Living arrangements and family support of older people

This paper examines the changes that support network of the elderly undergoes as health, activity level and functional status change with age. We measure network characteristics at two points in time using the longitudinal survey of the elderly carried out in Costa Rica.
In this paper we measure the network of the elderly and flows of support at two points in time. We use social network analysis techniques to describe and measure the changes in transfers that take place within the family. For this we construct ego networks of the ties that link the elder to their immediate family or co-resident and analyze how they change as socioeconomic circumstances, health, and functional status of the person change.

Given the enormity of the problem of the elderly for future, the paper attempts to examine the socio-economic factors that influence the decision of the elderly in Pondicherry region to move into Old Age Homes (OAHs) by gender. It also examine their familial background and living conditions, and attitudes on life and leaving their family. The study is based on primary data collected from a random sample of 320 elderly living with their family and in OAH in Puducherry region, UTP, during July-September 2011. The results revealed the elderly living in OAH and the females in particular to be socially and economically worse off than those living with their families. Majority of the respondents living with families live with their sons, and a negligible number with the daughter. Among those living in OAH, majority stay in unpaid homes. They are less educated, with hardly any assets, income or savings. An analysis of decision of the elderly to move into OAH using logit regression revealed age, house ownership, being married and joint family to be significantly discouraging it, whereas higher education and asset value were found to significantly encourage it due to their economic independence.

The objective of this paper is to examine the role female and male children play in the Iranian informal social support networks for elderly parents using Task-Specific (or Litwak's) theory. The data of the study has been obtained from two surveys including a sample of 527 people in 2006 and a sample of 400 people in 2011. In both sample, the people ages 60 or more. The analysis of binary logistic regression revealed that elderly parents expect highly from sons to help them when they confront with financial difficulties and further from daughters when they are illness. The examination of the effect of children birth order showed that elder sons have more significant role than younger brothers in supporting financially their parent, and, similarly, that elder daughters have more important role than younger sisters in nursing their parents. Also, the parents expect from the highly and academically educated children to help them financially and emotionally and from the low educated children to provide them instrumental supports such as transportation and nursing. In addition, the further analysis based on the data of survey in 2011 clarified that when a parent has no daughter, his/her son takes the responsibilities of all tasks, especially nursing, and that when he/she has no son , his/her spouse or siblings support him/her.

Using census data this paper aims to: 1) compare the trends and patterns of living arrangements of the older persons in Southeast Asia to see if there are significant similarities and differences that transcend the diversity of this region; and 2) examine the factors affecting their living arrangements. Living arrangement is a good indicator of family support to the older persons because with whom the older persons live reflects the residential dimension of their family life and is an important social context of their day to day lives. This was categorised into: (1) one person household; (2) nuclear household; (3) extended household; and (4) other household classification.

Living in an extended household remains the most predominant type of living arrangement among older persons in Southeast Asia, although the trend has been declining over time. In contrast, the proportion living in a one-person and nuclear household has been on the rise in these Southeast Asian countries. Moreover, more women than men live in a one-person and extended household while more of the latter than the former reside in a nuclear household. Finally the proportion living in an extended household varies by age, marital status, level of education and place of residence.

Population ageing is intriguing phenomenon and especially important for India, where social benefits for the older population are low. Against the absence of social security and growing nuclearisation of families, the aged individuals may have to resort to wage labour. In this context, taking nationally representative data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) for 1993-94 and 2009-10 of the employment-unemployment survey, this paper examines the factors that determine the participation of the older population in wage labour and also their weekly number of days of work to gauge the labour supply decisions using probit regressions and Heckman sample selection models respectively, separately for rural and urban sectors, for both the time periods. We find that in urban areas, older individuals from poorer households have significantly higher chance of participating in wage labour and this relationship is stronger in 2009-10 than 1993-94. However, no significant association with weekly number of days of work is found. It is found that elder individuals majorly work for labour intensive works and hence may not have to ability to work for higher number of days. The findings lay foundation for universal pension scheme, with better pay to achieve higher welfare for the aged population.

