Family
The Future
It is clear that family relationships have been important for older people in the past and continue to be important in the present. As the baby boom ages, the proportion of older people living in marriages will decline and the proportion who are childless will increase. Thus one might anticipate that family relationships would play a smaller role in the lives of older people in the future. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that the family will lose its place as the most important source of social and emotional support for people as they age through later life.
PETER UHLENBERG
See also GRANDPARENTHOOD; INTERGENERATIONAL EXCHANGES; KIN; MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS; PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP; SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHERLIN, A., and FURSTENBERG, F., JR. The New American Grandparent. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.
EGGEBEEN, D. P., and HOGAN, D. J. "Giving Between Generations in American Families." Human Nature 1 (1991): 211–232.
HAGESTAD, G. "Demographic Change and the Life Course: Some Emerging Trends in the Family Realm." Family Relations 37 (1988): 405–410.
PILLEMER, K., and SUITOR, J. J. "Baby Boom Families: Relations with Aging Parents." Generations 22 (1998): 65–69.
RILEY, M. W., and RILEY, J. W., JR. "Generational Relations: A Future Perspective." In Aging and Generational Relations Over the Life Course. Edited by Tamara K. Hareven. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996. Pages 526–533.
ROSSI, A., and ROSSI, P. Of Human Bonding: Parent-Child Relations Across the Life Course. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990.
UHLENBERG, P. "Mortality Decline in the Twentieth Century and Supply of Kin Over the Life Course." The Gerontologist 36 (1996): 681–685.
Additional topics
Medicine EncyclopediaAging Healthy - Part 2Family - Demographic Changes Affecting Family Structure, Social Changes Affecting Family Relationships, The Future