A pertença estendida de adultos na família de origem é um fenômeno multideterminado, que envolve fatores econômicos, culturais, familiares e psíquicos, gerando insatisfação e sofrimento em adultos que estão nessa situação. O objetivo desta dissertação é a compreensão de motivos, intenções e sentidos que determinam essa pertença estendida. Para isso, utilizamos o referencial teórico psicanalítico, tanto para nos ajudar no método que fundamenta esta pesquisa quanto na discussão das informações obtidas no estudo de campo. Entender como percebem, vivem e quais sentidos esses adultos atribuem para a convivência familiar, além de identificar suas perspectivas para o futuro, como percebem a si mesmos e a sua família, foram os interesses que construíram este objeto de estudo. Pesquisamos esse fenômeno através de sete entrevistas semiestruturadas com adultos da classe média da cidade de São Paulo, entre 26 e 37 anos, cinco do sexo feminino e dois do sexo masculino, que estavam morando com suas famílias de origem em 2010. Da análise das entrevistas, alguns temas emergiram: família: cultura, tradição, história e estrutura; ser adulto; expectativas para o futuro; trabalho e remuneração: vida profissional; e relações fora da família. Constatamos nas dinâmicas familiares de alguns dos entrevistados uma relação do tipo simbiótico com a figura materna, como também uma situação financeira precária para possibilitar a saída da casa da família. A perspectiva de futuro, para alguns, inclui a saída da casa da família mediante novo rumo profissional ou casamento e, para outros, não há sentido em deixar a casa dos pais; há alguns benefícios por estar na casa dos pais, mas há, em todos os entrevistados, desconforto e um sentimento de fracasso, por não corresponderem às expectativas familiares e pessoais / The adults who remain with their original families are a multifactorial phenomenon, involving economic, cultural, familial and psychological factors, which generates discontentment and suffering for those who find themselves in this situation. The objective of this dissertation is the understanding of the motives, intentions and rationales that determine the prolonged stay of adults within their original families. In order to accomplish this, we used psychoanalytical theory both to aid our research design and to inform our analysis of the data collected through our fieldwork. Our interests in understanding how such adults perceive, attribute meaning to and live their everyday lives alongside their original families, and in identifying their perspectives on the future, themselves and their families have built the objectives of this study. We studied this phenomenon via semi-structured interviews with seven middle class adults from the city of São Paulo, aged between 26 and 37 years old, five women and two men, who lived with their original families in 2010. Some themes have emerged from the analysis of the interviews: family: culture, tradition, history and structure; being an adult; expectations about the future; work and salary: professional life; and relationships outside of the family. We ascertained in the family dynamic of some of our interviewees a symbiotic relationship with the mother figure, and also a precarious financial situation that hindered leaving the family home. The perspective of the future, to some, include leaving the family home in the case of a new professional/career path or marriage and, to others, it makes no sense to leave the parental home; there are some benefits in staying in the parental home, but in all interviewees there are a discomfort and a sense of failure, for not meeting familial and personal expectations

