Ariela Lowenstein

Intergenerational solidarity and the family–welfare state balance

The article addresses the strength and character of intergenerational family solidarity under different family cultures and welfare state regimes in order to answer the following two questions: (1) Is intergenerational solidarity stronger under the more collectivist southern family tradition than under the more individualist northern tradition? (2) Is more generous access to social care services a risk or a resource for family care? These questions are explored with data from the OASIS project, a comparative study among the urban populations aged 25+ (n=6,106) in Norway, England, Germany, Spain, and Israel. The findings indicate that the welfare state has not crowded out the family in elder care, but has rather helped the generations establish more independent relationships. Intergenerational solidarity is substantial in both the northern and southern welfare state regimes, and seems to vary in character more than in strength.

Global aging and challenges to families

The recent explosion in population ageing across the globe represents one of the most remarkable demographic changes in human history. Population ageing will profoundly affect families. Who will care for the growing numbers of tomorrows very old members of societies? Will it be state governments? The aged themselves? Their families? The purpose of this book is to examine consequences of global aging for families and intergenerational support, and for nations as they plan for the future.

Filial norms and family support in a comparative cross-national context: evidence from the OASIS study

The article aims to answer three questions: How strong are the bonds of obligations and expectations between generations? To what extent are different types of support exchanged between generations? What are the impacts of filial norms, opportunity structures and emotional bonds on the exchange of inter-generational support between adult children and older parents across societies? It reports findings from the five-country (Norway, England, Germany, Spain and Israel) OASIS study, which collected data from representative, age-stratified, urban-community samples of about 1,200 respondents in each country. The findings indicate that solidarity is general and considerable although the strengths of its dimensions vary by country. Most respondents acknowledged some degree of filial obligation, although the proportions were higher in Spain and Israel than in the northern countries, and there was greater variation in the tangible forms than in the expressed norms. Adult children were net providers of support, but older parents provided emotional support and financial help. Most support was provided to unmarried older parents with physical-function limitations. The effect of filial norms on help provision by adult children was moderate but significant and variable across the five countries, appearing more prescriptive in the south than in the north, where inter-generational exchanges were more open to negotiation. The findings demonstrate that cross-national analyses provide insights into both country-specific factors and the sometimes unexpected similarities among them.

Adjustment of Older Soviet Immigrant Parents and Their Adult Children Residing in Shared Households: An Intergenerational Comparison

Adjustment of Older Soviet Immigrant Parents and Their Adult Children Residing in Shared Households: An Intergenerational Comparison* This study examined the impact of sociodemographic, personal, and familial resources on the adjustment of older Soviet immigrants and their adult children living in multigenerational households. The sample included 200 respondents from 100 families who arrived in Israel between 1989 and 1995. Intergenerational solidarity served as a conceptual framework. The study used both quantitative and qualitative procedures. The results show that, overall, the younger generation is better adjusted than the older. Specifically, the best adjustment was reported by married older immigrants who received formal support and by educated, younger male immigrants who had work satisfaction. Past and current intergenerational solidarity and, to some extent, current family functioning affect adjustment among the older generation above and beyond all other variables, but hardly affect the younger generation. Key Words: intergenerational solidarity Israel, multigenerational households, older and adult immigrants. Close to 600,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrived in Israel between 1989 and 1996 and today they comprise over 10% of the Israeli population. Within this large influx of newcomers 88,000 are 65 years and older, a population that faces an acute challenge in adjustment. The process of absorption into a new country is stressful for both the individual and the family (Berry, Kim, & Minde, 1987; Westermeyer, 1985), tests their abilities and resources (Mirsky, Barasch, & Goldberg, 1992), and elicits a variety of coping strategies. One such strategy, widespread among the immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has been the formation of multigenerational households. Although most families in the developed world today, including Israel, live in separate households (parents and children), multigenerational households have not completely disappeared. Data show, for example, that the number of multigenerational households in the United States stabilized somewhat in the 1980s (Glick, Bean, & Van Hook, 1997; Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1989). The proportion of multigenerational households within the Russian immigrant population in Israel is estimated at around 70% (Strosberg & Naon, 1997), a figure that is much higher not only in comparison to veteran families but also as compared to the living arrangements of the immigrants themselves in their country of origin: 40% had lived with their adult children in the same household (Strosberg & Naon, 1997). The main reasons cited by Soviet immigrants in Israel for establishing shared households with children and grandchildren were economic constraints (on the part of the older as well as the younger generation), housing shortages, and the need for mutual help. An additional factor was familiarity with this type of living arrangement from life in the former Soviet Union (Strosberg & Naon, 1997). A similar picture of household arrangements was presented by Gelfand (1989) in a study on immigrants from El Salvador to the United States where 91% lived with their children compared to 76% in their homeland. Family-based migration imbues the immigration process with shared experiences physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Family members of different generations living in the same household provide varying perspectives of a stressful event in the life of both the individual and the family (Hagestad, 1990), while invoking emotional bonds that may embrace care-giving, including housing (Boyd,1991). Immigration and Adjustment Immigration involves a permanent change not only in place of residence but, even more significantly, in lifestyle, values, norms, and language. The process of adjusting to a new society is multidimensional, protracted, and complex. Its final objective is to develop the ability to solve problems in a new environment as a result of social, behavioral, and emotional changes (Eisenstadt, 1954). …

Living arrangements, family solidarity and life satisfaction of two generations of immigrants in Israel

This paper reports a study of the relationships between shared and separate living arrangements and the life satisfaction of two generations of migrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel, adult children (the younger generation) and their elderly parents. An attempt was made to identify the social, familial and personal factors that affect life satisfaction, and special attention was devoted to inter-generational family solidarity and to informal and formal social support. Data were collected from a stratified random sample of 425 respondents – 248 in the older generation and 177 in the younger. The results show that for both generations, contrary to expectations, life satisfaction was higher when the two generations lived in separate rather than shared households. Affectual solidarity was positively associated with life satisfaction for both generations, but functional solidarity for the older generation only. Among the older generation, the subjective evaluation of health contributed most to the explained variance; while among the younger, standard of living and employment contributed most. For both generations, family solidarity and social support had little impact. The findings are discussed in relation to the structural and economic factors that influence co-residence and which differentially affect the two generations.

