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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Do age differences in close and problematic family ties reflect the pool of available relatives? | | Author(s) | Karen L Fingerman, Kira S Birditt |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 58B, no 2, March 2003 |
| Pages | pp P80-87 |
| Keywords | Family relationships ; Personal relationships ; Social contacts ; Cross sectional surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Older people consistently report having fewer close and fewer problematic social ties than do younger adults. Given that few studies have examined the association between the availability of living relatives and the nature of family ties in later life, this study uses descriptions of the close or problematic networks of 164 individuals aged 13 to 99. Participants also provided information about specific living relatives. Older people reported more living relatives than did adolescents or young adults. Although individuals of all ages tended to name most of their living relatives as close social contacts, most adults did not name all available relatives as close contacts. Age differences emerged with regard to naming relatives as problematic social ties. Older people were less likely to indicate that their relatives caused problems. Findings are discussed in terms of an extension of investment theory, the availability hypothesis, which suggests that individuals with few living relatives are likely to view more of these relatives as close ties and fewer of these relatives as problematic. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030416005 A |
| Classmark | DS:SJ: DS: TOA: 3KB: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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