Late-life divorce is a growing phenomenon in the Western world, likely to expand due to increasing expectancy and changes in marital and family values. However, existing research on divorce and its consequences for offspring focuses on young and middle-aged adults, analysing individual rather than familial/dyadic perspectives. Accordingly, our study employs a holistic perspective on the family unit following late-life divorce which is especially relevant to societies that value familism as an essential element in individuals' lives. Coincidingly, the term familyhood expresses an atmosphere of closeness and unity among family members and is a commonly used expression in Israel. Using family systems as a framework, our aim was to examine how, if at all, familyhood is experienced after divorce considering how it was experienced prior to divorce from a long-term marriage in Israel. Semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews (N = 72) were conducted separately with divorcees aged 60–81 who divorced at age 56–68 (N = 44), and with their adult children aged 19–40 at the time of their parents' divorce (N = 28). Interviews were given thematic analysis and dyadic qualitative analysis. The findings reveal the meaningfulness of familyhood following late-life divorce via a fourfold typology of familyhood continuity/change experienced as present or lacking, before or after divorce. The typology addresses key elements of when, where, by whom and how familyhood is reconstructed, along with strategies to maintain familyhood. Paradoxes inherent in the intersection of divorce and familyhood, discussed within the Israeli sociocultural context, are located between self-determination and familism. Implications are presented.

Ageing-in-place has become an internationally favoured policy and practice response to population ageing. However, limited literature has sought to understand this concept from Chinese older adults' perspectives, especially in rural China. The purpose of this study is to explore how older adults in rural China conceptualise ageing-in-place. This study took a qualitative approach by carrying out in-depth interviews with snowball-sampled older adults from a rural village in Shandong Province, China (N = 30). Participants conceptualised their ageing-in-place as consisting of two phases: first, when they felt self-reliant, these older adults preferred to live independently in the village; and second, when their capability declined, they would expect care-giving from their children. Autonomy was essential to participants' decision to age in place. The village offered both a physical and social environment in which participants could sustain their self-identity. This decision to age in place independently also related to participants' proactive adaptation to their children's evolving practices of filial piety. Still, had their capabilities declined, they reported they would expect their children's care-giving and move in with their children. Our findings suggest that older adults in rural China conceptualise ageing-in-place as a dynamic process that evolves as they age and experience changes in their needs and capabilities. This perception expands critical notions of ageing-in-place by highlighting rural older adults' flexible conceptualisation of the ‘place’ in which they plan to age. This study sheds light on socioculturally nuanced understandings of ageing-in-place while providing evidence to inform tailored policy and practice development in rural China.

Parents’ alcohol use is associated with alcohol use of their adolescent offspring, but does this association extend to the adulthood of the offspring? We examined associations of paternal and maternal problem drinking with lifetime problem drinking of their adult offspring prospectively assessed in a population-based Finnish twin-family cohort (FinnTwin16). Problem drinking (Malmö-modified Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test) was self-reported separately by mothers and fathers when their children were 16. The children reported on an extended lifetime version of the same measure during their mid-twenties (21-28 years) and mid-thirties (31-37 years). 1235 sons and 1461 daughters in mid-twenties and 991 sons and 1278 daughters in mid-thirties had complete data. Correlations between fathers’ and their adult children’s problem drinking ranged from .12 to .18. For mothers and their adult children, these correlations ranged from .09 to .14. In multivariate models, adjustment for potential confounders had little effect on the observed associations. In this study, parental problem drinking was modestly associated with lifetime problem drinking of their adult children. This association could be detected even when the children had reached the fourth decade of life.

Although the literature on informal care-giving for older parents shows that daughters have a higher tendency to provide care compared with sons, only a few studies have focused on the gender composition of all children or parents’ entire range of care options. Our study examines the effect of children's gender composition on informal and formal care types, as well as the informal care network. Using data from the 2015 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 40,312), we found that parents with daughters tended to use less formal care because daughters take on additional informal care-giving responsibilities. Daughters were the main care-givers among parents’ informal care networks. Further analysis indicated that daughters-in-law play an important role in the care-giving process when parents have only sons. We concluded that the presence of a daughter among the children reduces the use of formal care. The results indicated that children's gender composition is an important factor in explaining the allocation of informal care to parents.

