UpDate - vol. 11, No. 5, Page 7
October 3, 1991
Aging conference to focus on problems, answers

     As the average life span increases and older people make up a
larger percentage of the population, care and support for the
elderly is assuming increasing importance.
     What are the problems of an aging population? What is the role
of the family members in caring for older relations, and at what
price? What is the role of society in providing services? What are
the cross-cultural differences in caring for older family members?
What programs do other countries have for an aging population? How
do changes in society, such as the increase in women's
participation in the work force, affect the elderly? What are the
problems of the middle generation, who are themselves growing
older, and have responsibilities for both launching children and
caring for aging parents? What are some policy changes, based on
research, that could improve elder care?
     These and many other questions are being addressed by an
international working and research conference on "Aging and
Generational Relations in Historical and Cross-cultural
Perspective," being held from Oct. 10-13 in Delaware, and chaired
by Tamara Hareven, Unidel Professor of Family Studies and History
and director of the Center for Family Research.
     Funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, the
conference will be attended by 25 scholars from Belgium, Italy,
Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, the U.S.S.R. and Japan, as well
as the United States. The participants will represent several
disciplines in addition to gerontology, including history,
anthropology, economics, demography and sociology.
     According to Hareven, the National Institute on Aging funds
few conferences and the selection process was highly competitive.
Being chosen to hold this conference on aging and generational
relations represents a recognition of the reputation of the
University of Delaware's Center for Family Research as a pioneer
and leader in this field, she said.
     The conference will focus on the impact of historical and
institutional changes on the life course and on intergenerational
relations; on cross-cultural differences in generational relations
and assistance among ethnic and racial groups, both here and
abroad; and on policy implications for care for the elderly and
service to care-giving families.
     "Basically," Hareven said, "the major goal of the conference
is to take stock of what we have learned through past and current
research and to identify new directions and methods for the future.
Research in the area of aging and generational relationships can
have significant impact on programs and services for the elderly
and for the families who are caring for them.
     "It is very important that social science research and public
policy go hand in hand, and that government programs be informed by
this type of interdisciplinary study," she said.
     The conference will begin with a keynote address by Matilda
Riley, a senior social scientist with the National Institute on
Aging, who will speak on "Issues of Generational Relations in Aging
Society."
     The papers written by the scholars, which have been submitted
beforehand and distributed to participants, will act as a
springboard for discussions and will be published later in book
form.
     The papers deal with topics such as "Aging Americans and Their
Very Old Parents" by Dennis P. Hogan and David Eggebeen of
Pennsylvania State University; "Reciprocal Supportive Relations
Among Three-Generation Family Lineages of Black Americans" by James
Jackson of the University of Michigan; "Changes in the Welfare
State and Its Impact on Generational Assistance in Germany" by
Martin Kohli of the Free University of Berlin; "The Position of the
Senior Generation in the Family in the USSR: Demographic,
Sociological and Medical Aspects" by Nina Sachuk and Natalia
Lakiza-Sachuk of the Institute of Gerontology in Kiev; and
"Generational Assistance in the Later Years of Life in Japanese
Communities: A Cohort Comparison" by Kanji Masaoka of Waseda
University in Tokyo.
     Hareven has written a paper for the conference on "The Middle
Generation: Cohort Comparisons in Assistance in Aging Parents in an
American Community" with co-author Kathleen Adams, a fellow in the
Center for Population Studies at Harvard University.
     Hareven previously has written two books, Amoskeag: Life and
Work in an American Factory City and Family Time and Industrial
Time, about family, work and the life course based, on a community
study in Manchester, N.H. where the Amoskeag Co., a textile firm,
dominated the town until its closing in 1936.
     In the paper for the conference, Hareven and Adams explore
generational and caregiving relationships between children born
around the 1910s and 1920s and their elderly parents in Manchester,
as compared with the turn of the century, when "mutual assistance
among kin...expressed an overall principle of reciprocity over the
life course and across generations."
     Hareven pointed out that care-giving relationships were formed
over the life course, and the child who eventually carried the main
responsibilities was designated early in life and was frequently
the younger daughter.
     Although there were many examples of dependent parents,
especially widowed mothers living with their children, the paper
notes that now "as in most other American urban communities, the
pervasive residential pattern was one of nuclear households," with
aging parents living nearby.
     Hareven said "intimacy from a distance" seemed to be the
lifestyle of families as long as parents were able to take care of
themselves. Children would visit frequently, perform many tasks and
services and try to maintain parents in their own homes.
     They would take a parent into their own homes only if the
parent became chronically ill. Nursing homes were a last resort.
     "When children, who are no longer young themselves, take
parents into their homes, there is a high price to pay," Hareven
said, "in terms of their own health, economic loss because the wife
must give up her job, tensions in the household and demands on the
wife's time. It is a dilemma and a squeeze for the middle
generation.
     "It has become fashionable nowadays to argue that the care of
the chronically ill and frail elderly could best be accomplished
within the family. The public sector in the United States pays lip
service to this argument without giving adequate support to these
families," Hareven said.
     The problem is particularly severe for poor families. Research
has found that elderly people in disadvantaged groups are a burden
on family members whose resources are already strained and who have
nothing to fall back on, according to Hareven.
     The Commonwealth Commission on Elderly People Living Alone
published a report, "Old, Alone and Poor," in April 1987, showing
that a high proportion of the elderly who were isolated were black
women living alone in center cities below the poverty level.
     There are significant differences among nations in caring for
the elderly, Hareven said. Some countries, such as Sweden, are more
progressive in giving adequate support for the care of older
citizens. France and Germany also provide financial help for
elderly and sometimes chronically ill persons, Hareven said.
     Other faculty members from the University who are acting as
chairpersons and discussion leaders for the conference are Sally
Bould, associate professor of sociology; Barbara Settles,
professor, Katherine Conway-Turner, associate professor, and Teresa
Cooney, assistant professor, all in individual and family studies;
Saul Hoffman, professor of economics; and Marvin Sussman, Unidel
Professor Emeritus of Human Behavior.
                                        - Sue Swyers Moncure