Peter Uhlenberg

The Role of Divorce in Men's Relations with Their Adult Children after Mid-life.

Studies of post-divorce parent-child relations have concentrated primarily on the short-term consequences of divorce for relations between young children and their fathers. In contrast this study examines the extended effects of divorce on mens relations with their adult offspring. Father-child relations with ever-divorce men aged 50- 79 are compared with those of never-divorced married men on the basis of data from the US National Survey of Families and Households. Logistic regression analyses reveal that divorce has a pronounced negative effect on the frequency of mens contacts with their adult offspring significantly reduces the likelihood that men have an adult child in their household and sharply reduces the probability that fathers consider their adult children as potential sources of support in times of need. Demographic and divorce-related factors that predict adult child-father relations among divorce men are also considered. (authors)

Age-segregation in later life: an examination of personal networks

In a rapidly changing society, young adults may play an important role in teaching older adults about social, cultural and technological changes. Thus older people who lack regular contact with younger people are at risk of being excluded from contemporary social developments. But how age-segregated are older people? The level of age-segregation of older people can be studied by examining the age-composition of personal social networks. Using NESTOR-LSN survey data from The Netherlands, we are able to determine the number of younger adults that people aged 55–89 years identify as members of their social networks, and to examine the factors that are associated with segregation or integration. The findings show that there is a large deficit of young adults in the networks of older people, and that few older people have regular contact with younger non-kin. If age were not a factor in the selection of network members, one would expect the age distribution of adult network members to be the same as the age distribution of the entire adult population, but the ratio of actual to expected non-kin network members aged under 35 years for those aged 65–74 years is only 0.10. And only 15 per cent of the population aged 80 or more years has weekly contact with any non-kin aged less than 65 years. The number of children is strongly related to the total number of younger network members, because most younger network members are adult children. Further, participating in organisations (work and volunteer settings) that include people of diverse ages increases the likelihood of an older person having significant cross-age interactions with non-kin.

Family-Building Patterns of Professional Women: A Comparison of Lawyers, Physicians, and Postsecondary Teachers.

Researchers analyzed 1980 data on 1120 postsecondary teachers 839 lawyers and 486 physicians to compare family building events of these 3 groups of 30-39 year old white professional women living in the US. 35-39 year old women were less likely to be currently married and were more likely to have no children than women in the general population ( 75% and 20-30% vs. 9%). More 35-39 year old physicians were currently married than lawyers (68.7% vs. 59.3%; p<.05). They also were less likely to be divorced than both lawyers and teachers (10.1% vs. 20.6% and 16.1% respectively; p<.05). Lawyers had the highest divorce and the lowest marriage rates. A higher percentage of physicians remarried than the other 2 groups (30-34 year olds=49.1% vs. 35.4% for lawyers and 44.6% for teachers; p<.05 for lawyers only; 34-39 year olds=51.4% vs. 46.5% and 49.7% respectively). 35-39 year old physicians were less likely to be childless (21.1% vs. 28.4% for lawyers and 31.4% for teachers; p<.05 for teachers only). They also had more children than the other professional groups (2.18 vs. 1.93 and 1.8 respectively; p<.05). Even though 35-39 year old physicians exhibited greater involvement in family life than the other 2 groups they worked considerably more hours/week than the other 2 groups (43.5 vs. 38.3 and 35.2 respectively; p<.05). Their husbands worked even more hours but the difference was not significant (47.9 vs. 46.3 and 45.2 respectively). A possible explanation for the differences may be wage differences. Women physicians made more money than the other groups. Lawyers and teachers were at greater risk of income loss following marriage and childbearing than physicians. Thus they were more likely to not marry remarry and have children. Other possible reasons which the researchers could not test were personality differences and structure of career paths. Further research is needed to explore these possibilities for the differences among the 3 professional groups of women.

Changes in the Organization of Men's Lives: 1960-1980

Census data from 1960 and 1970 and Current Population Survey data from 1980 are used to study recent changes in the organization of mens lives. Large changes are found, with much less time being spent living in families with children present and more time being spent outside of marriage. These changes are pervasive across educational levels, racial categories, and geographic areas, although the rates of change are not uniform. Several implications of these changes for individuals, families, and society are discussed.

A study of cohort life cycles: Cohorts of native born Massachusetts women, 1830-1920.