INTRODUÇÃO: o ambiente familiar tem sido amplamente relacionado ao uso de álcool na literatura. No entanto, poucos estudos abordam esta questão especificamente para famílias de mulheres alcoolistas. Neste trabalho procurou-se comparar aspectos do funcionamento familiar ao longo de três gerações: geração atual (companheiros e filhos), geração dos pais e irmãos e geração dos avós paternos e maternos de mulheres dependentes e não dependentes de álcool, a partir de seus próprios relatos. MÉTODOS: foram estudadas 30 mulheres alcoolistas que frequentavam o Programa de Atenção à Mulher Dependente Química (PROMUD) do Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo e 32 mulheres não alcoolistas que frequentavam o ambulatório de ginecologia geral do Departamento de Tocoginecologia do Hospital das Clínicas de Curitiba. Como instrumentos foram utilizados a construção do genograma familiar e a Family Environment Scale (FES). RESULTADOS: com relação aos dados sociodemográficos, as alcoolistas eram mais velhas, possuíam maior grau de escolaridade, um número menor de mulheres tinha companheiros e elas tinham menos filhos em comparação às mulheres do grupo controle. Observaram-se várias diferenças com relação à estrutura familiar sempre demonstrando que as famílias das alcoolistas são mais disfuncionais. Com relação às alianças, as alcoolistas possuíam alianças disfuncionais em vários pares de familiares: conflito com a mãe, companheiro e avô paterno, superenvolvimento com o pai e foi verificada a presença de conflito conjugal em todas as gerações. As famílias das alcoolistas se configuraram como superenvolvidas, com presença de triangulação, abuso físico, psicológico e/ou sexual e divórcio. O uso abusivo de álcool foi encontrado também nas mães e companheiros destas mulheres. As mães possuíam ainda o poder de decisão nestas famílias. Ao relacionar o momento de início do uso abusivo com as fases do ciclo de vida familiar, percebeu-se que as mulheres iniciaram o abuso de álcool com seus companheiros e quando os filhos eram pequenos ou adolescentes. Os resultados da FES mostraram diferença nas subescalas coesão, expressividade, conflito, organização e religião entre os grupos, sempre mostrando maior disfunção nas famílias das alcoolistas. CONCLUSÕES: estes achados reforçam a hipótese de que as famílias das mulheres alcoolistas são mais disfuncionais em vários aspectos e que muitos destes padrões disfuncionais são transmitidos ao longo das gerações. / INTRODUCTION: the literature has extensively reported the association between family environment and alcohol use. However, few studies have investigated this issue specifically in families of alcohol dependent women. The present study sought to compare aspects of family functioning over three generations: current generation (partners and children), generation of parents and siblings, and generation of paternal and maternal grandparents of alcohol dependent and non-dependent women based on their own accounts. METHODS: there were studied 30 alcohol dependent women who attended the Drug Dependent Women Treatment Center (PROMUD) at Clínicas Hospital Institute of Psychiatry of Universidade de São Paulo Medical School and 32 non-dependent women attending a general gynecology outpatient clinic of the Department of Obstetric and Gynecology at Clínicas Hospital in Curitiba. The study instruments included a family genogram especially constructed for this study and the Family Environment Scale (FES). RESULTS: alcohol dependent women were older and more educated, a smaller number of them had partners, and they had fewer children than controls. Several differences were found in family structure consistently indicating that the families of alcohol dependent women are more dysfunctional. These women established dysfunctional attachments with different family pairs: conflicts with their mothers, partners, and paternal grandfathers; overinvolvement of father and daughter; and conjugal conflicts in all generations. Families of alcohol dependent women are characteristically overinvolved showing triangulation, physical, psychological and/or sexual abuse, and divorce. Alcohol abuse was also found in these womens mothers and partners. Their mothers also held the power of decision in these families. When alcohol abuse was related to the phases of the family life cycle, it was found that these women started abusing alcohol with their partners when their children were little or adolescents. FES results showed differences between both groups studied in the subscales Cohesion, Expressiveness, Conflict, Organization, and Religion indicating that the families of these women were more dysfunctional. CONCLUSIONS: the study findings reinforce the hypothesis that the families of alcohol dependent women are generally more dysfunctional and that many of these dysfunctional behaviors are transmitted through generations.

Families stay connected over time through the intergenerational transmission of legacies. Legacies help family members to articulate family identity, learn more about family history, and provide succeeding generations with information about family culture and ethnicity. This qualitative study examines how older mothers transmit family meanings, history, and culture to family members through legacies and how ethnic histories influenced this process. Thirty older Armenian American mothers residing in California were interviewed. A life course perspective provides the overarching framework for analysis. Participants described the legacies they received and those they planned to pass on to family members. Emphasis was given to those legacies that symbolized connection to family, underscored family cohesion, and accentuated Armenian cultural roots. Individual age, larger historical events, and the gendered construction of family life influenced both the receipt of legacies and those that were passed on to family members. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Armenian families were forced to leave their native homeland. Because of these events, Armenian families passed few physical legacies on to family members. Legacies took on other forms such as stories, rituals, family gatherings, religious participation, cooking, and service to others. Women viewed their legacies within the context of motherhood and worked to ensure that certain legacies would be valued and remembered by future generations. Shaped by age, generational position, and ethnic identity, women expressed variation in types of legacies and the ways they planned to share them with family members. Women reported tension when certain legacies lacked meaning for their children (in-law) and grandchildren due to the influences of assimilation, intermarriage, changes in family and paid work patterns, and the characteristics and interests of adult children. A focus on legacies provides a useful lens for understanding how families transmit family identity, culture, and ethnicity to succeeding generations. / Graduation date: 2002

