Stephen J. Cutler

COHORT CHANGES IN POLITICAL ATTITUDES: TOLERANCE OF IDEOLOGICAL NON CONFORMITY

This analysis of cohort changes in political attitudes reveals that tolerance of ideological nonconformity has been increasing among all cohorts. Aging is not invariably accompanied by greater conservatism, as earlier studies have suggested. Rather, older cohorts are more likely than younger ones to adhere to their earlier, more conservative, attitudes. It is this differential propensity for change that leads to a widening gap between cohort attitudes. Stephen J. Cutler is Associate Professor in the Department of SociologyAnthropology, Oberlin College; Robert L. Kaufman is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin.

The Impact of Gender on Configurations of Care among Married Elderly Couples

This article analyzes data from the Supplement on Aging of the National Health Interview Survey to examine gender differences in the configuration of care among married elderly couples living in two-person households. The rational choice model provides the conceptual framework for the analysis. Results support the hypothesis that husband caregivers are more likely to incorporate extra-household assistance than are wife caregivers. There were no gender differences, however, in the source of extra-household assistance.

Population Aging, Intracohort Aging, and Sociopolitical Attitudes

Prevailing stereotypes of older people hold that their attitudes are inflexible or that aging tends to promote increasing conservatism in sociopolitical outlook. In spite of mounting scientific evidence demonstrating that learning, adaptation, and reassessment are behaviors in which older people can and do engage, the stereotype persists. We use U.S. General Social Survey data from 25 surveys between 1972 and 2004 to formally assess the magnitude and direction of changes in attitudes that occur within cohorts at different stages of the life course. We decompose changes in sociopolitical attitudes into the proportions attributable to cohort succession and intracohort aging for three categories of items: attitudes toward historically subordinate groups, civil liberties, and privacy. We find that significant intracohort change in attitudes occurs in cohorts-inlater- stages (age 60 and older) as well as cohorts-in-earlier-stages (ages 18 to 39), that the change for cohorts-in-later-stages is frequently greater than that for cohorts-inearlier-stages, and that the direction of change is most often toward increased tolerance rather than increased conservatism. These findings are discussed within the context of population aging and development.

Correlates of personal concerns about developing Alzheimer's disease among middle-aged persons.

We examine correlates of personal concerns about developing Alzheimers disease (AD) among (1) adult children, 40 to 60 years of age, who have a living pare n t with a diagnosis of probable AD (N = 108), and (2) a matched comparison group of persons with no parental history of AD (N = 150). Using stepwise regression, predictors measuring subjective perceptions of memory functioning, overall family history of AD, knowledge of AD, and sociodemographic characteristics were entered into models for the total sample and each of the subsamples. The results indicate that worries about memory functioning play a consistent role in personal concerns about developing AD across both groups, but that additional pathways to personal concerns differ among individuals having and not having a parent with AD.

COHORT TRENDS IN ATTITUDES ABOUT LAW AND ORDER: WHO'S LEADING THE CONSERVATIVE WAVE?

Agings is commonly assumed to be associated with the adoption of increasingly conservative social and political attitudes. Empirical tests of this assumption have provided little support, but most analyses have focused on attitude domains where public opinion was shifting in a liberal direction. Using three items about law and order, a domain marked by conservative trends, this paper evaluates the aging-conservatism hypothesis with data drawn from 18 national surveys covering the period 1959-85. Attitude changes in four cohorts are analyzed with Taylors hierarchical goodness-of-fit procedures for evaluating trends in public opinion. The findings show that each of the cohorts has participated in the shift toward more conservative opinions on law and order issues, and that either constant or zero differences characterize the trends in percentage differences between the oldest and the other cohorts. In the absence of differential rates of change, we conclude that older cohorts are no more likely than younger cohorts to adopt conservative law and order attitudes and that period effects are influencing each of the cohorts equally. Language: en

Racial differences in the household composition of elders by age, gender, and area of residence.

