The Family in Later Life

The reduced speed in responding to stimuli and the sensory changes in vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell that accompany the aging process.

A condition brought on by a decline in health status that stresses the relationships between aging spouses and between adult children and their aging parents.

A role transition that is discussed in the context of the later-life family because the birth of grandchildren symbolically signifies a shift in centrality and power from the aging generation to the middle generation within the family hierarchy.

Both a physical withdrawal from paid employment and a psychological reorientation of the importance of work to one's identity.