Summary
Contents
Directed towards researchers and practitioners in family studies and gerontology, this completely revised Second Edition of Family Relationships in Later Life provides an innovative new collection of research-based descriptions on family relations of older people. Each chapter summarizes existing literature on the topic and provides up-to-date original research. Topics addressed include: sibling relationships in later life; widowhood; ethnic differences; elder abuse and mistreatment; family care; and health problems.
Issues Related to Later-Life Family Relationships
A number of issues concerning family relationships of older persons are examined in this section. Each contribution seeks to provide a cogent discussion of the primary aspects of the issue addressed. The contributions review previous research on the issues and report new research. The issues are sex roles, unmarried elderly including widowhood, elder abuse, the family support network, and variations in minority elderly families.
Pat M. Keith and Robbyn R. Wacker examine sex-role differences in later-life families. Throughout the chapter, the primary focus is on older persons’ perceptions of masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. Initially, the psychological perspective of sex-role differences in late life is reviewed. Then, a review of the literature concerning sex-role differentiation in ...