Identified six types of very long-term marriages: stable/positive, stable/neutral, stable/negative, curvilinear, continuous decline, and continuous increase. Case records of 17 marriages lasting between 50 and 69 years revealed that nearly 75 percent of the marriages showed either curvilinear or stable/positive patterns. Found no continuous…

Explored whether couples' employment/retirement patterns relate to perceptions of marital dependence and whether relationships are contingent on gender role attitudes. Data from 763 couples revealed that the positive association between husband's retirement and his spouse's perceptions of his dependence on relationship predominated among couples…

Predicted that marital satisfaction would be higher in later stages of life cycle because of diminishing demands of nonmarital roles. Data from 2,327 older married persons showed that departure of children was associated with higher levels of marital satisfaction; other hypotheses based on role overload theory received no support and were…

Examined how control over resources, social interaction with children, gender, health, age, employment status, and marital status influence decision-making power of older Filipino adults (n=1,321). Subjects who were younger, employed, well educated, and who owned their homes, provided economic transfer to children and were in more frequent contact…

Used data from longitudinal Retirement History Study to compare widowed, divorced or separated, and never-married women and men aged 60 to 65 on 3 dimensions of friendship contacts. Results showed that contact with friends could not be distinguished solely by respondents' gender or marital status. Suggests that adequate attention must be paid to…

Fifty pairs of sisters with at least one parent over age 75 years were interviewed about parents' situation and how they and their siblings divided filial responsibilities. Results showed that, once parents were perceived to have needs, sibling groups organized to meet them. Found five styles of participation and three factors affecting styles and…

Combined life course perspective with life history interviewing to compare 15 lifelong unmarried, childless women and 15 ever-married mothers from the 1910 birth cohort. Results suggest that linear progression from family of origin to family of procreation reveals one stream in family life course; experiences of lifelong single women revealed…

Interviewed 53 noninstitutionalized elderly to examine patterns of exchange of assistance within their informal helping networks. Results suggest inability to reciprocate rather than need for assistance had a greater negative effect on morale. There was a negative relationship between formal service use and reliance on the informal network.…

Describes development of theory of solidarity among parents and children during adult family life course. Reports on four stages in theory's development: taxonomy of six dimensions of intergenerational family cohesion; revision of theory informed by empirical tests; translation of elements of revised theory into structural equation model; and…

Used data from National Survey of Families and Households to investigate associations among gender, employment, and marital happiness for 1,353 couples aged 50+. Employment was not directly related to marital happiness. Wives reported greater participation in household tasks and greater inequity in division of household labor. Perceived fairness…

Survey data obtained from 893 very low-income elderly is presented utilizing a poverty, low-income dichotomy. The relationships between income level, sex and marital status are explored for a variety of items related to morale and life satisfaction. (Author)

Examined data from 231 rural elderly which revealed that a sister's availability was second only to physical mobility in predicting higher life satisfaction among older rural women. Among men, availability of a brother was also positively associated with life satisfaction. Effects of cross-sex siblings were minor. (NRB)

This research reports on the significance of grandmotherhood to an area sample of 125 females, most of whom were grandmothers, age 70 or over. The paper describes the development of a typology which was designed to identify, describe, and test four distinct types of grandparenting. (Author)

Investigated intergenerational conflict when parents shared home with adult child. Results from 372 elderly parents revealed surprisingly low levels of conflict with resident adult children. Conflict was lower in dyads with older resident child and in dyads where parent and child occupied similar marital status. Conflict was not related to parent…

Examined four popular hypotheses of family labor--time-available, socialization/ideology, external-resources, and specialization-of-tasks--to explain gender differences in caregiving to elderly parents. Data from adults with mother over age 70 revealed that these theories of gender differences in divisions of family labor did not adequately…