Population ageing and intergenerational relations

The result collected from the last three censuses of 1976, 1987 and 2005 shows that the number of aged people has not stopped increased in Cameroon. From 1976 to 1987, the number of aged people has been multiplied by 1.3. Eighteen years later, these results represent 1.5 % of those of 1987. Using the data of the third GPHC, this paper uses the analysis of the census to bring out the reasons of the high activity rate of the aged people in Cameroon. In fact, the activities rate of elderly persons of 65 years goes closer to 65%, though it is relatively low for aged women (51%). Globally, the majority of aged people (54.3%) continues to work. Whereas, in other developed countries people do work for a long period to cover the deficit of human labor since the labor is difficult to find, so they go above the normal age of retirement. But, in Cameroon this is not the case because of poverty. Majority of aged people spend their lives working to insure their welbeing and that of their families.

Fertility declines to below-replacement level is a common trend; and it will cause dramatic increases in the pension burdens of pay-you-go systems, in which the workers pay the benefits of retirees in the same periods. Funded pension systems transfer cohorts’ saving to consumption, and hence their pension burdens are invariant to fertility change. Comparing the difference between the pension burdens of the two systems in certain periods could provide relevant information to the decision on whether or not to establish funded pension systems to cope with population aging. The main obstacle in doing such a comparison is that, the burden of a pay-you-go system refers to certain periods, while that of a funded system accounts for life cycles. To overcome the obstacle, a time-referred cohort old-dependence ratio is proposed in this paper, which is comparable to the period old-dependence ratio at a certain time, purely demographic, and could be computed for all the countries and areas of the world under desire assumptions. Examples are given using data from China, Italy, Japan and Republic of Korea.

Socio-demographic trends are transforming the family and living structures of older households. These include greater longevity and smaller family size, a rise in the number of one person households, and more recently, the effects of the European economic crisis. New forms of older households are emerging as a result of these trends which will in turn influence social care policies directed towards the elderly population.
The research explores, from the perspective of older individuals, how social, demographic and economic trends are currently transforming older families and their living arrangements. The data source is the survey Families and Housing survey, (“Familles et logements”) 2011 (INSEE-INED), based on a sub-sample of the 2011 census (n=368,000). The research classifies different older household types according to family structures. These are then examined in relation to the proximity of family members in different households, as well as other socio-demographic characteristics contained within the census such as labour market participation of children.
The dynamics of older household living arrangements in the French population suggest that new and emerging solidarities within families need to be taken into account when designing current and future social care policies.

A main feature of demographic ageing is the increased presence of women. Next to this evident fact it is also shown that because of gender differences elderly women meet worst health conditions and higher risks of widowhood, social handicap and economic dependence.
Economic security in old age depends on several factors, including the protection provided by social security. Coverage of the contributory pension system for elderly women is lower than men´s because of lower labour rights and shorter periods of contribution that are neglected in the planning and legislation of social security.
This paper analyzes the individual, familiar, and contextual factors that determine how women 60 and over access to a social security pension. Data comes from the National Survey of Employment and Social Security 2009. It is highlighted that only 17.6% get a pension and that factors such as age, marital situation, education level, number of children, contributions and the degree of urbanization of the place of residence determine the type and characteristics of the pension.

Living arrangements are vital to intergenerational transfers and welfare in old age, particularly in China which lacks social security system. This study seeks to extend current understanding of the dynamics of living arrangements among older Chinese by exploring two sets of nationally representative survey data that were conducted by the China Research Center on Ageing in 2000 and 2006 respectively, covering 20,000 samples aged 60 and over. The results suggest that living close to children, rather than co-residing with them, has become an important way of providing old-age support. However, such changes in living arrangements do not necessarily constrain intergenerational transfer capacity and make old parents worse-off. Weak evidences have been found that, generally, parents live far from children receive more intergenerational transfers. The family unit and traditional family support in old-age seem likely to continue to be the essential pillars of the old-age security, particularly in rural areas.