Using census data and an innovative technique for describing the composition of households from the perspective of elders, this research provides a more detailed description of race differences in living arrangements of older persons than has previously existed. In addition, cross tabulations of race with other factors known to influence household composition (gender, age, and area of residence) are examined. While white women are more likely than black women to live alone, the reverse is true among men. Whites are more likely than blacks to live in married-couple-only households, and blacks are more likely than whites to live in multigenerational households, although these differences decrease with advancing age. Blacks are also more likely than whites to live with collateral kin or nonkin only, although these categories comprise small proportions of the population. Implications of these differences for caregiving and quality of life among older persons are discussed.

To test or not to test: Interest in genetic testing for Alzheimer's disease among middle-aged adults

Based on a hypothetical scenario positing 100 percent accuracy in test results, we examined interest in genetic testing for Alzheimers disease (AD) among adult children, 40-60 years of age, who have a living parent with a diagnosis of probable AD (N = 108), and a matched comparison group of persons with no parental history of AD (N = 150). For both groups, planning for the future was the most important reason cited for being tested; lack of good treatment options and concerns about losing health insurance were the most important reasons for not being tested. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the effects of sociodemographic characteristics, subjective perceptions of memory functioning, concerns about having and developing AD, and mastery on interest in being tested. Personal concerns about developing AD and mastery emerged as significant predictors and subsample membership approached significance, although the full model explained just 18 percent of the variance. Because persons in the comparison group were more likely to report an interest in being tested, educational efforts about genetic testing should not be restricted only to family members of persons with a diagnosis of AD.

The Composition of Multigenerational Households that Include Elders

Using a new procedure to recode data from the 1980 U.S. census, the relationships within multigenerational households are examined from the perspective of the elder. Differences in the household composition of two-generation and three-or-more generation households by age are examined. Among older respondents, fewer elders lived with spouses, parents or parents-in-law, or siblings or siblings-in-law. In contrast, as age increased, a higher percentage of elders lived with children, grand children, or other kin. The pattern of coresidence with adult children varied by type of household. In two-generation households, more elders lived with sons than with daughters; in three-or-more generation households, a higher proportion of elders lived with daughters than with sons. Across relationships with the previous generation (parents), the collateral generation (siblings), and subsequent generations (children), more elders resided with blood relatives than with in-laws.

Technological Change and Aging

Publisher Summary Technological developments have the potential to greatly enhance the well being of older persons, compensate for health and mobility impairments, and promote social interaction and social support. Recent developments in communications technology are having profound effects on social interaction. Email, instant messaging, Internet telephony, two-way video communications, news groups, and chat rooms enable persons to reestablish, initiate, maintain, or extend social relationships. New technologies are particularly well suited to accessing sources of information, such as health-related information. By virtue of their flexibility, new technologies also have the potential to contribute to the intellectual enrichment of older persons. Distance-learning courses offered via two-way interactive television and online courses open up educational opportunities for older adults who may be unable to enroll in traditional courses. Newly emerging technologies have the capacity to facilitate information gathering by older adults and transmit information about their status and conditions. Such applications are particularly relevant because efforts to slow the rate of growth of health-care costs have resulted in a shift in the locus of care from the hospital to the home and other community-based settings.

Help Seeking for Personal Concerns About Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

This study examined the patterns and predictors of help-seeking behavior for personal concerns about developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) among middle-aged persons. Data were obtained from a survey of two subsamples of 40- to 60-year-old adults with concerns about AD: (a) 99 adult children with a living parent with a diagnosis of probable AD and(b)70 adults in a matched group with no parental history of AD. Descriptive analyses of the types and levels of help seeking show that respondents who are concerned about developing AD take their fears mainly to their informal rather than formal networks. Bivariate and multivariate analyses identified significant correlates of help seeking within three clusters: memory assessment, AD experience, and sociodemographics. The most robust predictors were aspects of AD experience. Understanding the patterns and correlates of help seeking for AD concerns can help health care professionals to develop more effective models of early intervention with implications for early detection of the disease.