Sarah H. Matthews

Friendships Through the Life Course: Oral Biographies in Old Age

Friendships in Biographical Context Friendship Styles Maintenance and Termination Friendships The Significance of Age and Gender to Friendship Through the Life Course Friendships in Old Age Biography and Friendship

Single women/family ties : life histories of older women

Introduction Working Class Single Women in Historical Perspective The Research Process Growing Up in Working Class Families Pathways in Young Adulthood Remaining Single and Becoming Married The Middle Years Taking Care of Families Growing Old as Single Women The Family Careers of Lifelong Single Women In Context

Provision of Care to Old Parents Division of Responsibility among Adult Children

Unlike research on parent care in which a primary caregiver is the focus, this research begins with the assumption that filial responsibility is shared in older families that comprise more than one child. Results of the analysis indicate that structural variables are significant. More important, they support the argument that conceptualizing filial responsibility as shared is important for future research.

Definitions of Friendship and their Consequences in Old Age

In an attempt to gauge the quality of relationships, definitions of friendship were delineated through inductive analysis of transcripts of guided conversations with 30 men and 30 women aged 60 + who related their biographies using friendships as a constant referent. Two definitions of friendship were constructed, one which focuses on ‘friends as particular individuals’ and another which focuses on ‘friends as relationships’. Each is described in turn, followed by a discussion of the consequences of holding one or the other or both in old age. Suggestions for intervention strategies tailored to specific definitions are made.

The burdens of parent care: A critical evaluation of recent findings

Abstract A critical evaluation of the parent-care literature reveals that the respondents are likely to be more disadvantaged with respect to social, physical and financial resources than is the case of the general population. Moreover, the interpretation of research findings is more pessimistic than is justified The generalizations that are being made from this research are likely to have negative effects on both policy formulation and the social construction of intergenerational relationships.

Research on older families when more than one member responds: Producing and interpreting findings

Abstract This article draws on data collected from a very old parent and two of her or his adult children in 20 older families to show how different strategies for analyzing data produce different images of families. The findings produced by means of five different analytical techniques are presented and compared. The degree to which each captures the reality of these older families is evaluated. The intent of the article is not to present findings but to show how different methods of data colletion and anlaysis create different images of older families.

Perceptions of fairness in the division of responsibility for old parents

Pairs of sisters in 50 families in which at least one parent was aged 75+ were asked in open-ended questions to describe the division of filial responsibility in their families and their feelings about it. The relationship between the quality of ties among siblings and evaluations of the fairness of the division of responsibility is explored. The argument is made that rules of distributive justice are invoked largely within the context of the projected futures of existing relationships.

Lineage Depth and Family Solidarity: Is There a Link Between Them?

Using waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Family and Households, we explore whether membership in four- or higher- order-generation lineages is associated with any unique features of various dimensions of family solidarity. Competing scenarios were developed. The results reveal a disconnection between major dimensions of solidarity: Compared to being in three- or two-generation lineages, being in four-generation lineages is associated with higher frequency of face-to-face contact, communication, and exchanges of help with relatives. Such associational and functional solidarities, however, do not automatically translate into stronger normative or affectual solidarities.

Global Aging and Challenges to FamiliesGlobal Aging and Challenges to Families, edited by BengtsonVern L. and LowensteinArielaNew York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2003. 387 pp.

In the end, the “ambivalences” and “contradictions” that Elsberg encounters and explores in the text reside not only in her own reactions to 3HO/Sikh Dharma but also in her informants’ understandings of their lives, in the organization’s structures, and in the teachings and actions of the group’s leader. By employing “shifting points of view and stylistic variation” (including “incorporating individual stories and voices”), Elsberg has captured these “ambivalences” and, in so doing, has reached her goal of creating “an evocative text” (p. xx). With additional editing, the ethnography might have been tightened, and some minor factual errors, mainly having to do with Punjabi Sikh history and culture, could have been caught. Moreover, I would have liked to hear more from and about the generation of women born and/or raised in 3HO/Sikh Dharma, since Elsberg hints that they have yet other perspectives. But these are minor quibbles. This is a book that can profitably be read by students and scholars in a number of fields. Those in women’s studies will appreciate the attention to the experience of women in a new religious movement and the analysis of the intersection of Eastern and Western gender ideologies. Those in Sikh studies will value this account of “one new form that Sikhism has taken” (p. 6). Students of new religious movements will appreciate the longitudinal study of female belonging and disaffiliation in a less-studied group. And sociologists and anthropologists should appreciate not only the theoretical focus on meaning-making and identity reformulation but also Elsberg’s demonstration of ethnographic sensitivity.

55.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-202-30686-0.

This volume consists of 14 original papers, an introductory chapter written by the editors (a sociologist and a geographer), and three commentaries on the chapters written by Anselm Strauss, Betty Friedan, and David Guttman. According to the preface, one of the editor’s goals is &dquo;to provide a statement on the role and status of qualitative research in gerontology.&dquo; In fact, they have provided a sampling and left to the reader the task of drawing conclusions. Nevertheless, the book makes good reading. It is far from dry and, regardless of substantive interests or scientific disciplines, readers are likely to find among these chapters some new insights that will inform their own thinking and research. Most of the 14 chapters that constitute the major portion of the book can be divided broadly into those that present the results of analysis and those that primarily address the process of data collection. By far the