John C. Henretta

Between elderly parents and adult children: a new look at the intergenerational care provided by the ‘sandwich generation’

The ‘sandwich generation’ has been conceptualised as those mid-life adults who simultaneously raise dependent children and care for frail elderly parents. Such a combination of dependants is in fact very unusual, and the more common situation is when adults in late mid-life or early old age have one or more surviving parents and adult but still partly dependent children. It can be hypothesised that for parents in this pivotal position, the demands from adult children and from elderly parents compete, with the result that those who provide help to one are less likely to provide help to the other. An alternative hypothesis, however, is that family solidarity has an important influence but is not universal, so that some pivotal-generation parents engage in intergenerational exchange in both directions, and there is a positive association between helping parents and helping children. To investigate this question, the paper presents an analysis of data from two broadly comparable national surveys, in Great Britain and the United States, on the care provided by women aged 55–69 years to their descendent and ascendent relatives. The results show that around one-third of the women reported providing help to members of both generations, and that around one-fifth provided support to neither. They broadly support the solidarity hypothesis, but provide some evidence that having three or more children is associated with a reduced likelihood of providing help to a parent.

Prosecutorial Waiver: Case Study of a Questionable Reform

Consistent with a trend toward more punitive responses to delinquency, many states have enacted laws that facilitate the transfer of young offenders to criminal court by bypassing the traditional waiver hearing. The most highly controversial of these streamlined transfer methods is prosecutorial waiver, which allows prosecutors to choose whether to initiate proceedings in juvenile or criminal court. This article examines the practice of prosecutorial waiver in Florida, a state that grants prosecutors extremely wide latitude with respect to the transfer of 16- and 17-year-olds. Our analyses focus on interviews conducted with prosecutors in each of the states judicial circuits, as well as individual-level case data on transfers in two urban counties. Few of the juveniles transferred via prosecutorial waiver are the kinds of dangerous, repeat offenders for whom waiver is arguably justified. This is in large part due to the lack of statutory guidelines to govern the selection of cases, the ease with which waiver is accomplished, and the lack of support among prosecutors for traditional principles of juvenile justice.

Status Attainment and Status Maintenance: A Study of Stratification in Old Age

While sociologists have been interested in the stratification process at ages when members of a cohort experience many changes, attention has been focused most on the beginnings of the socioeconomic career. Though many changes also occur later in life, relatively little attention has been given to them. In this paper, the effect of aging on the relation of status variables to income is analyzed through a comparison of status attainment models for a cohort before and after most of its members have retired. Data for the earlier period are from the 1962 OCG survey and, for the later period, are from the combined 1973, 1974 and 1975 NORC General Social Survey. The analysis shows little change in the pattern of effects. Within the restricted age range, age has trivial effects. Respondents education, occupation and marital status have direct effects on income. Overall, the analysis suggests a great deal of continuity in the determinants of income. Despite the potentially disruptive effects of changes at this age, the relation of status variables to income remains almost untouched in old age.

Racial, Ethnic, and Sociodemographic Differences in the Level of Psychosocial Distress among Older Americans

More than 2 million older Americans suffer from some form of depression. Yet late-life depression is often undiagnosed or underdiagnosed. The aim of this study was to explore the reasons for the observed differences in the level of depressive symptoms between older African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites. The data are from Wave 1 of the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old survey administered during 1993-1994. Ordinary least-squares regression results indicate that language acculturation, the number of years of education, and the number of years of U.S. residency are significant factors that help to explain differences in self-reported levels of depressive symptoms among this older population. In general, those who are men, are married, have more education, and are in better health have lower levels of depressive symptoms.

Delayed Career Entry, Industrial Pension Structure, and Early Retirement in a Cohort of Unmarried Women

The effects of early family and work patterns and industrial pension structures on the timing of retirement among unmarried women are examined within a life course perspective. The retirement process is viewed in a longitudinal framework with similar combinations of factors influencing successive stages of final withdrawal from work. Logistic regression techniques are applied to data from a panel of unmarried women workers of retirement age to predict early versus late retirement over a five-year period. Having children and delayed career entry along with late life family, pension, and health status affect retirement schedules.

