1. SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN LATE ADULTHOOD
Chapter 18
SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN LATE ADULTHOOD
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Learning Objectives
LO 18-1 In what ways does personality develop during late adulthood?
LO 18-2 How do people deal with aging?
LO 18-3 In what circumstances do older people live, and what difficulties do they face?
LO 18-4 What is it like to retire?
LO 18-5 How do marriages in late adulthood fare?
LO 18-6 What happens when an elderly spouse dies?
LO 18-7 What sorts of relationships are important in late adulthood?
Explain: These are the questions we will consider as we finish our study of late adulthood.

3. PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT AND SUCCESSFUL AGING

4. Personality Development and Successful Aging
Personality change depends on specific personality characteristics What do you think these are?

5. Continuity and Change in Personality
Fundamental continuity to personality
Profound social environmental changes throughout adulthood may produce fluctuations and changes in personality
Some discontinuities in development
Despite this general stability of basic personality traits, there is still the possibility of change over time.
What is important to a person at age 80 is not necessarily the same as what was important at age 40.

6. Discontinuities of Development: What Do Theorists Say?
Changes in personality occur as a result of new challenges in later adulthood.
Erik Erikson
Robert Peck
Daniel Levinson
Bernice Neugarten

7. Erik Erikson Ego-integrity-versus despair
Process of looking back over one's life, evaluating it, and coming to terms with it
Integrity
Comes when people feel they have realized and fulfilled the possibilities that have come their way
Despair
Occurs when people feel dissatisfied with their life, and experience gloom, unhappiness, depression, anger, or the feeling that they have failed
Stage begins when the individual experiences a sense of mortality.
This may be in response to retirement, the death of a spouse or close friends, or may simply result from changing social roles.
No matter what the cause, this sense of mortality precipitates the final life crisis.
The final life crisis manifests itself as a review of the individual1s life-career.
Individuals review their life-career to determine if it was a success or failure.
Reminiscence or introspection is most productive when experienced with significant others.
Outcome of this life-career reminiscence can be either positive or negative.
Ego integrity is the result of the positive resolution of the final life crisis. Ego integrity is viewed as the key to harmonious personality development; the individual views their whole of life with satisfaction and contentment. The ego quality that emerges from a positive resolution is wisdom. Erikson (1982) defines wisdom as a kind of "informed and detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself" (p. 61).
Conversely, despair is the result of the negative resolution or lack of resolution of the final life crisis. This negative resolution manifests itself as a fear of death, a sense that life is too short, and depression.

8. Robert Peck
Personality development in elderly people is occupied by three major developmental tasks or challenges
Redefinition of self-versus-preoccupation-with-work-role
Body-transcendence-versus-body-preoccupation
Ego-transcendence-versus-ego-preoccupation
First task in old age is that people must redefine themselves in ways that do not relate to their work-roles or occupations. People must adjust their values to place less emphasis on themselves as workers or professionals and more on attributes that don't involve work, such as being a grandparent or a gardener.
In second major developmental task in late adulthood, elderly individuals can undergo significant changes in their physical capabilities as a result of aging. In the body transcendence versus body preoccupation stage, people must learn to cope with and move beyond those physical changes (transcendence).
In third developmental task, elderly people must come to grips with their coming death and understand that although death is inevitable, and probably not too far off, they have made contributions to society. If people in late adulthood see these contributions, they will experience ego transcendence. If not, they may become preoccupied with the question of whether their lives had value and worth to society.

9. Daniel Levinson
People enter late adulthood by passing through transition stage
View themselves as being “old”
Recognize stereotypes and loss of power and respect
Serve as resources to younger individuals
Discover new freedom to do things for simple sake of enjoyment and pleasure
People come to view themselves as entering late adulthood—or, ultimately, as being “old.” Knowing full well what society's stereotypes about elderly individuals are, and how negative they can be, people struggle with the notion that they are now in this category.
According to Levinson, with age people come to realize that they are no longer on the center stage of life, but are increasingly playing bit parts. This loss of power, respect, and authority may be difficult for individuals accustomed to having control in their lives.
On the other hand, people in late adulthood can serve as resources to younger individuals, and they may find themselves regarded as “venerated elders” whose advice is sought and relied upon. Furthermore, old age can bring with it a new freedom to do things for the simple sake of the enjoyment and pleasure they bring, rather than because they are obligations.