China is entering a new historical era that has as its demographic hallmark an ageing population. The emerging pattern of support for older people indicates the pursuit of a new balance between formal and informal support. Through the use of a variety of quantitative methodologies and nationally representative dataset, this study aims to provide robust estimates of how the increase in public programmes is influencing private transfers in China. The analysis of the factors that determine the incidence of receipt of transfers from children suggests that inter-generational transfers in China tend to target old parents that are in greater financial need. Moreover, the analysis of determinants of the size of transfer suggests that although altruism and exchange motives co-exist, the exchange motive dominates inter-generational transfers in urban China. This study argues that a gradual increase in public transfers will not crowd out private transfers, and, in cities, may actually strengthen private transfers.

Although the loneliness of both older adults and immigrants is frequently assumed, knowledge regarding the implications of immigration for loneliness in later life is limited. In particular, little attention has been directed to the impact of factors that might differentiate within the immigrant population. Using data from the 2007 General Social Survey (GSS-21) conducted by Statistics Canada, this study examined the effects of immigrant status, age at immigration and immigrant generation on loneliness among adults aged 60 and over (N = 5,477). Regression analyses (OLS) estimating both the general and age-specific effects of immigrant experience on loneliness, indicated that immigrants report higher levels of loneliness than native-born Canadians and that age at immigration and generational status also had an impact, but one that differed across age groups. Overall, immigration-related variables appeared less consequential for loneliness in the oldest-old (aged 80+) than in younger age groups. These findings attest to the significance of immigrant status for an understanding of loneliness in later life but suggest a need to acknowledge the diversity of immigrant experiences associated with life course factors such as age at immigration and generational status.

Despite widespread attention to population aging and contemporary increases in intermarriage, little is known regarding the implications of intermarriage for social support in middle and later life. Drawing on data from the 2007 General Social Survey (GSS-21) conducted by Statistics Canada on intermarried and endogamously married adults aged 45 and over (N = 12,345), this study examined the effects of intermarriage on the receipt of instrumental and emotional support. Results, generated by two simultaneous probit models, revealed that while intermarriage was accompanied by a reduced likelihood of instrumental support from others outside the household, this was not the case when it came to emotional support. The findings indicate that intermarriage is not uniformly positive, neutral, or negative in its implications for social support. Future theoretical and empirical work will need to address the complexities of these and other relationships in order to enhance our understanding of these emergent family structures.

It is widely believed that family background has a significant influence on children’s life. The vast majority of the existent literature has focused on the relationship between parents’ education and income and the education and income of their children. Surprisingly, much less work has been done on the intergenerational transmission of health. The main objective of this paper is to examine the correlations of health across generations using the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS). We take advantage of the richness of IFLS and examine several health measures of respondents, including self-reports and biomarkers. As measures of health of both parents, IFLS has information on whether they are dead at the time of the last wave in 2007, their general health status and whether they have difficulties with any ADLs at the time of the survey or just before death. The findings suggest strong intergenerational correlations between the measures of parental health, schooling, and the health of their adult children. We also examine how these intergenerational correlations might differ for respondents born in the more developed parts of Indonesia compared to the less developed areas. Interestingly, these health associations are much lower for respondents who were born in Java or Bali.

This study aims to identify and evaluate the contents of ageism and to develop instrument of ageism. Going further, it intends to utilize these measures for reviewing effect factors of ageism. The current study describes multidimensional view of ageism toward aging and the elderly. After pre-test and review of professionals, 31 items was constructed. Data were obtained from KGSS Survey of 1535 participants. The sample was randomly divided into two groups to test reliability and validity of the scale. Finally, the 23-items with seven factors were suggested, based on the internal reliability and exploratory factor analysis with the first group. Another group was conducted confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that the final 21-item scale with seven factors had a good model fit. And it explored effect factors of ageism in Korea using 21 measures developed herein. It looked at how ageism was influenced by gender, age, family relationship, educational background, economic activity, health, region, age norm, contacts with the elderly, and degree of happiness on ageism. Women revealed stronger ageism than men, and ageism became weaker in case of better health, greater happiness, and more contact with the elderly.