Net Worth as an Aspect of Status

While sociologists have recognized the importance of wealth for analysis of political power, they have given little attention to wealth as a measure of economic status. Yet from both a sociological and an economic point of view, wealth is an important determinant of status and life chances, especially at the end of the life cycle. In this paper we discuss the role of net worth as a component of status, and, using data from the National Longitudinal Studies of Labor Force Participation, we estimate a status-attainment model for net worth. Net worth includes savings, home equity, business assets, and real estate holdings. We find that (a) the effects of family background are transmitted via education; (b) the effect of education is asymptotic rather than linear; (c) single and divorced persons possess substantially fewer assets, net of other characteristics, than married persons; and (d) net of all other variables, earnings have a substantial effect on net worth. The effects of family background and socioeconomic attainments on net worth suggest that expanded definitions of status may yield more understanding of the stratification system.

Depressive symptoms among older adults: The impact of early and later life circumstances and marital status

Objective: This article contributes to the literature on depression and the life course by examining the impact of both early and later life circumstances on depressive symptoms among men and women aged 65 and over in Ireland. Method: Data are from the first wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, a nationally representative sample of 8504 community-dwelling adults aged 50 years and older. About 3507 respondents aged 65 years and over were included in the analysis. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the childhood and early adult life circumstances associated with marital status. A series of nested models were estimated to evaluate which childhood and adulthood circumstances are associated with depressive symptoms. Models were estimated separately for men and women. Results: Ill health in childhood and in later life has a strong and direct effect on depression in later life for both men and women. Other early stressors are mediated by later circumstances. Marital status is a significant independent predictor of depression in later life. Later life circumstances mediate between some marital statuses and depressive symptoms. When later life circumstances are included, widowhood and, for men, divorce, are directly associated with depression, but singlehood is not. Income in later life is strongly associated with depressive symptoms for women. Conclusion: Both early and later life circumstances affect late-life depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that previous studies which did not consider both may have underestimated or overestimated the effect of marital status, education, current health and education on depressive symptoms.

Patterns of change in self-reported oral health among dentate adults.

BACKGROUND Although self-assessments of oral health have become useful tools in dental research, the use of self-reports to study changes in oral health over time has been limited. The aim of this investigation was to describe how oral disease and tissue damage, pain, functional limitation, disadvantage, and self-rated oral health change over time. METHODS The Florida Dental Care Study (FDCS) (n = 873) is a longitudinal study of oral health among dentate adults (age, > or = 45 years). Incidence rates and transition probabilities were used to describe changes in oral health over a 24-month period. RESULTS The probability of reporting a specific problem during the 24-month study ranged from 0.52 for perceived need for dental care to 0.07 for avoided eating with others. Only dental sensitivity and perceived need for dental care had transition probabilities >0.20. Decomposition of transition probabilities revealed moderate probabilities of onset coupled with relatively high probabilities of recovery. CONCLUSION Although oral health status is clearly dynamic, no individual measure exhibited profound fluctuation. Most oral health problems were episodic rather than chronic. Patterns of change in oral health varied across dimensional lines.

The influence of socio-economic and health differences on parents' provision of help to adult children: a British–United States comparison

Transfers of assistance from older to younger family members are an important, though often ignored, component of intergenerational exchanges. The ability to help younger family members, either financially or practically, may be influenced by the health and socio-economic status of older parents, but very little is known about these patterns. This article examines the effects of socio-economic and health status on the help that late mid-life parents in Britain and the United States give their children with money, domestic tasks, and grandchild care. Results for the different types of family support yield three main findings. First, there are relatively few differences between Britain and the USA in the factors affecting the provision of support. Secondly, socio-economic factors appear to be more important among married respondents while health is more important among the unmarried. Thirdly, childrens co-residence has greater effects on the provision of domestic task help in Britain than in the United States.

Changes in the Helping Behaviors of Adult Children as Caregivers

This research uses data from the longitudinal file of the 1982-1984 National Long-Term Care Survey to (a) describe changes in the caregiving responsibilities of adult children over time and (b) estimate the effect of adult child, impaired elder, and sibling participation characteristics on changes in the participation of adult children as providers of ADL and IADL assistance. The results show that 5.2% of adult children who did not provide ADL help and 12.6% of those who did not provide IADL help at Time 1 were helping with these tasks at Time 2. Conversely, 50.7% of adult children who provided ADL assistance and 29.9% of those who provided IADL assistance at Time 1 had stopped providing such care by Time 2. Logit models used to predict changes in the helping behaviors of adult children indicate that there are both differences and similarities in the factors that affect the likelihood of becoming a caregiver and of discontinuing assistance over time.