10. Bernice Neugarten
Four different personality types in people in their 70s
Disintegrated and disorganized
Passive-dependent personalities
Defended personalities
Integrated personalities
Disintegrated and disorganized personalities. Some people are unable to accept aging, and they experience despair as they get older. They are often found in nursing homes or are hospitalized.
Passive-dependent personalities. Others become fearful with age—fear of falling ill, fear of the future, fear of their own inability to cope. They are so fearful that they may seek out help from family and care providers, even when they don't need it.
Defended personalities. Others respond to the fear of aging in a quite different manner. They try to stop it in its tracks. They may attempt to act young, exercising vigorously, and engaging in youthful activities. Unfortunately, they may set up unrealistic expectations for themselves and run the risk of feeling disappointed as a result.
Integrated personalities. The most successful individuals cope comfortably with aging. They accept becoming older and maintain a sense of self dignity.
Neugarten found that the majority of the people she studied fell into the final category. They acknowledged aging and were able to look back at their lives and gaze into the future with acceptance.

11. Life Review and Reminiscence
Common Theme of Personality Development
Triggered by increasingly obvious prospect of one's death
Provides better understanding of past
Resolves lingering problems and conflicts
Leads to sense of sharing, mutuality, and feeling of interconnectedness with others
Life review, in which people examine and evaluate their lives, is a common theme for most personality theorists who focus on late adulthood.
Reminiscence may even have cognitive benefits, improving memory in older people. By reflecting on the past, people activate a variety of memories about people and events in their lives. In turn, these memories may trigger other, related memories, and may bring back sights, sounds, and even smells of the past.
Process of life review and reminiscence can play an important role in ongoing lives of elderly individuals. It provides continuity between past and present, and may increase awareness of the contemporary world. It also can provide new insights into past and into others, allowing people to continue personality growth and to function more effectively in present.

12. Age Stratification Approaches to Late Adulthood
Suggest that economic resources, power, and privilege are distributed unequally at different stages of the life course
Age stratification theories suggest that economic resources, power, and privilege are distributed unequally among people at different stages of the life course. Such inequality is particularly pronounced during late adulthood.
Age stratification theories help explain why aging is viewed more positively in less industrialized societies.

13. What else?
Power and prestige for elderly have eroded in industrialized societies
Rapidly changing technology causes older adults to be seen as lacking important skills
Older adults are seen as non-productive members of society and in some cases simply irrelevant

14. Does age bring wisdom? Ask: Why or why not? What then is wisdom?
Wisdom—expert knowledge in the practical aspects of life—has, until recent years, received little attention from gerontologists and other researchers.

15. Developmental Diversity
Cultural differences in the way the elderly are treated are often exaggerated
Eskimos do not leave their elderly to die on ice floes
Chinese revere old age but there is great individual variation

16. Cultures that revere old age have several things in common
Homogeneous in socioeconomic terms
Control of finances by older adults
Continued engagement in socially valued activities
Organized around extended families
Homogeneous in socioeconomic terms and elderly control finances
Older adults continue to engage in activities that are valued by society
Tend to be organized around extended families

17. Things to Consider
Wisdom reflects accumulation of knowledge, experience, and contemplation
Wisdom is not the same as intelligence
Primary distinction is related to timing:
While knowledge that is derived from intelligence is related to the here-and-now, wisdom is a more timeless quality.
While intelligence may permit a person to think logically and systematically, wisdom provides an understanding of human behavior.

18. Staudinger and Baltes Study
Older participants benefited more from experimental condition designed to promote wise thinking
Older adults appear to be able to draw on a more sophisticated theory of mind
Other research suggests that very wisest individuals may be older adults.

