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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Beyond solidarity, reciprocity and altruism
— moral capital as a unifying concept in intergenerational support for older people | | Author(s) | Merril Silverstein, Stephen J Conroy, Daphna Gans |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 32, part 7, October 2012 |
| Pages | pp 1246-1262 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Family care ; Parents ; Children [offspring] as carers ; Family relationships ; Attitude ; Social ethics. |
| Annotation | The present study aimed to review, contrast and synthesise several major intellectual streams that have guided theoretical development and empirical research in the area of intergenerational family support to older people: (a) normative-integrative approaches that focus on cohesion between family members based on bonds of solidarity and norms of filial obligation, and (b) transactional approaches that are primarily concerned with identifying motives for resource transfers across generational lines. The authors propose the concept of moral capital - defined as the stock of internalised social norms that obligate children to care for and support their older parents - the transmission of which lies at the intersection of self-interest (for parents) and altruism (for children). Using data from a multigenerational family study, an empirical analysis is presented showing that a strong positive correspondence in the filial obligations of adult children and their older mothers - arguably the result of intergenerational transmission - elevated the supportive behaviour of children. It is suggested that moral capital may be a useful unifying concept that bridges disciplinary and theoretical divides in the study of intergenerational transfers to older people by helping resolve the paradox of how self-interest and selflessness can co-exist within families. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-121002008 A |
| Classmark | P6:SJ: SR: P6:SS: DS:SJ: DP: TQ |
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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