Adam Shapiro

Later-Life Divorce and Parent-Adult Child Contact and Proximity A Longitudinal Analysis

This study explores how parental divorce that occurs after children have reached adulthood affects parent–adult child contact and proximity. Data are from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) and include 1,463 respondents. The findings suggest that divorce affects parent–child contact and proximity differently for mothers and fathers. Compared with stably married fathers, fathers who divorced were more likely to experience a decline in coresidence and weekly contact with at least one adult child. However, divorced mothers were more likely than stably married mothers to report an increase in weekly contact with an adult child. At the same time, the data intimate that divorce may slightly increase mothers’ likelihood of little or no contact with an adult child.

Explaining Psychological Distress in a Sample of Remarried and Divorced Persons The Influence of Economic Distress

This article analyzes a 1986 national survey (N = 2,081) to examine (a) whether there are differences in psychological distress and economic distress between remarried and divorced persons and (b) if differences in economic distress explain differences in psychological distress between remarried and divorced persons. Findings show that, compared to the currently divorced, the remarried have significantly lower rates of economic distress and psychological distress. Economic distress, particularly a subjective assessment, explains a large proportion of the marital status differences in psychological distress. The most profound influence of economic distress on psychological distress is found for divorced women.

Relational and Individual Well-Being Among Cohabitors and Married Individuals in Midlife Recent Trends From Norway

This study uses data from the Norwegian NorLAG study (N = 2,455) to examine differences in relationship quality and psychological well-being between middle-aged cohabitors and married persons. The authors question whether previous results linking cohabitation as compared with marriage to lower well-being will replicate in Norway, where cohabitation is much more widespread and socially accepted and where the legal system increasingly treats cohabitation and marriage as equal. The authors find that never-married cohabitors but not formerly married cohabitors report lower levels of relational and subjective well-being compared with their married counterparts. In this way, cohabitation per se is not qualitatively different from marriage. The presence of children and union duration have previously been linked to greater discontentment among cohabitors, but this is not evinced in this study.

Marital Interaction in Middle and Old Age: A Predictor of Marital Satisfaction?.

Many studies point out the importance of marital satisfaction for well-being. However, although being married is still the norm in middle and old age, research on the determinants of marital satisfaction has neglected long-term marriages. While research on short-term marriages mainly focuses on partner fit (e.g., in personality traits and socio-economic status), marital interactions should be more important for marital satisfaction in long-term marriages. In this article we examine the role of both stable, dispositional factors and of marital interaction in predicting marital satisfaction in long-term marriages in middle and old age. With data from 588 married women and men in middle and old age who participated in the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development (ILSE), we examined age and gender differences in the role of socio-economic status, personality, and marital interaction as predictors of marital satisfaction. Results showed a) that socio-economic factors and personality played a minor role in predicting marital satisfaction, and b) that a high quality of dyadic interaction was particularly important for the marital satisfaction of women. The implications of these findings for future research and interventions on marital interaction in middle and old age are discussed.

Generational Jeopardy? Parents' Marital Transitions and the Provision of Financial Transfers to Adult Children

OBJECTIVES Transitions into and out of marriage are becoming more commonplace among persons in middle and later life. We assess the extent to which parental marital transitions influence inter vivos financial transfers to adult children at the family level. METHODS Panel data from 6,017 households with adult children in the 1992-1998 waves of the Health and Retirement Study are analyzed in this study. RESULTS Net of familial characteristics, those families experiencing a parental marriage were less likely than stably married households to make a financial transfer to an adult child. The effects of divorce or widowhood were modest. Divorce was associated with a slight increase in the probability of providing a transfer. Widowhood was associated with a slight increase in the total amount transferred to children. DISCUSSION The study adds weight to the growing argument that marital transitions may alter intergenerational exchanges. The results prompt us to further question how broader demographic and marriage patterns will influence relationships between parents and children in aging societies.

A Service-Learning Approach to Teaching Gerontology: A Case Study of a First-Year Undergraduate Seminar

Abstract This article presents a case study of the implementation of a core service-learning requirement into an honors undergraduate gerontology seminar for incoming freshmen. Students are placed in a variety of community agencies that serve elders and are required to serve for a minimum of four hours per week in addition to traditional academic studies. The process for integrating the service and non-service components of the course is discussed in detail as are the informal evaluations from students.

Medicaid Cost-Savings of Home- and Community-Based Service Programs for Older Persons in Florida:

This study is designed to address the estimated Medicaid cost-savings of selected home- and community-based service (HCBS) programs in the State of Florida. Utilizing Medicaid claim data for SFY 2000-2005, a propensity score matching procedure is used to simulate random assignment of seniors into matched treatment (HCBS users) and comparison (waitlist) groups. We then produce an algorithm that determines the differences in Medicaid expenditures between the two groups, producing an estimate of cost-savings. Some HCBS programs in Florida show evidence of Medicaid cost-savings. Median Medicaid cost-savings varied widely, ranging from a cost overage of US

Willingness to Pay for Home- and Community-Based Services for Seniors in Florida

277 per member per month (PMPM) to a cost-savings of US

Marital Status and Social Well-Being: Are the Married Always Better Off?

229 PMPM. Cost-savings appears most consistently when analyzing nursing home costs. The results of this study provide further evidence that nursing home cost-savings can be achieved through home- and community-based services programs.

Domestic Violence, Personal Control, and Gender.

States are increasingly interested in measuring the benefit of home- and community-based services (HCBS) programs in order to determine if continued provision of HCBS can be justified on a cost-benefit basis. This study attempts to assess the maximum dollar amount HCBS enrollees or eligible applicants are willing to pay as a measure of the value of the services to them. A contingent valuation survey was conducted on a random sample of 409 clients who were enrolled in or waitlisted for HCBS programs in Florida. Based on estimates from a random-effect model, the median and mean willingness to pay amounts are calculated to be