19. Successful Aging Secrets: Three major approaches
Disengagement theory
Gradual retreat
Activity theory
Continued involvement
Continuity theory
Compromise position
Overview
Disengagement theory suggests that successful aging is characterized by gradual withdrawal.
Activity theory argues that successful aging occurs when people maintain their engagement with the world.
Continuity theory takes a compromise position, suggesting that what is important is maintaining a desired level of involvement.

20. Disengagement Theory: Gradual Retreat
Late adulthood involves gradual withdrawal from world on physical, psychological, and social levels
Withdrawal is a mutual process and not necessarily negative
Levels
On a physical level, elderly people have lower energy levels and tend to slow down progressively.
Psychologically, they begin to withdraw from others, showing less interest in the world around them and spending more time looking inward.
On a social level, they engage in less interaction with others, in terms of both day-to-day, face-to-face encounters and participation in society as a whole. Older adults also become less involved and invested in the lives of others.
Outcomes of disengagement are largely positive.
According to this view, the gradual withdrawal of people in late adulthood permits them to become more reflective about their own lives and less constrained by social roles
People can become more discerning in their social relationships, focusing on those who best meet their needs. Disengagement can be liberating.
Decreased emotional investment in others can be viewed as beneficial. By investing less emotional energy in their social relationships with others, people in late adulthood are better able to adjust to the increasing frequency of serious illness and death among their peers.

21. Activity Theory: Continued Involvement
Happiness and satisfaction from high level of involvement
Adaptation to inevitable changes
Continuing/replacing previous activities
Early findings were consistent with disengagement theory, later research was not supportive.
And sometimes happier—than those who showed signs of disengagement. Furthermore, in many non-Western cultures, people remain engaged, active, and busy throughout old age, and the expectation is that people will remain actively involved in everyday life.
Activity theory suggests that successful aging occurs when people maintain the interests and activities they pursued during middle age and resist any decrease in the amount and type of social interaction they have with others.
Specific nature and quality of the activities in which people engage are likely to be more critical than the mere quantity or frequency of their activities.
Some people view the ability to moderate their pace as one of the bounties of late adulthood. For them, a relatively inactive, and perhaps even solitary, existence is welcomed.

22. And so…
Neither disengagement theory nor activity theory provides a complete picture of successful aging
Ask: What do YOU think is the best description? Why?
Say: Let's take a look at a compromise position.

23. Continuity Theory: A Compromise Position
People need to maintain their desired level of involvement in society to maximize their sense of well-being and self-esteem
Regardless of activity level, most older adults experience positive emotions as frequently as younger individuals
Good physical and mental health is important in determining overall sense of well-being
Continuity theory suggests that people simply need to maintain their desired level of involvement in society in order to maximize their sense of well-being and self-esteem.
Highly active and social people will be happiest if they largely remain so. Those more retiring individuals, who enjoy solitude and solitary interests, will be happiest if they are free to pursue that level of sociability.
Old age can influence their happiness and satisfaction. Those who view late adulthood in terms of positive are apt to perceive themselves in a more positive light than those who view old age in a more pessimistic and unfavorable way.

24. Selective Optimization with Compensation
According to the model proposed by Paul Baltes and Margret Baltes, successful aging occurs when an older adult focuses on his or her most important areas of areas.
Is this unique to old age?
(Source: Based on Baltes & Baltes, 1990.)
Selective optimization is the process by which people concentrate on particular skill areas to compensate for losses in other areas. They do this by seeking to fortify their general
Older people overcome changes and losses in old age by concentrating on particular skill areas to compensate for losses in other areas.
Although late adulthood may bring about various changes in underlying capabilities, people who focus on making the most of their achievements in particular areas may well be able to compensate for any limitations and losses that do occur.
The outcome is a life that is reduced in some areas, but is also transformed and modified and, ultimately, is effective and successful.