This study explores the relationship between living arrangement and psychological wellbeing in retired elderly individuals living in Yancheng, Jiangsu (PR China). Data on mode of residence, socio-economic background, daily activities, and intergenerational dynamics were collected from 200 subjects, and their potential correlations with depression (assessed via the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Version) were analyzed. Univariate as well as logistic regression confirmed mode of residence as a significant predictor of depression in this group. The following depression odds ratios associated with each mode of residence were derived via logistic regression: 1) nuclear household, i.e. living with a spouse only ¨C 1 [reference category], 2) multigenerational households in which a spouse is not present ¨C 4.341, 3) multigenerational households in which a spouse is present ¨C 0.781, and 4) living alone ¨C 3.018. Based on these ratios, we conclude that the traditional model of intergenerational coresidence is not, in itself, associated with less depression. Rather, it is the presence of a sharing spousal in a household (whether single or multigenerational) that protects against elderly depression. Other predictors of depression identified in backward logistic regression included presence of a chronic illness and self assessed wealth status. Additionally, a number of psychosocial variables were identified as independently correlated with depression, but were subsequently selected out by multivariate analysis. These included: educational background, religious affiliation, membership in an organization, attitude toward aging, and family status. Based on this study, we believe that efforts to promote mental wellbeing among today¡¯s Chinese elders should be directed toward psychosocial factors that are modifiable (education, building supportive social networks etc.) rather than insisting on the traditional ideal of multigenerational living and dependence on filial piety.

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-74).

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe female adult children's experiences when they return to the parental home to live, and to develop theory to explain the processes and consequences involved in the return to the parental home. Primary data sources included 1 1/2 hour audiotaped, semi-structured interviews with 15 female adult children who had returned to the parental home to live. Other sources of data included individual and conjoint interviews with parents and daughters from a subset of four families, and field notes about the interviews. Grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, 1998) was used. Transcribed interviews were systematically analyzed to develop a theoretical model, in which the core social and psychological process was labelled "regrouping." In response to life events and personal choices, women return to the parental home to regroup--to recuperate, reenergize, contemplate and pursue lifeplans. Their intention is to enhance personal well-being and to secure a better quality life in the future. Regrouping is embedded in the life context of female adult children's specific life-events and choices, living environments, family and social relationships, and sociocultural scripts -- all conditions that can hinder or facilitate the process. Regrouping is a cyclical rather than a linear process. Female adult children who had returned to the parental home did not experience a simple, uncomplicated linear forward movement towards attaining valued personal goals. Rather, they experienced an oscillating pattern of “faltering” and "advancing" in their efforts to realize valued goals. This experience has implications for the development of a fluctuating sense of self or self-image, the fulfilment of personal goals, the quality of the experience as positive or negative, and for family relations. The contribution of the theoretical model to the literature is the discovery that returning home in adulthood may be a strategy for managing change and transition in one's life and for attaining certain lifespan development tasks (e.g., individuating from parents, establishing a career, and attaining financial security). Implications for counselling practice, and the self-help needs of adults who have returned home to live are noted. Suggestions for facilitating returning adult children's personal development (i.e., clarifying personal goals, weighing the pros and cons of returning and remaining at the parental home, maintaining self-esteem, seeking social support) and facilitating family relations . (i.e, having realistic expectations of parents, being sensitive to mothers, negotiating privacy and boundaries, managing cross-cultural dynamics) are discussed. It is suggested that future research extend the application of the theory to men, as well as more diverse ethnic groups.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the Asian perspective in regard to the intergenerational solidarity framework developed by Bengtson and his colleagues. Focusing on normative solidarity and functional solidarity within Asian families, adult children's provision of assistance to elderly relatives was investigated in relation to norms of filial responsibility. A subsample of 109 employed Asian immigrants in Canada was selected from a national survey of Work and Family conducted by CARNET (The Canadian Aging Research Network). The study tested three hypotheses: 1) stronger norms of filial responsibility (normative solidarity) are positively associated with higher levels and more hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives (functional solidarity); 2) older age at immigration and/or shorter length of residence (immigrant status) are positively associated with higher levels and more hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives (functional solidarity); and 3) there is an interaction effect of norms of filial responsibility and immigrant status on levels and hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives. The results showed that there was no relationship between norms of filial responsibility and the provision of assistance to elderly relatives; nor was there a relationship between immigrant status and the provision of assistance to elderly relatives. Coresidence with the elderly relative, as an alternative measure of norms of filial responsibility in Asian families, was investigated with regard to the provision of assistance to the elderly relative in the post hoc analysis. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between coresidence and higher levels and more hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives.