The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between adult children's education and older parents’ cognitive health, and the extent to which this relationship is moderated by parents’ own socio-economic and marital statuses. Data using Waves 5 (2000) to 13 (2016) are drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative panel survey of individuals age 50 and above in the United States of America (USA). Older parents’ cognitive functioning is measured using episodic memory from Waves 5–13. Adult children's education is measured using years of schooling, on average, for all adult children of a respondent. Analyses based on multilevel linear growth curve modelling reveal that parents with well-educated adult children report higher memory score over time compared to their counterparts whose children are not as well-educated. We also find that the positive effect of children's education on parents’ cognitive health is moderated by parents’ own education, though not by their income, occupation or marital status. Our work contributes to the growing body of research on the ‘upward’ flow of resources model that assesses the ways in which personal and social assets of the younger generation shape the health and wellbeing of the older generation. Our findings are particularly relevant to the USA given the enduring linkage between socio-economic status and health, and the limited social and economic protection for those of lower social status.

Older people's ability to thrive independently of their adult children is an important feature of a universalistic welfare system. However, population ageing puts this notion under stress. In separate multinomial logistic regression models for older men and women, we examined whether adult children's gender, number and proximity were associated with older parents’ relocations into residential care facilities, and whether the effects of these children's characteristics on older parents’ institutionalisation vary by parents’ severe health problems, operationalised as closeness to death – specifically, dying within the two-year observation period. Analyses were based on the Swedish register data between 2014 and 2016 (N = 696,007 person-years). Older parents with at least one co-resident child were less likely to move or become institutionalised than those without a co-resident child. We did not find a relationship between older adults’ institutionalisation and the closest child's gender. The negative effect of having a non-resident child living nearby on the likelihood of becoming institutionalised was more pronounced for mothers than fathers. Having a child nearby decreased the likelihood of moving to an institution more for mothers who had severe health problems than for those in better health. We found no evidence of a relationship between number of children and likelihood of institutionalisation.

The tradition of intergenerational care and support exchanges in Indian families is assumed to be disturbed because of changes in family structure brought on by modern life, which is mainly based on studies investigating experiences of older adults regarding the impact of socio-economic change on their care arrangement. However, there is a large gap in understanding the experiences of adult children from a larger relational perspective, more than just care provision to their older relatives. Drawing on 26 in-depth interviews with adult children living in modern and traditional living arrangements from South India, the study explores their experiences with their parents with regard to reciprocity of care and support, the challenges they experience and strategies they adopt to overcome those challenges. The analysis shows adult children perceive the increased demands of modern work life and their older kin's preferences to be heard, lack of flexibility and related extra domestic work and costs, do cause a bigger burden for them in both living arrangements. However, adult children strive to uphold the traditional values of caring for their older kin and sharing emotional bonding with them. This inspiration helps them to employ strategies to accept their older relatives as they are, focus their attention on the benefits they receive from them and distribute care tasks with other relatives to overcome the challenges.

It is known that the education of significant others may affect an individual's mortality. This paper extends an emerging body of research by investigating the effect of having highly educated adult children on the longevity of older parents in Europe, especially parents with low educational attainment. Using a sample of 15,015 individuals (6,620 fathers and 8,395 mothers) aged 50 and above, with 1,847 recorded deaths, over a mean follow-up period of 10.9 years from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we examine whether the well-established socio-economic gradient in mortality among parents is modified when their adult children have higher educational attainment than their parents. We find that having highly educated adult children is associated with reduced mortality risks for fathers and mothers with low educational attainment, compared to their counterparts whose adult children have only compulsory education. The association is stronger in early older age (ages 50–74) than in later older age (ages 75 and over). Part of the association appears to be explained by health behaviours (physical (in)activity) and health status (self-rated health). Our findings suggest that the socio-economic–mortality gradient among older parents might be better captured using an intergenerational approach that recognises the advantage of having highly educated adult children, especially for fathers and mothers with only compulsory education.

The population of South Korea is ageing rapidly and government provision for older people is meagre. Hence the erosion of traditional family support for older people is of much concern. Yet relatively little is known about the actual financial status of elderly Koreans or the amount of economic support they receive from children. This paper addresses these issues using data from the 2006 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We find that almost 70 per cent of Koreans aged 65 or more years received financial transfers from children and that the transfers accounted for about a quarter of an average elder's income. While over 60 per cent of elders would be poor without private transfers, children's transfers substantially mitigate elder poverty, filling about one-quarter of the poverty gap. Furthermore, children's transfers tend to be proportionally larger to low-income parents, so elder income inequality is reduced by the transfers. Over 40 per cent of elders lived with a child and co-residence helps reduce elder poverty. By showing that Korean children still play a crucial role in providing financial old-age security, we demonstrate how important it is for the Korean government to design old-age policies that preserve the incentives for private assistance. This snapshot of today's Korea also has implications for other rapidly changing Asian countries that are following a similar trajectory.