25. Review and Apply REVIEW
While some aspects of personality remain _____, others change to reflect the _____ _____through which people pass as they age.
Erikson calls older adulthood the ____ ____ ____ ____stage, focusing on individuals’ feeling about their lives, while Peck focuses on ____ tasks that define the period.
According to Levinson, after struggling with the notion of being old, people can experience ____ and ____ ____
Neugarten focuses on the ways people ____ ____ ____.
stable; social environments
ego integrity versus despair; three
liberation; self regard
cope with aging
Age stratification

26. Review and Apply REVIEW
____ ____theories suggest that the unequal distribution of economic resources, power, and privilege becomes particularly pronounced during late adulthood.
Societies in which elderly people are respected are generally characterized by ____ ____, ____ families, responsible roles for older people, and control of significant resources by ____ people.
Disengagement theory suggests that older people gradually ____ from the world, which can lead to ____ and ____.
In contrast, ____ theory suggests that the happiest people continue to be engaged with the world.
stable; social environments
ego integrity versus despair; three
liberation; self regard
cope with aging
Age stratification

27. The most successful model for aging may be ____ ____ ____ ____.
Review and Apply
REVIEW
A compromise position—that of ____ theory—may be the most useful approach to successful aging.
The most successful model for aging may be ____ ____ ____ ____.
social homogeniety; extended; older
withdraw; reflection; satisfaction
activity
continuity
selective optimization with compensation

28. Review and Apply
APPLY
How might personality traits account for success or failure in achieving satisfaction through the life review process?
Have a sense of humor about your own cohort. Students like knowing that you know you are in a different cohort.

29. THE DAILY LIFE OF LATE ADULTHOOD

30. Places and Spaces Living at Home Specialized Living Environments
Continuing-care community
Assisted living
Nursing institutions
Adult day care
Skilled nursing
Although it is true that some people finish their lives in nursing homes, they are a tiny minority—only 5 percent. Most people live out their entire lives in home environments, typically in the company of at least one other family member.
People over 65 represent a quarter of America's 9.6 million single-person households. Roughly two-thirds of people over the age of 65 live with other members of the family. In most cases they live with spouses. Some older adults live with their siblings, and others live in multigenerational settings with their children, grandchildren, and even occasionally great-grandchildren.
The consequences of living with a family member are quite varied, depending on the nature of the setting.
For married couples, living with a spouse represents continuity with earlier life. On the other hand, for people who move in with their children, the adjustment to life in a multigenerational setting can be jarring. Not only is there a potential loss of independence and privacy, but older adults may feel uncomfortable with the way their children are raising their grandchildren.
Living in extended families is more typical than for other groups.
For some 10 percent of those in late adulthood, home is an institution.
Continuing care: all the residents are of retirement age or older; fairly homogeneous in terms of religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, and they are often organized by private or religious organizations; tend to be relatively well-off financially.
Continuing-care communities are making efforts to raise the level of diversity; attempting to increase opportunities for intergenerational interaction by establishing day care centers on the premises and developing programs that involve younger populations.
Adult day-care facilities, elderly individuals receive care only during the day, but spend nights and weekends in their own homes.
Skilled-nursing facilities, which provide full-time nursing care for people who have chronic illnesses or are recovering from a temporary medical condition.

31. Living in Nursing Homes
Greater the extent of nursing home care = greater adjustment required of residents
Loss of independence brought about by institutional life may lead to difficulties
Elderly people are as susceptible to society's stereotypes about nursing homes

32. Where do you hope to spend the last days of your life?
Ask: Where do you hope to spend the last days of your life?
What are you doing NOW to optimize the chances that this will happen?

33. I think I can, I think I can…or can I?
Institutionalism and Learned Helplessness
Institutionalism
Learned helplessness
Institutionalism, a psychological state in which people develop apathy, indifference, and a lack of caring about themselves.
Institutionalism is brought about, in part, by a sense of learned helplessness, a belief that one has no control over one's environment.
Sense of helplessness brought about by institutionalism can literally have deadly consequences.

34. Consequences of Loss of Control in Nursing Home Care
Profound effect on their well-being
Can you think of any of these effects?