Criticism surrounding the children of the Gladney family in Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise remains a contested issue. I argue the children and their social environment reflect Lee Edelman’s analysis of the Child figure and its bolstering of reproductive futurism. The Child figure upholds a heteronormative social order that precludes equal rights and social viability for non-normative family structures and those opposed to an inherently conservative ideology. I find the continually evolving family structure elicits new dynamics among its members, offering greater social independence for all, which institutes a stronger familial bond and ensures a greater chance for its vitality. The Gladney family share such a dynamic; this is observed through the specific roles its members perform and the relations among them. Furthermore, I contend the Gladney family represent a model for maintaining group vitality, which is first required for organized political action against our inequitable social order.

Within the context of ongoing social and demographic transformation, including the trend towards globalization, changing patterns of longevity and increasing ethnic diversity, this thesis examines the lives older Asian-Indian immigrants in the United States. To date, much of what little research exists on this group of elders focuses on acculturation and related stress, but there is limited research on the daily life experiences of these older adults, particularly as they pertain to family life, the practice of filial piety, and informal support exchange within their households, as well as their social lives more generally. Informed by two theoretical approaches, Life Course and Symbolic Interactionism, this research examines older immigrants’ social and family lives. The study employs a qualitative approach and involves in-depth semi-structured interviews with 10 older Asian-Indians living in the Atlanta area. To varying degrees, their lives are family-centered. Traditional Indian practices such as filial piety are individualized according to the intersection of American and Indian cultures and family (e.g., structure and history) and personal (e.g., personal resources) influences. Similar influences operate to shape their family and social lives more generally. These findings enhance existing understandings of older immigrants’ lives and illustrate similarities and differences. In doing so, the research provides valuable information that can promote cultural competence for those working with and designing policies and programs for adults in a rapidly aging and increasingly diverse society.

<p>Many older adults in the developing world rely on their adult children for financial, instrumental, and emotional support. The People's Republic of China (PRC), which will experience rapid population aging in the current century, is no exception. Many scholars and policy-makers are concerned that rapid economic, social, and demographic change in China is leading to a decline in traditional support for aging parents. This study examines the impact of family ties and economic resources on the receipt of support and the health of older adults across communities in China at different levels of economic development.</p><p> I analyze data from the 2002 and 2008 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) as well as the 2000 and 2005 1% Chinese Census. Initiated in 1998, the CLHLS interviewed older adults residing in a random sample of counties and cities in 22 provinces and municipalities of China. Additionally, in 2002 a subset of adult children of CLHLS respondents were also interviewed in a separate survey. Furthermore, the 2008-2009 wave collected additional data from middle-aged and older adults residing in specially designated "longevity areas" in China. In addition to the standard questionnaire and health exam, samples of blood and urine were also collected by medical personnel. </p><p> The first empirical chapter of this dissertation examines the association between filial piety/altruism and financial transfers to aging parents from adult children using factor analysis, binary logistic regression, and linear regression. The second paper looks at the socioeconomic-status health gradient using biomarker data among older adults residing in longevity areas using binary logistic regression analysis. The third paper examines both individual-level and community-level determinants of non-normative intergenerational coresidence - living with an adult daughter instead of an adult son-- through multilevel binary logistic models analyzing both survey and census data. </p><p> I find that (1) adult children's attitudes towards filial piety and family values are associated with both presence and amount of financial transfers to older parents, net of controls for adult child's socioeconomic status, parental need, parents' earlier life transfers to children, and whether elderly parents' provide instrumental support to adult children. (2) Similar to previous research in middle-income countries, many biomarkers were not associated with socioeconomic status but those that were demonstrated a reversed gradient - higher socioeconomic status was associated with worse health. (3) Greater numbers of daughters, higher levels of individual socioeconomic status, and residing in a more developed community was associated with greater likelihood of coresidence with adult daughters versus adult sons.</p> / Dissertation