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Intergenerational Solidarity
- Two Fundamental Themes in Parent/child relations
- Family Solidarity: adult children and aged parents as primary sources of both emotional and instruental support
- 6 dimensions of intergenerational solidarity:
- 1.Associational: type and frequency of interaction---how often do I visit my parent
- 2.Structural: what kind of structures influence how often I see them (distance, technology)
- 3.Functional: type of support exchange in terms of what kinds of things are you doing back and forth. (are they paying for u, are you cooking for them)
- 4. Affectional: showing feelings and emotions, displaying emotions
- 5.Consensual: how much or what kind of agreement is there between the generations on values and opinions
- 6.Normative: extent to which family members share family life expectations (timing of life events)
- Intergenerational conflict: potential for conflict with and abandonment of the elderly
- Dimensions of conflict: collision of ind'l agenda and interestind'l tactics or responses to conflict of interest
- hostility towards other- unfinished business
- Historical Changes on parent/child relations:
- life span increase, women in labor force/edu, geographic mobility, decline in intergenerational co-residence
- Intergenerational Ties
- tension between generational conflict/solidarity (autonomy vs. interdependence)
- problem of maintaining balance in intergenerational relations (equity and equality)
- Social Structural Positions affecting relationsage: Maturation changes are likely to decreases differences between parents and adult children
- Gender: Gender of both parent and child affect relations (mother and daughter are the closest)
- Race: Greater closeness and less intergenerational conflict in black than non-black families
- Adult Children’s Transitions
- Normative: marriage or establishment of a relationship, kids, moving out, school, job
- Non-normative: divorce, death, illness,disability
- Parents’ Transitions
- Normative: retirement, health, care
- Non-normative: divorce/remarriage, leisure time
- Latent Kin Matrix – Latent web of continually shifting linkages that provide potential for activating and intensifying close kin relationships when they are needed:
- **GLBT Intergeneration Ties
- Not “gay” or “straight” families
- Generational differences
- “Disappointment” for some parents/grandparents
- Later life coming out process
- Role of Ambivalence
- Coexistence of solidarity and conflict
- Moving away from dualistic thinking
- Instead focus on complexities of relationships
- Negotiating the ongoing undercurrent of ambivalence that results from structured social relations
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Intergenerational Relationships: Support Exchanges
- Models of Soical Support:
- Hierarchical Compensatory: people have and order of who they want to get help from
- Task-Specificity Model: certain people you know that will be better for each task
- Functional-Specificity of relationships: function of each relationship, flexibility
- Convoy Model: network of people you can draw upon
- Support Exchanges:
- informal supports: people that you know, not getting paid
- formal supports: service providers (home health nurse)
- intergenerational family transfers: aid that generations provide one another including money, time, help, space
- Childless Older Persons
- childless vs. childfree vs. childless by choice
- reasons for status and childlessness
- support systems: married childless couples (network), single women (social support networks), single men (smaller network, sister)
- advantages: money, flexible time, open view of help, do more in life
- disadvantages: less options, express fear by being alone
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Grandparenting
- Grandparenting as a role and grandparenting as a right
- transitions begins around middle age
- relationships w/ grandchildren
- influential: family wisdom, highly involeved, huge role in your life
- supportive: similiar to influential but more hands off
- authority oriented: actually doing some parenting
- passive: grandparents thinking they are more involved, but hardly see them
- detached: know you have a grandparent but not as closss relationship
- Types of grandparents
- formal grandparent: give presents and see kids, don't take role of authority
- fun seeker grandparent: more informal, mutual enjoyemnt
- surrogate grandparent: similar to daycare grandparent
- reservior of family wisdom: more authoritarian and dispense famiy wisdom
- distant figure grandpart: sees rarely, mainly on holidays, rare
- caregiving and custodial grandparent
caregiving grandparent: 3types - 1. daycare grandparent: CHOICE, doing it to be helful, enjoyable
- 2. Living with grandparent: all living in the same house for several diff reasons
- 3. custodial grandparent: legal rights, performing parental duties (neg. ), becoming primary caregiver, reaction to family trauma
Rise of caregiving grandparents: white middle class and married, 20% live in poverty,
grandmother only households=economic hardships
w/o parents are likely to be uninsured, 1/3 grandparent has no high school diploma
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In-Law Relationships
- characteristics of in-law relationships
- triadic relationship: composition of in law triagle= a linchpin (husband), the linchpin spuse and the linchpin's relaitives
- cultural variation
- nonvoluntary relationship
- development of in-law relationship:
- 1. initial stage of dev: dating
- 2. marriage
- 3. transition to parenthood/grandparenthood
- 4. provide care for aging parent in law
- establishing in law identities
- creating identity based on roles, obligations, expectations
- types of relationship: parent/child, extended family, friendship
- Sources of conflict
- differences in lifestyles, customs, values, generational differences, family loyalties, personality differences, experience with other in-law family members, support exchanges: inde, dep, interdepend
Establishing Solidarity: disclosure (boundaries, relational uncertainty, family history), role of linchpin,
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Mending Grandmother, Daughter-in-law relationships Article
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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
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Developing Intergenerational Relationships Article
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The Sandwhich Generation Art.
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