions. Study findings highlight that understanding how adult children, spouses, and aging parents impact each other’s substance use should be a priority of future aging and family research.

Patterns of Intergenerational Care Planning Among Chinese Aging Families in Hong Kong

Care planning before the onset of intensive care needs can increase families’ ability to manage caregiving crises and cope with care transitions. However, future care planning has not been substantially examined in a family context. Drawing on the model of Preparation for Future Care Needs and a family systems perspective, this study investigated patterns of intergenerational care planning across multiple planning domains (awareness, avoidance, information gathering, decision making, and concrete planning) among Chinese intergenerational pairs. Quantitative data of 213 pairs of aging parents and adult children were collected in Hong Kong. Latent Profile Analysis was conducted to examine typological structure underlying care planning patterns. Three patterns were discovered: filial-maximal, dyadic-moderate, and filial-minimal. Profile 1 contained approximately 9.9% of pairs, which demonstrated a relatively higher level of avoidance on considering the need of care preparation and engaged less in concrete planning activities. Profile 2 contained 68.5% of intergenerational pairs that had a moderate preparation level. Profile 3 contained 21.6% of intergenerational pairs that were comparatively active in care planning. The findings also indicated that although older adults across three groups demonstrated a similar level of awareness to prepare for future care, their engagement in the concrete planning activities may be driven by their children’s awareness and preparation toward future care. The findings will enhance professionals’ and service providers’ awareness of diverse care planning patterns among Asian aging families, and inform targeted policies and programmes to alleviate unpreparedness for eldercare through intergenerational care planning which can be more effective than unilateral preparation.

Does Religiosity in the Transition to Adulthood Predict Filial Norms in Midlife?

Objective This study aims to identify multiple dimensions of religiosity among young adults at the beginning and end of the transition to adulthood, and describe how transition patterns of religiosity in early adulthood are associated with filial elder-care norms in midlife. Background There is a broad consensus that religiosity is multidimensional in nature, but less is known regarding transitions in multiple dimensions of religiosity from early to middle adulthood and predicted filial eldercare norms as a function of those religiosity transitions. Methods The sample consisted of 368 young adults participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in 2000 (mean age = 23 years) and 2016 waves. We conducted a latent class and latent transition analyses to address our aims. Results We identified three religious latent classes among young adults in both 2000 and 2016 waves: strongly religious, weakly religious, and doctrinally religious. Staying strongly religious young adults between 2000 to 2016 waves reported higher filial elder-care norms in the 2016 Wave than those who were in staying weakly religious, staying doctrinally religious, and decreasing religiosity transition patterns between 2000 to 2016 waves. Conclusion Our findings suggest that religiosity is still an important value for young adults shaping their intergenerational relationships with their aging parents. Keywords: religiosity, filial eldercare norms, young adults, transition to adulthood

Adult Children’s Monitoring, Knowledge, and Intergenerational Ambivalence

Monitoring aging parents' daily life is an essential task for adult children to ensure their parents’ health and safety. The current study examined domains of parents' lives that adult children monitored as caregivers. Based on social domain theory (Smetana, 1999), we hypothesized that adult children would monitor parents’ health and safety issues as respecting parents’ autonomy in other issues. The study also examined how adult children’s belief in need for monitoring and their perception of having actual knowledge of their parents’ behaviors and thoughts would relate to the intensity of their intergenerational ambivalence. Adults who had at least one living parent (N=398, Mage=60, SD=7.7, range 45-77) participated in online surveys. Issues of parents' lives that adult children monitored were categorized into four domains by factor analysis: parents' financial safety, health and physical safety, substance use, and plans with other adult children. A series of regression analyses revealed that adult children's sense of need to know about parents' financial safety was associated with lower ambivalence, B=-.60, SE=.18, β=-.23, p=.001, whereas parents’ physical safety was associated with greater ambivalence, B=.42, SE=.19, β =.17, p=.03. Adult children's perception of their knowledge about parents' financial safety was positively associated with their ambivalence, B=.58, SE=.20, β=.22, p=.004, whereas adult children's perception of parents' physical safety was negatively associated with their ambivalence, B=-.42, SE=.21, β=-.14, p=.05. Different meanings of different types of parents' safety issues for adult children as their caregivers and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

