Family Ties
Family Ties
John R. Logan
Glenna D. Spitze
Copyright Date: 1996
Published by: Temple University Press
Pages: 304
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bswj2
Search for reviews of this book
Book Info
Family Ties
Book Description:

While many studies focus on the impact of social change on younger generations,FGamily Tiesdeals comprehensively with family relationships over a longer period of the life cycle and reveals misconceptions about grown children caring for their aging parents. Glenna D. Spitze and John R. Logan offer conclusive evidence that relationships between parents and their adult children remain intact and challenge other myths of isolation and neglect of the older generation.The authors reveal that parents are not dependent on help from their grown children, as was previously assumed; in fact they contribute more assistance than they receive until the age of seventy-five. Also, while daughters are still the dominant caregivers, other forms of support like visiting and providing transportation are given almost equally by sons and daughters.Logan and Spitze also report that even though the day-to-day demands on adult children have increased with the changing economy, very few seem to be torn between these responsibilities and those those of caring for their parents. This book offers reassuring news about the strength of the American family in the midst of social change.Family Tieswill be a valuable resource for anyone interested in intergenerational relationships in adulthood.

eISBN: 978-1-4399-0411-4
Subjects: Sociology
You do not have access to this book on JSTOR. Try logging in through your institution for access.
Log in to your personal account or through your institution.
Table of Contents
Export Selected Citations Export to NoodleTools Export to RefWorks Export to EasyBib Export a RIS file (For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...) Export a Text file (For BibTex)
Select / Unselect all
  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. Tables and Figures
    Tables and Figures (pp. ix-xiv)
  4. Acknowledgments
    Acknowledgments (pp. xv-xviii)
  5. Preface: Aging Parents, Changing Families
    Preface: Aging Parents, Changing Families (pp. xix-xxxii)
  6. 1 Generational Boundaries
    1 Generational Boundaries (pp. 1-27)
    Russell A. Ward

    Family Tiesis mainly about intergenerational relationships within families. In most of this book, when we speak of generations, we refer to one's place in a kinship lineage, which may extend from being a dependent child to being a grandparent or great-grandparent. The parents that we study range in age from about forty to nearly one hundred; their grown children range from twenty-one (by our definition) to seventy-six! The relationship of parent to adult child thus cuts a wide swath through most people’s lives, from a time when they are fairly young to a time when they are rather old....

  7. 2 Which Is the Dependent Generation?
    2 Which Is the Dependent Generation? (pp. 28-55)
    Russell A. Ward

    We can hardly identify the older generation. People’s application of generational labels varies with their own age, and any attempt to base definitions on patterns of self-identification would classify some fifty-year-olds as elderly and some people in their seventies as middleaged. Nor is the problem of definition simplified by any tendency for an age conscious mobilization of the elderly in pursuit of their collective interests. The opposite seems to be more true, and our view is that intergenerational relationships are essentially altruistic. Rather than define generations by age categories, therefore, we believe it will be more useful to think about...

  8. 3 Family Composition and Intergenerational Ties
    3 Family Composition and Intergenerational Ties (pp. 56-80)

    The American family is changing quickly, as manifested in declining fertility, rising divorce rates, and changes in gender relations such as the increase in women’s employment. How do these changes affect relations between parents and adult children? We start in this chapter with family composition. How might decreases in the average number of children in a family, coupled with changing expectations regarding gender roles, affect relations between parents and grown children?

    This issue is important for both theoretical and practical reasons. Theoretically, the question is how the composition of a group (here, the family) affects the behavior of its individual...

  9. 4 Intergenerational Effects of Employment and Divorce
    4 Intergenerational Effects of Employment and Divorce (pp. 81-105)

    Family composition is one route through which emerging demographic trends might affect relations between adult children and older parents. From the parents’ point of view, larger family size leads to more contact (but not necessarily more exchange of help). Therefore, it is reasonable to project that declining fertility will result over time in a diminution of intergenerational ties as experienced by the parent generation. This result is partially compensated by the fact that adult children in smaller families tend to have more contact with their parents. We now consider two other social trends that have been believed to have a...

  10. 5 Role Conflicts for the Generation in the Middle
    5 Role Conflicts for the Generation in the Middle (pp. 106-125)

    The idea that combining middle generation roles is particularly problematic originated in Elaine Brody’s highly publicized work on the group whose name she coined, “women in the middle” (1981). Brody focused on women who combine marriage, parenting of younger or adult children, employment, and care of elderly parents. She argued that taking care of parents is becoming a “ormative experience” for middle-aged persons (1985).

    Although Brody called attention to a potentially serious problem in the lives of some middle-aged women, her data were based on a nonprobability sample of women who were much more likely to be taking care of...

  11. 6 The Family in Social Networks
    6 The Family in Social Networks (pp. 126-152)

    Previous chapters have stressed the vitality of family relationships, describing their altruistic and reciprocal character, showing their durability despite competing responsibilities, and demonstrating that family ties have positive as well as negative effects on well-being. In various ways we have been developing the point that the family is “alive and well.” This is also the conclusion of those who have studied the larger social networks in which the family is embedded. Barry Wellman’s (1979) pioneering study of the “intimate relationships” of East Yorkers, for example, found that family members comprised about half of the persons listed by respondents who were...

  12. 7 Extending the Family
    7 Extending the Family (pp. 153-162)

    Probably no day passes without a reminder in the mass media that the family is in trouble. Americans have come to accept this view without question. Commentators and politicians bemoan the crisis of the family and the failure of family values without having to explain what they are talking about. These understandings have become part of our common folklore at the close of the twentieth century, part of what we take for granted as an issue of our time. Of course there is a crisis, and it sells newspapers and garners votes.

    Social scientists have been more cautious about the...

  13. Appendix A: The Albany Survey
    Appendix A: The Albany Survey (pp. 163-166)
  14. Appendix B: Questionnaire
    Appendix B: Questionnaire (pp. 167-196)
  15. Appendix C: Tables
    Appendix C: Tables (pp. 197-236)
  16. References
    References (pp. 237-256)
  17. Author Index
    Author Index (pp. 257-260)
  18. Subject Index
    Subject Index (pp. 261-265)