A slight majority of American households headed by 55–64-year-olds do not have any savings for retirement, and those who have retirement savings have a median of around $109,000 saved, which is equivalent to an inflation-protected annuity of $405 per month (i.e., well below the official poverty level). Among the main reasons cited for the lack of retirement savings among parents is a desire to provide financial support to their young adult children. Indeed, on the whole, parents spend twice as much on financial support of their adult children as they save for retirement (Merryl Lynch, 2018). Understanding the precursors and predictors of this spending behavior may provide insight into decisions that lead to a lack of self-sufficiency in retirement, and hint at opportunities for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at bolstering retirement savings. To that end, this project was designed to examine the extent to which these financial decisions vary by context and belief systems. Specifically, three studies were developed to investigate motivation for providing support to young adult children in lieu of retirement savings. A sample of 496 respondents who were 40 years of age or older was recruited using the online Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. Respondents were presented three factorial vignettes in which hypothetical parents were deciding whether to provide support to their adult child with a major expense—a car (Study 1, Chapter 2), college tuition (Study 2, Chapter 3), and a house (Study 3, Chapter 4)—and respondents were asked on a four-point Likert-type response scale whether parents should (definitely yes, probably yes, probably no, definitely no) provide financial support to their adult children in the given context, and to provide a rationale for their response. In each study, key contextual variables were randomly manipulated within the vignette across respondents (e.g., adult child’s gender [female vs. male], parents’ age [early 60s vs. late 40s], source of money [withdrawal from vs. under-contributing to retirement savings], college major [social sciences vs. business degree], and number of siblings [one vs. three]). Ordinal regression models were used to estimate the effects of the randomly manipulated variables on endorsement of parental provision of financial support to adult children, and content analysis was used to identify the most common rationales respondents provided for the beliefs they espoused in the closed-ended items. Endorsement of parental use of retirement saving for financial support varied depending on whether the stated purpose of the money was for purchasing a car (67% endorsed), paying for college tuition (34% endorsed), or paying the down payment on a house (31% endorsed). Across the three studies, only older parents (in their early 60s [Study 1]) and withdrawing money from a retirement account (Studies 2 and 3) had negative effects on endorsement of parental support; responses according to the other randomly manipulated variables did not statistically vary in these data, suggesting norms that supersede the other manipulated variables. Among respondent sociodemographic characteristics—gender, socioeconomic status, clarity of retirement goals, having adult children, and helping them with large purchases similar to situations described in the vignette—only ownership of a retirement savings account or a pension plan had a consistent negative association with endorsement of parental support across all three studies, indicating that people with retirement plans were more conservative in their attitudes about financially supporting young-adult children than were those without retirement plans. Major rationales for the provision of parental financial support included (a) responsibility for the child (i.e., a solidarity belief system), (b) a belief that children pay back their parents (i.e., a reciprocity belief system), and (c) a belief that parents should make sacrifices for their children (i.e., an altruistic belief system). Given that the majority of studies investigate retirement planning from an individual perspective, as if workers were making their decisions rationally in isolation from their family context, future studies may benefit from a more inclusive approach that takes into account the complexity of family relationships and also social perception of parental financial obligations toward their children.

Submitted by Michelle Cristina Bueno null (michellebueno772@hotmail.com) on 2016-07-01T00:21:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VERSÃO FINAL.pdf: 2910383 bytes, checksum: 3cefe20da88f4ef9ecf3d9adde249a4d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-07-04T19:01:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 bueno_mc_me_rcla.pdf: 2910383 bytes, checksum: 3cefe20da88f4ef9ecf3d9adde249a4d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-04T19:01:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 bueno_mc_me_rcla.pdf: 2910383 bytes, checksum: 3cefe20da88f4ef9ecf3d9adde249a4d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-02 / Esta pesquisa objetivou identificar processos presentes nas interações estabelecidas entre duas gerações docentes, representadas por uma professora experiente e uma estudante do curso de Pedagogia, que se encontra em fase de formação inicial para a docência. Objetivou-se compreender como aspectos relativos à geração (MANNHEIN, 1982) e ciclos vitais dos professores (MARCELO,1999) se inter-relacionam na configuração das relações intergeracionais (SARTI, 2009) estabelecidas entre professora em exercício e a futura professora, durante o estágio supervisionado de prática de ensino. Para tanto, buscou-se identificar e analisar as representações sobre o trabalho docente que emergiam nos momentos de interação estabelecidos entre a professora e estudante durante o estágio supervisionado de prática de ensino e as relações cotidianamente estabelecidas entre elas. Procurou-se conhecer o modo como cada uma das gerações profissionais em questão percebia o trabalho docente e que significados lhe atribuíam. A pesquisa foi realizada sob uma perspectiva qualitativa e a coleta de dados por meio de observação (com recurso de videogravação) e entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas por meio de videoconfrontação. Os dados assim reunidos foram analisados no que se refere ao seu conteúdo. Os resultados desta investigação reafirmam os achados de pesquisas da área que enfatizam a importância da experiência docente para o estabelecimento de relações mais contextualizadas e estratégicas com o ensino e das relações intergeracionais docentes para a formação de novos professores. Por outro lado, os dados reunidos apontam para limitações impostas pelo modelo atual de formação de professores, que não confere aos professores da escola espaços mais sistemáticos na formação, como formadores de campo. / This research has aimed to identify the processes ongoing in the settle interactions between two different teaching generations, which is represented by a senior teacher and an academic student of pedagogy course, who is in the early education teaching. It was aimed to understand the aspects related to generations (MANNHEIN, 1982) and vital cycles of the teachers (MARCELO,1999) interrelated to the settling of the intergenerationrelationships (SARTI, 2009) between a senior teacher and a future teacher, throughout the supervised practice teaching. And to this purpose, the research tried to identify and analyze the representations of the teaching, which showed up in the settle interactions moments between the senior teacher and the future teacher, where it took place over the supervised teacher education and the daily interactions set between them. It was sought to know the way each generation into the matter notice the teaching work and its assigned meaning. The research was carried out under a quality perspective and a gathering data by the noticing (such as videotaping) and interviews semi structured also carried out by videotaping. The data was gathered and analyzed concerning to its content. The outcomes of this investigation restate the findings of the research which highlight the importance of the experience in teaching as a result to set relationships more contextualized and strategies of teaching and the intergeneration teaching as a result of a formation of new teachers. On the other hand, the gathered data pointed out to place restrictions to the current standard teacher education, which is not compatible to a more systematical teacher educationin the school environment.

The key topics of this project are intergenerational relationships, in the means of creating a positive approach towards ageing in elementary school kids. Regarding the fact of demographic ageing of the population, active engagement of seniors into public life and profitable usage of their experience are both a current matter. The theoretical part of this thesis discusses intergenerational relationships, defines old age as equal to other stages of life and questions various stances and values. The practical part offers guidance to the developing process of collaboration between elementary school kids and seniors, in the area of social studies. The aim of intergenerational cooperation is going to be, through conversations, shared memories and further work with them, the increase of kids' concern about modern history and enhancement of respect towards ageing, therefore prevention of ageism. KEY WORDS population ageing, ageism, intergeneration relationships, positive approach to ageing, family memory, memories, teaching, project - based learning, inspiration for schools, modern history