The Costs of Concern: Health Implications of Worries about Aging Parents and Adult Children

As their parents age and their children enter adulthood, midlife adults need to manage their worries and concerns about both generations. In midlife, worries about aging parents’ health and emerging needs for support co-occur alongside worries about adult children’s relationships and prolonged need for support. Research reveals links between midlife adults’ worry and sleep quality, underscoring how worries compromise health and well-being. In addition to compromising sleep, worries may also contribute to poor health behaviors, such as emotional eating. Emotional eating, where individuals eat in response to stressors and negative emotions, is a significant risk factor for overeating and obesity. Less is known; however, about how midlife adults’ worries contribute to poor health behaviors. To address this gap, the current study considers how midlife adults’ concurrent and previous day’s daily worries about aging parents and adult children are associated with daily well-being and health behaviors. Respondents are midlife adults (40-60 years) from Wave II of the Family Exchanges Study (Fingerman et al., 2009). During 7 days of daily telephone interviews, respondents indicated if they worried about their adult children and their aging parent(s), if they ate food for comfort, and their daily negative mood. Controlling for demographics, on days when midlife adults worried about their adult child(ren), they reported more negative emotions than on days without these worries (p <.05). Respondents engaged in more eating for comfort the day after they reported worrying about their mother (p < .05). Implications for aging families will be discussed.

Population Aging and Multicultural Diversity in the United States: Implications for Older Consumers’ Needs and Expectations

Looking ahead to 2030 and beyond, the United States will be both older and more multicultural than presently. To explore the impacts and characteristics of an increasingly diverse population beginning to age, the MIT AgeLab conducted online focus groups in August 2020 (n=92) with ethnically diverse participants ages 40-69 on topics related to household composition, use of technology and digital engagement. Regarding household composition, Black and Latinx participants were more likely to report living with grandchild(ren), and Asian, Latinx, and White participants were more likely to report living with a parent(s) or parent(s)-in- law. Latinx participants often described ways in which caregiving for aging parents was a cultural value, but many participants who had raised children in the United States but who were not born in the United States themselves described cultural gaps in family attitudes that had sometimes widened across the generations. While all participants were using some technology, due to the coronavirus pandemic, digital tools were being used more widely than ever before. Racial/ethnic identity groups were more similar than different in terms of their responses to questions around consumer digital engagement. There were notable differences in overall trust in technology across racial/ethnic groups, with Asian participants reporting the highest average overall level of trust in technology and Multiracial participants reporting the lowest. Looking ahead, the intersection of aging and growing racial/ethnic diversity in the United States will yield a wider array of consumer needs and expectations.

Ngā Pā Harakeke O Ngati Porou: A Lived Experience of Whānau

<p>Māori live within a post-colonial society, and were subjected to colonisation, warfare, land loss and urbanisation. These policies changed Māori from an agrarian society into an industrialised society within the cities. The impact on whānau of this included the separation from traditional lands, marae, hapu, iwi and the support of other whānau members. Māori living in cities were then categorised as urban Māori, which does not sit comfortably with participants in this study, who reject this term. This thesis explores, with Ngati Porou participants, their lived experience of whānau. The views of three age cohorts are canvassed in order to identify whether their understandings of whānau differ. These three cohorts were divided as follows: 65 years and over; 35–64 and 21–34. A total of thirty-eight participants were interviewed. They spoke passionately about who they were, where they came from and why they valued whānau. This is a qualitative research project, which utilises both Western and a Māori/tribal worldview. It was of importance to ensure that the data retained the Māori messages and the essence of the kōrero. A whakapapa and whānau sampling method was used to identify hapu and whānau. Face-to-face interviews were conducted, using a „snowball‟ technique. Some of the issues explored included who participants counted as members of whānau, the various whānau types identified by the literature (kaupapa whānau, whaamere, family, virtual whānau, new whānau, statistical whānau and whānau ora) and whether the „whānau mantra‟ is a „myth‟. Participants were asked for their views on the roles within whānau, what strengthens and divides whānau and whānau leadership. Other topics explored were the role of whāngai within whānau, cross-cultural relationships, maintaining whakapapa links, urbanisation and the impact of policies on whānau. Recently, government has begun to use whānau within policies in ways that differ from the lived experience of whānau. Academics have also used the metaphor of whānau in an attempt to explain some of the contemporary groupings of Māori, such as kapa haka activities. The pakeke cohort, most of whom lived within the tribal area, were totally involved with whānau, hapu and iwi. The middle cohort, most of whom were employed, were involved with whānau and marae when required. They cared for both mokopuna and aging parents. There were other qualities they valued in addition to whakapapa. The youngest cohort, some of whom were young parents, were passionate about being members of whānau. Because many of them had been born away from the tribal area, they felt the need to traverse the lands where their tīpuna had lived, worked and played in order for the whakapapa to become real. This thesis has identified that whakapapa is of the utmost importance to the participants‟ understanding of whānau, and that this shapes their lived experience.</p>