Discontinuity of grandparent-grandchild relationships has been largely overlooked in social science research, despite the fact that the salience of the grandparent grandchild attachment bond is the subject of considerable discussion. This article reports the results of an exploratory study of grandparent-grandchild contact loss, by means of a survey of the core membership of five “grandparent rights” groups across Canada. As reflected in the particular concerns of this membership, there are four primary circumstances associated with grandparent loss of contact with grandchildren: parental divorce, conflict with both parents, death of adult child, and stepparent adoption following remarriage. Grandparents whose adult children are noncustodial parents (mostly paternal grandparents) are at high risk for contactloss, and adult children-in-law appear to be the primary mediators in the ongoing grandparent-grandchild relationship. Disrupted grandchild access is seen as having profound negative consequences for grandparents, and this has important implications for socio-legal policy and therapeutic practice.

This paper presents a typology of older parents caring for adult offspring with lifelong disabilities, as well as barriers to residential planning from the perspectives of older parents caring for adult offspring with lifelong disabilities. Project participants included 54 older parents and one grandparent (all aged 60+). Information was collected via focus groups in six provinces across Canada. Transcripts were analysed using different analytical procedures, including pattern identification, clustering of conceptual groupings, identification of relationships between variables, constant comparisons, and theoretical memos. Older parents' reluctance to engage in the planning of future living options was found to be multi-factorial and linked to the macro- and micro-systems within which these families were embedded.

There is considerable debate about the effects of today's family structures on support arrangements for older people. Using representative data from The Netherlands, the study reported in this paper investigates which socio-demographic characteristics of adult children and their elderly parents, and which motivations of the adult children, correlate with children giving practical and social support to their parents. The findings indicate that the strongest socio-demographic correlates of a higher likelihood of giving support were: having few siblings, having a widowed parent without a new partner and, for practical support, a short geographical distance between the parent's and child's homes. Single mothers were more likely to receive support than mothers with partners, irrespective of whether their situation followed divorce or widowhood. Widowed fathers also received more support, but only with housework. A good parent-child relationship was the most important motivator for giving support, whereas subscribing to filial obligation norms was a much weaker motivator, especially for social support. Insofar as demographic and cultural changes in family structures predict a lower likelihood of support from children to elderly parents, this applies to practical support, and derives mainly from increased geographical separation distances and from the growing trend for parents to take new partners. Social support is unlikely to be affected by these changes if parents and children maintain good relationships.

This paper examines changes in households with older people in a northern rural area of KwaZulu Natal province, South Africa, between January 2000 and January 2002. The focus is the impact of adult deaths, especially those from AIDS, on the living arrangements of older people. The longitudinal data are from the Africa Centre Demographic Information System. In 2000, 3,657 older people (women aged 60 years or older, men 65 years or older) were resident in the area, and 3,124 households had at least one older member. The majority (87%) of older people lived in three-generation households. Households with older people were significantly poorer, more likely to be headed by a woman, and in homesteads with poorer quality infrastructure than households without older members. By January 2002, 316 (8%) of the older people in the sample had died. Of all the households with an older person, 12 per cent experienced at least one adult death from AIDS. The paper shows that older people, particularly those living alone or with children in the absence of other adults, were living in the poorest households. They were also coping with an increasing burden of young adult deaths, the majority of which were attributable to AIDS.

In a rapidly changing society, young adults may play an important role in teaching older adults about social, cultural and technological changes. Thus older people who lack regular contact with younger people are at risk of being excluded from contemporary social developments. But how age-segregated are older people? The level of age-segregation of older people can be studied by examining the age-composition of personal social networks. Using NESTOR-LSN survey data from The Netherlands, we are able to determine the number of younger adults that people aged 55–89 years identify as members of their social networks, and to examine the factors that are associated with segregation or integration. The findings show that there is a large deficit of young adults in the networks of older people, and that few older people have regular contact with younger non-kin. If age were not a factor in the selection of network members, one would expect the age distribution of adult network members to be the same as the age distribution of the entire adult population, but the ratio of actual to expected non-kin network members aged under 35 years for those aged 65–74 years is only 0.10. And only 15 per cent of the population aged 80 or more years has weekly contact with any non-kin aged less than 65 years. The number of children is strongly related to the total number of younger network members, because most younger network members are adult children. Further, participating in organisations (work and volunteer settings) that include people of diverse ages increases the likelihood of an older person having significant cross-age interactions with non-kin.