Little is known about depression in older people in sub-Saharan Africa. Objectives: Examine the prevalence and correlates of depression; explore the relationship between depression and health perceptions in HIV-infected and-affected older people. Methods: In 2010, 422 participants aged 50+ were recruited into a cross- sectional study. A diagnosis of depressive episode was derived using Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Depression module) using the International Classification of Diseases diagnostic criteria and categorised as major (MDE) or brief (BDE). Results: Overall, 42.4% had a depressive episode (MDE: 22.7%; BDE: 19.7%). MDE was significantly higher in HIV-affected than HIV-infected participants; the opposite was the case for BDE. Women (aOR3.04), government grant receipients(aOR0.34), and care-givers (aOR2.37) were significantly associated depression. Participants with a depressive episode were 2–3 times more likely to report poor health perceptions. Study limitations include the cross-sectional design, limited sample size and possible selection biases. Conclusions: Major depressive episodes were higher in HIV- affected than HIV-infected participants. Psycho-social support similar to that of HIV treatment programmes around HIV-affected older people may be useful in reducing their vulnerability to depression.

Assess relationship between care-giving and -receiving with functional disability and emotional well-being of older people aged 50+ in rural South Africa. Data were from cross-sectional survey adapted from WHO’s SAGE. Bivariate and multivariable logistics were used to assess relationship between care-giving and/or care-receiving with functional ability, emotional well-being and self-rated health status adjusted for socio-demographic factors. 422 participants were enrolled; median age 60. 63% were care-givers. In multivariable logistic regressions, care-givers to both adults and children were more likely to be in good functional ability (aOR 5.74, 95% CI 3.13-10.55). This relationship was stronger for care-giving to adults (aOR 4.95, 95% CI 3.02-8.11) than children (aOR 2.35, 95% CI 1.43-3.85). In contrast, care-givers were less likely in good emotional well-being (aOR 0.36, 95% CI 0.21-0.62); again relationship stronger for care-givers to adults (aOR 0.38, 95% CI 0.24-0.60) than children (aOR 0.61, 95% CI 0.39-0.95). Participants giving and receiving care concurrently were twice as likely to be in good functional ability, but 47% less likely to be in good emotional well-being. Findings suggest care-giving is associated with poor emotional well-being. Social support may help mitigate emotional stress of care-giving.

This paper explores how the timing of parental divorce within a child’s lifecourse can influence the obligations they feel to care for their parents later in life. The majority of studies have suggested that parental divorce that occurs earlier in a child’s life will have the most detrimental effect on their relationships with their parents in later years, and their obligations to provide care for them as they grow old. Drawing upon life-history interviews with 42 adult children aged 36-65 in Southampton (UK), this contention is challenged by demonstrating how mid-life experiences of parental divorce have weakened participants’ obligations to care in significant ways. In other cases where participants’ parents experienced deteriorating marital relations in later life but rejected divorce, an emergent living arrangement was identified called ‘living together apart’. This often involved the social withdrawal of fathers which weakened relationships with their adult children, and reduced their willingness to care for them in frailty. These findings are presented within the context of rising divorce rates in older age groups and a projected widening of the informal care gap in the UK. We conclude by considering the implications of these findings for family-centric social care policy.

This paper focuses on European migrants in Belgium. Although European migrants represent a growing share of the new immigrants in Belgium and have been at the hearth of EU mobility policies for many years now, this group has been studied scarcely. Very little is known on European families and the impact of European mobility and transnationality on these families. The current paper aims to provide a first insight into the family relations of Europeans in Belgium. More specifically, it focuses on the intergenerational contact between migrants and their mothers. The central question is to what extent intergenerational contact differs in European transnational families compared to Belgian families as well as to non-European transnational families. Complementary to earlier work this study uses a quantitative approach, using the Belgian Generations and Gender Survey data of wave 1. The data on contact with the mother, both face-to-face as well as by telephone, are used in multivariate ordinal regression models.

This study aims to investigate the situation of social supports for elderly person aged 60 years and over in Thailand. Data used in this study are secondary for the 2011 Surveys of Elderly in Thailand which was conducted by NSO.
It is found that place of residence does not have effect for the monetary support among the elderly whose children living in the same household. Child(ren) who lived in urban area were more likely to receive money from their parents than the child(ren) who live in rural area. Elderly who had child(ren) living outside household were more likely to receive material support once a year from their children especially elderly who lived in urban area. The result also shows that there are more skipped generation pattern in rural area than urban area. Elderly and their children visited each other only once in a year especially those elderly who lived in urban area. However, children still had other social network to contact their parent. Most elderly were more likely to contact with their children by mobile phone often (everyday/ weekly/ monthly).
Family support is still a norm of Thailand but the pattern of social support has changed. Elderly can act as both “givers” and “receivers.” Thus, the government should develop policy for elderly in form of welfare such as healthcare, social, and housing welfare.