Ngā Pā Harakeke O Ngati Porou: A Lived Experience of Whānau

<p>Māori live within a post-colonial society, and were subjected to colonisation, warfare, land loss and urbanisation. These policies changed Māori from an agrarian society into an industrialised society within the cities. The impact on whānau of this included the separation from traditional lands, marae, hapu, iwi and the support of other whānau members. Māori living in cities were then categorised as urban Māori, which does not sit comfortably with participants in this study, who reject this term. This thesis explores, with Ngati Porou participants, their lived experience of whānau. The views of three age cohorts are canvassed in order to identify whether their understandings of whānau differ. These three cohorts were divided as follows: 65 years and over; 35–64 and 21–34. A total of thirty-eight participants were interviewed. They spoke passionately about who they were, where they came from and why they valued whānau. This is a qualitative research project, which utilises both Western and a Māori/tribal worldview. It was of importance to ensure that the data retained the Māori messages and the essence of the kōrero. A whakapapa and whānau sampling method was used to identify hapu and whānau. Face-to-face interviews were conducted, using a „snowball‟ technique. Some of the issues explored included who participants counted as members of whānau, the various whānau types identified by the literature (kaupapa whānau, whaamere, family, virtual whānau, new whānau, statistical whānau and whānau ora) and whether the „whānau mantra‟ is a „myth‟. Participants were asked for their views on the roles within whānau, what strengthens and divides whānau and whānau leadership. Other topics explored were the role of whāngai within whānau, cross-cultural relationships, maintaining whakapapa links, urbanisation and the impact of policies on whānau. Recently, government has begun to use whānau within policies in ways that differ from the lived experience of whānau. Academics have also used the metaphor of whānau in an attempt to explain some of the contemporary groupings of Māori, such as kapa haka activities. The pakeke cohort, most of whom lived within the tribal area, were totally involved with whānau, hapu and iwi. The middle cohort, most of whom were employed, were involved with whānau and marae when required. They cared for both mokopuna and aging parents. There were other qualities they valued in addition to whakapapa. The youngest cohort, some of whom were young parents, were passionate about being members of whānau. Because many of them had been born away from the tribal area, they felt the need to traverse the lands where their tīpuna had lived, worked and played in order for the whakapapa to become real. This thesis has identified that whakapapa is of the utmost importance to the participants‟ understanding of whānau, and that this shapes their lived experience.</p>

試析西方倫理學中的孝養義務

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 在西方倫理學中，孝養義務是指（成年）子女對父母尤其是對年邁父母所具有的提供保障、照料、陪伴及滿足其他合理需求的道德責任。與之相關的理論有感恩理論、友誼理論和特殊善理論。對於親子關係的模式、孝養義務的來源、孝養義務的具體要求、以及孝養義務何時能夠結束等問題，三種理論給出了各不相同的回答。本文嘗試探討這三種理論，並對其各自存在的問題給出批評和可能的回應。 In the Western tradition, filial obligation dictates that adult children have a moral duty to provide financial and psychological support to their aging parents. In addition, children are required to meet their parents' “reasonable demands” under given circumstances. There are three accounts of filial obligations that provide specific answers to questions concerning parent-child relationships, such as on what grounds and when filial obligation is encouraged and required. In this paper, the author explores the idea of filial obligation in the West and offers a critical response to the issues involved.