The intent of this study was to examine how perceived aid exchange patterns between mothers and adult children influence the mothers' perception of the quality of their relationship. We also examined how mothers’ characteristics (health, age, and marital status), children's characteristics (marital status and gender), and propinquity were associated with mothers' perceptions of giving and receiving of aid. The types of aid explored were Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Help With the House, Help During Sickness, Advice on Life's Problems, Advice on Decisions, Affection, and Overall Exchange of Aid. Aid patterns were classified as Mother Gave More, Child Gave More, About Equal Exchange, or No Exchange. Data were collected from interviews with 330 mothers, 65 years or older, using a six-stage sample selection process. Perceived relationship quality was significantly different for the four different aid pattern groups in regard to Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Advice on Life's Problems, and Overall Aid. Highest perceived relationship quality was found in those groups in which Child Gave More or in which there was About Equal Exchange. Lowest perceived relationship quality was found for the group Mother Gave More of these four types of aid. Mother's characteristics, child's characteristics, (except gender), and propinquity were not related to relationship quality. Differences in aid patterns were found between mother's health and Gifts Besides Money, Help When Sick, Affection, and Overall Aid; between mother's age and Advice on Life's Problems, Help When Sick, Help With House; between mother's marital status and Advice on Decisions, Help With House; between children's marital status and Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Help With House; between children's gender with Help With House; and between propinquity and Financial Help, Help When Sick, Help With House, Advice on Decisions. / Master of Science

Recent research on the effects of divorce indicates that the relationship between ex-spouses is a critical factor in the postdivorce adjustment of mothers, fathers, and children. In this study, guided by General Systems Theory and Ecological Theory, data from 225 divorced fathers was used to explore a set of selected variables which were predicted to affect the quality of their coparental relationships with former spouses. A standard multiple regression analysis revealed that a substantial amount of the variance in coparental relationships was explained by five of the eleven variables under investigation. Fathers who reported a positive coparental relationship with their ex-wives were 1) more satisfied with their custody arrangements, 2) more likely to blame themselves for the breakup of their marriage, 3) discussed fewer topics with their exwives, 4) had higher educational levels, and 5) had greater feelings of closeness to their children predivorce. Implications of the findings for future research and policy are discussed. / Master of Science

This study investigated the adult child's role as a provider of social support to divorced parents. Each of the 230 randomly-selected individuals participating in the survey had been divorced after 19 or more years of marriage and had at least one child over age 18. Participants ranged in age from 36 to 72 and had been married an average of 28 years prior to divorce. Respondents were asked to indicate the types and amounts of support provided by children in two major areas: instrumental aid (e.g., advice, services, financial assistance) and socioemotional aid. The pattern of support varied according to sex of the parent and the sex of the child. Mothers received significantly more support than fathers in all four categories: advice, services, financial assistance, and socioemotional aid. Sons and daughters did not differ significantly with regard to frequency of provision of advice or financial aid. However, sons provided significantly more services, and daughters provided significantly more socioemotional aid. Circumstances connected with filial provision of support--opportunity, parental expectation of aid, parental financial need, parental health and morale, competing role responsibilities of the child, and quality of the parent-child relationship--were analyzed. Multiple regression was used to specify the relationship between total support received and seven independent variables: frequency of contact, sex of respondent, emotional closeness, filial expectations, frequency of telephoning, sidetaking-behavior, and financial strain. These variables explained 52% of the variance in total support. Mothers were more likely than fathers to rank children as the most helpful source of support during the divorce process: 42.6% of mothers, as compared to 18.3% of fathers ranked children as the most helpful. Mothers ranked children higher than all other sources of support; fathers, on the other hand, ranked their friends and their parents ahead of their children with respect to support provided during the divorce period. / Ph. D.

In this study I proposed and tested a causal model between disruptions in childhood attachment, dimensions of adult attachment, and caregiving in later life. The research was intended to fill a void in both the attachment and the gerontological caregiving literatures. Like the construct of attachment, John Bowlby conceptualized caregiving as an expression of a specific underlying behavioral control system. He and subsequent attachment theorists proposed caregiving quality to be the most critical determinant of both attachment and subsequent personality and emotional development. Gerontologists have studied caregiving from an exchange, equity, and symbolic interactionist perspectives but in general, theory has been underutilized and underdeveloped. This study provides an alternative theoretical perspective. With it’s multidisciplinary origins, attachment theory provides a framework for integrating research on seemingly disparate topics. An interdisciplinary linkage is begun by placing caregiving within the perspective of the lifespan development of prosocial behavior. The sample (N=3,848) consisted of respondents aged 50 to 95 years, from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a national multistage probability sample. A series of regressions were used to test the explanatory model. Model variables included respondents’ psychosocial characteristics: sex, age, number of childhood separations from mother, current symbolic and physical proximity to mother, adult relationship with mother, emotional support, marital relationship, physical and mental disability, and income. In order to assess propensity for caregiving, the criterion variable was operationalized as number of care recipients per respondent. The variables that accounted for a statistically significant amount of variation in caregiving were maternal proximity, and respondent's age, in that order. Contrary to the predictions, sex, emotional support, marital status, income, and disability level, were not related to caregiving. These findings suggest people may be motivated to provide care not simply by structural factors but by developmental needs with some underlying and unknown physiological component. These results warrant further study of how the dimensions of proximity to multiple attachment figures, and developmental age affect caregiving and attachment behaviors. / Ph. D.