Abstract This paper expands the conceptual apparatus offamily life cycle analysis and illustrates its usefulness by applying it to a population. There is a normatively sanctioned life cycle that a female born into American society is expected to follow as she moves from birth to death: she is expected to survive through childhood, marry, bear and rear children, and survive jointly with her husband until her children leave the home. Paul Glick, in several articles, has calculated mean ages at which these various events are experienced. The life cycle analysis proposed here, however, focuses on the distribution of women according to type of life cycle experienced. Starting with a cohort of 100,000 females, six alternative life cycle possibilities are differentiated and the number who follow each of the types is calculated. The six types are: (1) abbreviated, the female dies before she is exposed to the risk of marriage; (2) spinster, the woman is exposed to the risk of marriage but does not marry; (3) barren, the woman marries but remains childless; (4) dying mother, the woman has children but dies before the last one leaves home; (5) widowed mother, the woman has children and survives until they leave home, but her husband dies before that event; and (6) typical, the woman marries, has children, and survives jointly with her husband until the last one leaves home. Applying this approach to several cohorts of native-born Massachusetts women born at different times some striking changes appear. For example, the number of women from a birth cohort of 100,000 who follow the typical life cycle increases from 21,000 for the cohort born in 1830 to 57,000 for the cohort born in 1920. The demographic, social and economic implications of a change of this magnitude are of considerable consequence.

Co-residence in the early twentieth century: elderly women in the United States and their children.

A quiet demographic revolution has occurred during the twentieth century in the United States: the decline in intergenerational household sharing. Why were these living arrangements so common for older women early in the century? We examine the characteristics of adult kin who shared intergenerational households in 1910. Two nationally representative samples of elderly mothers and their co-resident biological adult children were taken from the 1910 Census P.U.S. [public use sample] and linked to test general hypotheses relating to the determination of living arrangements. We find that kin availability influenced co-residence in two ways: by increasing the pool of children available and by facilitating strategic processes of kin selection based on quality of children. As kin availability increased mothers chose security (especially the retention of headship) and a childs lack of competing obligations. (EXCERPT)

Children in an Aging Society

OBJECTIVES This article explores ways in which population aging in the United States between 2010 and 2030 might impact the well-being of children, with a distinction made between advantaged and disadvantaged children. METHODS A variety of economic and demographic statistics are used to describe the changing age structure of the population and changing public spending on older people and children. Data from the 1985 General Social Survey and Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households are also used to examine connections between older people and children. RESULTS In recent decades, there has been a graying of the federal budget, and programs for children have received a declining proportion of domestic spending. These trends will be exaggerated between 2010 and 2030 unless structural changes occur. Grandparents may provide increasing resources for their grandchildren. Age segregation results in relatively few older people being directly involved with children not related to them by kinship. CONCLUSIONS The implications of population aging for children are relevant primarily for disadvantaged children. Disadvantaged children have grandparents with fewest resources and are most in need of public spending. As costs of supporting the older population increase, intentional social changes will be needed to prevent growing inequality among children.

Studying aging and social change : conceptual and methodological issues

Doing Time - Melissa A Hardy and Linda Waite Reconciling Biography with History in the Study of Social Change The Problem of Generations - K Mannheim The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change - Norman B Ryder On the Importance of Age - Lawrence Hazelrigg Beyond Trajectories - Eliza K Pavalko Multiple Concepts for Analyzing Long-Term Process Using Repeated Surveys To Study Aging and Social Change - Glenn Firebaugh and Dana L Haynie Aging, Social Change and Conservatism - Duane F Alwin The Link between Historical and Biographical Time in the Study of Political Identities Establishing a Reference Frame against Which To Chart Age-Related Changes - John R Nesselroade and David L Featherman

Family Context and Individual Weil-Being

The assertion that the family environment experienced by an individual at any point in life has consequences for her/his subsequent life course outcomes is not likely to provoke much disagreement. Nevertheless, there are some important and interesting questions related to linkages between family context and subsequent outcomes. How significant is the family in shaping the life course? What aspects of family have genuinely significant implications for particular outcomes? What are the implications of changing family behavior in one generation for the well-being of those in other generations? These questions have received a good deal of research attention and are the subject of this essay. Before reviewing existing research findings on the role of the family in determining life course outcomes, several preliminary observations on this topic may nevertheless be useful.

American children in multiracial households.

This study provides a demographic portrait of multiracial households, using children as the units of analysis. The authors conceptualize three dimensions for understanding multiracialness: (1) the racial composition of a household overall, (2) where in the household a racial difference exists relative to the household head, and (3) where in the household a racial difference exists relative to each child. Using microdata from the 1980 U.S. census, the authors explore the first two of these dimensions and test two propositions about the links between racial diversity and other nonracial attributes of childrens household environments. The finding is made, among other things, that the largest proportion of children live in Asian-white households, and that about 60% live in households headed by mixed-race couples. Support for the notion that attributes of multiracial households fall between those of their same-race counterparts was mixed. Nonetheless, there appears to be a link between location of diversity and some nonracial characteristics of the household.