Identified influence strategies used by elderly care-receiving mothers and their caregiving daughters, including positive strategies, overt and covert negative strategies, and option seeking. Findings from 64 mother-daughter pairs revealed that mother's health, level of dependency, and residence were not related to most strategy use. Negative…

Tests a path model of the mediational effects of the quality of relationships between spouse caregivers (N=75) and their impaired partners. Emotional closeness mediated the impact of the partner's cognitive impairment, but not functional impairment, on the caregiver's subjective effectiveness. Conflict had a direct but not a mediating influence on…

Surveyed 120 adult children from maritally disrupted situations and 145 adult children in intact marriages about their own and siblings' help to parents. Adult children in maritally disrupted situations gave about the same amount of help as siblings, while those with intact marriages gave more help than siblings. (JAC)

Reviews six studies of neglect and abuse of elderly persons in their homes. All of these investigations agree that a substantial but undocumented problem of domestic neglect and abuse exists; variety and severity of mistreatment ranges from reasonably benign to very severe, and causal theories are numerous. (WAS)

Using a life course perspective, reports the findings from a needs assessment for midlife and older adults regarding family life education. A sample of 264 adults aged 50 and older indicated interest in 29 family life education topics. The highest rated topics were nutrition and health, fitness and exercise, and positive aspects of aging.…

Interviewed 174 care-receiving mothers and their caregiving daughters concerning contributions of care receivers. Majority of respondents perceived that daughters received aid from mothers in return for help given. Mothers who reported giving advice and money had better health whereas mothers who reported giving information were more dependent…

Examined use of in-home services by older rural people who received assistance exclusively from informal sources. Results suggest that informal caregiver is essential in community-based care for rural elderly. Having a car, distance to friend, economic resources, physical health, and performance in daily living activities related to use of more…

Compared pairs (n=174) of elderly mothers' and their caregiving daughters' perceptions of aid given to the mothers with actual caregiving activities. Results indicated nearly half of the mothers and daughters were accurate in their perceptions of aid given to the mothers; when mothers' perception of aid was inaccurate, mothers overestimated rather…

Using data gathered from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans and their elderly parents (N=628), this research finds that such financial and structural factors as an adult child's income and his/her parent's need for assistance significantly influenced the frequency of an adult child's support for his/her parents. (Author/MKA)

Utilizing data from 80 adult children-older parent dyads, this study examined the degree to which adult children could predict the psychosocial preferences of their older parents. Overall, children demonstrated good knowledge about parent preferences, although there was wide variability within the sample and across preference domains. Children…

We examined beliefs about intergenerational responsibilities to assist older kin with a national sample of 362 Latinos, 492 African Americans, 121 Asian Americans, and 2,122 White European Americans using multiple-segment factorial vignettes. More similarities than differences existed between ethnic groups, but Asian Americans and African…

We examine the extent to which theory has been used in empirical studies of families in later life, identify prevalent types of theoretical frameworks, and assess connections between theory and both focal topics and analytic methods in the family gerontology literature. The paper is based on content and methodological analysis of 838 empirical…

This review examines the impact of impairment on marital relationships of the elderly and barriers to therapeutic treatment. The training and skills needed to work with the elderly in a therapeutic setting and behavioral therapy approaches are also discussed. (Author/BL)

Compared elders living in two types of caregiving households and explored their level of depression in each setting. Results indicated that depression level was similar for those residing with a spouse or child/grandchild as caregiver. Mitigating factors included length of time in residence and noneconomic contribution to the household. (NRB)

Gathered data from institutionalized and community-dwelling elderly concerning their satisfaction with various aspects of family relations. While 80 percent of the sample were satisfied, differences were found between the young-old and the old-old, the married and the widowed, as well as between the institutionalized and community-dwelling…