Study of Elder Abuse Within Diverse Cultures

SUMMARY The article provides an overview of the challenges to cross-cultural and cross-national research on elder abuse. There are conceptual and methodological difficulties in undertaking comparative studies within and between countries. As an example of the need to address cultural diversity within a country, elder abuse efforts in the U.S., UK, and Israel are described. The most pressing need for cross-national research on abuse involves a common definition of such adversities against the elderly that is reflective of the values within a country and at a sufficient level of discourse to embrace diverse conceptualizations of the problem.

Elder abuse and neglect--"old phenomenon": new directions for research, legislation, and service developments. (2008 Rosalie S. Wolf Memorial Elder Abuse Prevention Award--International Category Lecture).

This article poses the question: Is elder abuse and neglect a social problem, showing that it is. Elder abuse, though, is still the most hidden form of mistreatment and a key to governmental responses to an ageing population. It is an important facet as a family violence problem, an intergenerational concern, as well as a health, justice and human rights issue. Because the phenomenon of elder abuse and neglect is so complex and multi-dimensional, it has to be addressed by multi-professional and inter-disciplinary approaches. Raising awareness is a fundamental prevention strategy and an important step in causing changes in attitudes and behaviors. This has been accomplished by INPEA and the article was developed from the lecture given by the author on receiving the International Rosalie Wolf Award from INPEA. The discussion focuses on elder abuse as a product of global ageing, stemming from population ageing, which is consistent with an increased prevalence of abuse of all vulnerable groups, older people among them. It is pointed out that baseline and trend data on the nature and prevalence of senior abuse are crucial to policy responses and the development of appropriate programs and services. Difficulties in assessing the scope of the phenomenon, though, are due to: problems in definitions and methodology, which create difficulties in comparing data from various countries; lack of social and familial awareness; isolation of some elders, especially migrants; elder abuse as a ‘hidden issue’ that usually occurs in the privacy of the home and is viewed as a family affair; limited access to institutional settings. Difficulties also exist in constructing a unifying research framework in order to study the phenomenon due to a lack of comparison groups, a lack of representative national surveys and difficulties in measurement. There is currently, however, an increase in prevalence and incidence studies from both sides of the Atlantic and especially from Europe. But while prevalence studies provide base-data on numbers, little is known about key conceptual issues for policy, practice and the understanding of different forms of abuse and neglect. Theoretical under-development hampers the collection of systematic cumulative knowledge which is based on universally agreed upon and standardized tools, and reduces the ability to discover unifying themes and their relationship to local idiosyncrasies existing in the field. Additionally, there has been no attempt to develop theoretical knowledge grounded in data from the study of elder abuse itself. The following vehicles for action are, thus, suggested: Developing international, national and regional research agendas and data bases; developing policy and legislation; developing services and interventions and developing educational programs.

Gerontology Coming of Age: The Transformation of Social Gerontology into a Distinct Academic Discipline.

The papers goal is to propose a conceptual framework, a “knowledge infrastructure,” demonstrating that social gerontology is at the point of becoming a distinct academic discipline. The various phases of gerontological development that have led to the current stage are outlined. The components of the framework are arranged vertically by three time phases in the development of gerontology, and horizontally by three conceptual foci: individual/micro, contextual/community, and societal/macro. The usefulness of the proposed analytic framework for the transformation of gerontology into a distinct academic discipline is demonstrated. Moreover, the framework might be applicable to other knowledge bases at the same point of development.

Exploring generational intelligence as a model for examining the process of intergenerational relationships

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to examine an emerging model of intergenerational relationships that takes as its starting point the degree to which it is possible to place oneself in the position of a person of another age, the ‘age-other’. The paper explores an experiential approach that draws on both sociological thinking on ‘generational consciousness’ and a debate in family gerontology on the relationships between conflict, solidarity and ambivalence. The main emphasis is on the processes of generational experience, and a working distinction is made between the informational ‘intelligence’ that is culturally available to social actors and the degree to which it is possible ‘to act intelligently’. The latter itemises the steps that would need to be taken to become critically self-aware of age as a factor in social relations, including the relative ability to recognise ones personal generational distinctiveness, acquiring understanding of the relationship between generations, critical awareness of the value stance being taken toward generational positions, and finally, acting in a manner that is generationally aware. The paper concludes with a consideration of how sustainable generational relations can be encouraged and the implications for future research into intergenerational relationships.

Rural Arab Families Coping with Caregiving

SUMMARY This research examines the coping patterns of the rural Arab family in caring for a chronically ill elderly relative. The Arab community in Israel is in transition as a result of modernization with changes occurring in the traditional family structure, family norms and living arrangements. This study was conceptualized within the framework of intergenerational solidarity versus ambivalence and utilized a qualitative approach based on the phenomenological paradigm. Data were collected from 10 family units with a chronically ill homebound elder, by means of in-depth interviews. Four people were selected from each unit including the elder, his/her spouse-the primary caregiver-and two other secondary caregivers, usually sons and daughters-in-law. The data indicate the uniqueness of coping patterns among these caregivers in regard to two main components, which are contradictory to findings in the family caregiving literature: differences in the gender of child caregivers and the family readiness to use assistance from formal support systems.