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Actively generating one's family : How
elders shape their family configurations
Eric D. Widmer
Issues
Who are the significant family members in old age ? What are the
main family configurations in later life?
What influence family composition has on support and conflict in
families of later life individuals?
VLV (Vivre/leben/vivere) study and Sample
• Interdisciplinary survey on living and health conditions of
people aged 65+
• 5 swiss cantons (Geneva, Valais, Bern, Basel and Ticino)
• 4'200 respondents randomly selected in administration’s registers
VLV Study :
Geneva sample :
• Sample stratified by sex and age
• 3080 respondents have participated in VLV survey
•
578 individuals
•
Able to answer the questions by themselves
•
282 women and 296 men
•
3 age groups : 65-74 (n=226), 75-84 (n=205), 85+ (n=147)
Family Network Method
• Asking the respondents to list the people in their family who they
consider to be significant (not more than 5 persons in VLV study) :
«Could you give me the first name of the persons that you consider as significant
members of your family ? By « significant » member, we mean people in your
family who have played a role either positive (who have helped or supported you),
or negative (who have made you angry), in your life during the past year» ?
Collecting information about emotional support: “Who would give
emotional support to X [i.e., each individual included in the respondent's
family network, considered one by one] during routine or minor troubles?”
Collecting information about conflict: In your opinion, who makes X [i.e.,
each individual included in the respondent's family network, considered
one by one] angry?”.
Composition of family configurations in old age
Six family configurations in old age (Results of hierarchical cluster analyses).
“Procreation” (n=222)
Son / Daughter / Partner
“Son” (n=43)
Son / Son’s Partner / Son’s Daughter / Son’s Son
“Daughter” (n=62)
Daughter / Daughter’s Daughter / Daughter’s Son / Daughter’s Partner
“Siblings” (n=87)
Sister / Brother
“Kinship” (n=45)
Other terms (different types of kin, related by blood or not) / Cousin
“Sparse” (n=104)
Female friend / Male Friend / Or no significant family member
Explanatory variables
Family
configurations
Son and co
Siblings
Procreation
Kinship
Daughter and co
Sparse
Siblings
NoBrothers-sisters
Brothers-sisters
Income
Low income
Average income
High income
Health
ADL-Robust
Multipe Correspondance
Analysis
Family composition and social capital
Patterns of ambivalence
Low support
density
High support
density
Low conflict
density
Atomization
Solidarity
High conflict
density
Captivation
Ambivalence
More information:
http://www.edwidmer.org/page-research2-famconfig
E-mail: [email protected]