Submitted if fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand, 2003. / The sole purpose of this research is to determine the effects of divorce in a South African Community with specific reference to Esikhawini Area in Kwazulu-Natal. The effect that divorce has on both parents and children is that, it is fearful and insecure with loyalty conflicts. In South Africa however the high divorce rate has just escalated greatly and this has an effect on government funds because the government is supposed to control the family structure and a fixed budget for children support services for the abandoned children or unemployed mothers. Furthermore there is a great need for counselling services for children at Esikhawini since, there are problems of juvenile delinquency, deviant behavior and school drop outs. Our country's divorce rate is an indication of the quality of our family life. Social workers and psychologists provide the divorce court with the back ground information or reports especially where there are children involved. Children of divorced parents show an increase in dependancy over time and exhibited less sustained play then children of intact families. Children need emotional, physical, moral and financial support which are usually provided by the different organizations for example church, helpful community members and welfare agencies from the government. The state has an obligation to support divorced parents and abandoned children by introducing the divorce therapy programmes in order to reduce hatred, anger and depression to those who are affected. Welfare agencies and day care centers are available in Esikhawini Department of Welfare and pension. The researcher has consulted the records at Ongoye Magistrate's Institutions such as those of social workers, maintenance court and find out that there is a huge number of divorce cases reported to them by the victims of divorce. The study explores and describes the effects of divorce with reference to Esikhawini area of Empangeni. It also explores if children are informed about the pending divorce as well as arrangements made concerning the visits by parents who loose the custody of the children. Counselling should not be omitted per - se in due to the fact that it plays a significant role in the building up of the individuals self esteem or helplessness. The population under study is caught between the traditional and the modem standard of living because of social changes. The first chapter, which is mainly introductory serves as an eye-opener for the thesis. The researcher succinctly shows in that chapter, that the effects of divorce might affect the child's academic performance and so many other aspects of life. The researcher continues to state what motivated him to carry out the study. A statement of the problem, the historical background of the place under study, the aims and objectives of the stud}', die hypothesis. the methodology are outlined. Chapter two presents the scholarship review of the study. Chapter three focuses on the methods that was used to obtain results from the respondents. In the same manner, chapter four focuses on the interpretation of data obtained after the respondents had answered the questionnaires. Chapter five gives the recommendations and also a brief conclusion that sums up the argument of the thesis. This study has explained and described divorce as an act which affects the lower and higher socio-economic residents of Esikhawini. The study also came up with the assumption that divorce occurs more to couples staying with the extended family than to couples staying alone and this assumption was tested and confirmed by the study. The conclusion also sums up the findings of the study that this population lives the modern style of life.

Based on the above findings and the preliminary theoretical framework, resource mobilizing and responsibility boundary is input to construct the support model of foster family. The characteristic of social support in substitute family is concluded. Recommendation about foster care policy and services is also provided. / Based on the review of literatures of foster care and social support, a preliminary theoretical framework is constructed. The important findings include: (l) The support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents is influenced by foster care service center and the natural family information of foster adolescents. Different foster families have different affection boundary and responsibility boundary. The boundary of support is constructed differently. Four types of support relationship is found: Totally Inclusive Supporting, Totally Exclusive Supporting, Semi Exclusive Supporting, and Passive Supporting. (2) In the support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents, foster families mobilize all kinds of family resources and outer resources to provide support to foster adolescents in living care, education, eliminating discrimination, development plan. (3) The support type of foster family is changing continuously. If the affection boundary and the responsibility boundary do not match with each other, the support relationship is not stable, or conflict with each other, and even collapse. / Since the 1990s, in the context of socialization of social welfare in China, the modern family foster care began to develop in China. This study is conducted in Shanghai, China. Qualitative research method is adopted. 16 foster adolescents and their foster families participate in this study. The aims of the study include exploring the support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents, researching the process of foster family's support to foster adolescents, finding the development of the support types, filling in the gaps of foster care study in China, expanding the study of social support in substitute family, advocating the foster care policy and services in China. / 王玥. / Advisers: Ngan-pun Ngai; Sek-yum Ngai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 376-391). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Wang Yue.

A descriptive study was conducted to investigate the adoption experience within the family. Adoptive families who participated in this study were assumed to be a relatively heterogeneous sample of the target population - families with at least one adopted child who had been adopted early in life, and who was presently 14-18 years of age. Thirteen adoptive families participated in the study. Qualitative data regarding each individual's perception of the adoption experience was obtained through semi-structured interviews. Each participant also completed the Family Environment Scale (Moos, 1974), which was used as a descriptive measure only. Data from the interviews underwent a qualitative data analysis to arrive at the themes and patterns that described the adoptee's and the adoptive parents' experiences. Parent-child perceptual discrepancies were also analysed to assess the similarities and the differences in family perceptions regarding the adoption experience. Conclusions that can be drawn based on the results of the qualitative analysis is that adoptive families appear to be vulnerable to problems during the adolescent stage of the family life cycle because of the adoptee's emerging curiosity and the problems of openly communicating these concerns within the family. Results from this study also point to the need for adopting couples to receive education regarding the role of adoptive parenthood, and counsellors who work with adoptive families should be aware of when the factors of adoption can contribute to family difficulties and dysfunction / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Attitudes toward the elderly were examined in three generations through analysis of media use, gender, contact with elderly, age, factual knowledge about aging, and parental influence on attitude formation. The results revealed that age, factual knowledge, perceived ageism in mass media and parental influence were significantly related to attitude toward the elderly.

Examing the antecedents and outcomes of elder care based work-family conflict, - presenting family interference with work and work interference with family as major components.

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of foster care services on Hispanic/Latino foster mothers' marital relationship.