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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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No children in later life, but more and better friends?
— Substitution mechanisms in the personal and support networks of parents and the childless in Germany | | Author(s) | Sebastian Schnettler, Thomas Wohler |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 36, no 7, August 2016 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, August 2016 |
| Pages | pp 1339-1363 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Childless ; Parents ; Friendship ; Informal care ; Comparison ; Germany. |
| Annotation | Given increases in childlessness, the authors ask if and how the permanently childless substitute for adult children in their later-life support networks. Previous research finds that they are disadvantaged on several network and support indicators. Yet the role of different substitution mechanisms remains unclear. The authors examine two substitution mechanisms: substitution through adjustments of network size/composition; and through higher efficiency of personal ties. Data are from the German Ageing Survey (1,886 childless; and parents without/with residentially proximate children, 4,137 and 8,337 respectively). Descriptive and regression results on network size/composition, and the number of potential informational and emotional supporters show that both mechanisms play a role. The childless have more friends and extended kin, and they are more likely to consider them as potential supporters, than parents. Across cohorts or age groups, the relative effect size of network size/composition versus tie efficiency changes. Parents with no children nearby constitute a mixed type that shows similarities to the childless on some indicators of social support and to parents with at least one child nearby on other indicators. These findings provide a foundation for better predicting how current demographic trends affect future scenarios of social support in later life, and for identifying the future need for formal care services. Thus, they are relevant for social scientists and policy makers alike. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-160729200 A |
| Classmark | SU: SR: DS:SX: P6: 48: 767 |
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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