Ch.7, Families in Middle/Later Life Flashcards
Two key recent demographic changes
having fewer children and living longer
adult children are spending more time with their parents than at any other point in history
Why is old age defined at 65 problematic
because often people live much longer than even 80 or 90, so now we’re defining a third of their lives as being old
average life expectancy: 82.3 years
Latter years of midlife–the years prior to the traditional marker of old age at 65
empty nest stage
Intergenerational coresidence
kids living with their parents, Toronto and Oshawa in Ontario have the highest rates of this
Sandwich generation
parents with full time jobs, children, parents to care for, everything happening all ago once
Grey tsunami
apocalyptic pronouncements of an epidemic of dementia occurring; although this isn’t accurate and is more of a media panic
Colongevity of different generations
increase of number years that older adults and their children are jointly alive, has affected caregiving as children who are already old then have to care for old parents, and there is a decrease in the proportion of one’s adult life spent raising children, increase in number of years spent in the empty nest phase of life
Boomerang kids
return home after leaving it
Cluttered nest
nest once children keep returning and leaving
Serial home leavers
returning and leaving multiple times
Grey/silver divorce
later life divorce is becoming more common and more acceptable; because people are living longer they have more reason to divorce and look for new unions
Primary reason for parents to rmain in an unhappy marital union
concern over the welfare of their children
Effects of widowhood on men vs women
women experience more economic hardship; although they have much better support networks
Remarriage as a gendered transition
men are more likely than women to remarry
-women often prefer their singleness and independence
Streib and family relations
argues that the quality of ties and relations are more important than the number of such relations
Bi-directional resource flow
emotional exchanges, caregiving, time, money
Intragenerational caregiving
support and care from family members for an older adult,
Age in plac
aging at home rather than being forced to relocate; home care
Sociological ambivalence
ongoing negotiation of contradictions in family relationships and their connections to how social life is organized and structured
Experiences of ambivalence
women are more likely to report ambivalence isn regards to each other, caregiving to older parents, and in laws
care gap
The Vanier Institute of the Family (VIF) has expressed concern about a growing “care gap” in Canada, both for the care of older adults and of children as primary recipients of family care. Increases in dual-earner households, from 36 per cent of couples with children in 1976 to 69 per cent in 2015, drive this care gap; indeed, among three-quarters of these couples, both partners are employed full-time. “While this has increased family income, it has also meant there are fewer family members available to help manage work and family responsibilities”
Women at old age vs men
A striking characteristic of Canada’s older adult population is the large and increasing imbalance in the proportions of men and women. By age 85, women outnumber men by more than two to one (Statistics Canada 2016b) as it is well acknowledged that in later life “women get sick, but men die” (Gee and Kimball 1987).
difference between intragenerational and intergenerational support?
Bigamy
entering a marriage while still legally married to another