35. Economics of Late Adulthood
People who were well-off in young adulthood remain so in late adulthood
Those who were poor remain poor in late adulthood
Overall, 10 percent of people age 65 and older live in poverty, a proportion that is quite close to that for people less than age 65.
There are significant differences in gender and racial groups.

36. Poverty and the Elderly
Women are almost twice as likely as men to be living in poverty.
Of those elderly women living alone, around one-fourth live on incomes below the poverty line. A married woman may also slip into poverty if she becomes widowed, for she may have used up savings to pay for her husband's final illness, and the husband's pension may cease with his death.
While 10 percent of those 65 years of age and older live in poverty, women are almost twice as likely as men to be living poverty. (Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2005.)

37. Other Differences Related to Poverty
Racial and marital variables
8 percent of whites in late adulthood live below the poverty level
19 percent of Hispanics and 24 percent of African Americans live in poverty
Divorced black women aged 65 to 74 had a poverty rate of 47 percent

38. Financial Vulnerability in Older Adulthood
Reliance on a fixed income for support
Social Security benefits
Pensions, and savings, rarely keeps up with inflation
Rising cost of health care
Ask: How much SS does a 67 year old retiree earn today? Where would you go to find out if you wanted to help a family member?

39. Work and Retirement Retirement is major decision Social Security
Part-time employment
Mandatory retirement
When to retire is a major decision faced by the majority of people in late adulthood.
Typical retirement age is moving downward to age 60.
Social Security and pensions allow people to retire earlier.
A disincentive is built into Social Security by having workers taxed at higher rates on both Social Security and earnings.
Many people continue to work full- or part-time for some part of late adulthood.
Mandatory retirement is illegal (since the 1970s) with the exception of certain public safety jobs such as police, firefighters, prison guards, and pilots.
The retirement decision is based on a number of factors.
Workers may be burned out after working all their lives.
Jobs can be frustrating and tension-filled.
Health may decline.
Incentives are offered by their company to retire early.
Desire to travel and see more of family.

40. Other Questions to Consider
Besides finances, what do you think are some important factors in deciding on the right time to retire?
What factors might contribute to the specific retirement path a given person takes?

41. Some employers..
Encourage older workers to leave their jobs in order to replace them with younger employees whose salaries will be considerably lower
Believe older workers are not up to demands of the job or are less willing to adapt to a changing workplace
Legislation that was passed in the late 1970s, in which mandatory retirement ages were made illegal in almost every profession. Part of broader legislation that makes age discrimination illegal, these laws gave most workers the opportunity either to remain in jobs they held previously or to begin working in entirely different fields.
Market forces may help reduce its severity. As baby boomers retire and the workforce drastically shrinks, companies may begin to offer incentives to older adults to either remain in the workforce or to return to it after they have retired.

42. Retirement decision based on variety of factors
Burnout
Health concerns
Employer incentives
Desire to travel, study, or spend more time with family
According to Atchley, people pass through stages in the process of retirement.
At first there is a honeymoon period, in which former workers engage in a variety of activities, such as travel, that were previously hindered by full-time work.
Disenchantment may occur when retirees conclude that retirement is not all they thought it would be.
Reorientation is the stage where retirees reconsider their options and become engaged in new, more fulfilling activities.
A retirement routine stage occurs when retirees come to grips with the realities of retirement and feel fulfilled in this new phase of life.
The final stage is the process of termination where the retiree either goes back to work or health deteriorates so badly that the person can no longer function independently.
Not everyone passes through each stage and the sequence is not universal.

43. Atchley & Barusch: Stages
Honeymoon period
Disenchantment
Reorientation
Retirement routines
Termination
According to Atchley, people pass through stages in the process of retirement.
At first there is a honeymoon period, in which former workers engage in a variety of activities, such as travel, that were previously hindered by full-time work.
Dsenchantment may occur when retirees conclude that retirement is not all they thought it would be.
Reorientation is the stage where retirees reconsider their options and become engaged in new, more fulfilling activities.
A retirement routine stage occurs when retirees come to grips with the realities of retirement and feel fulfilled in this new phase of life.
The final stage is the process of termination where the retiree either goes back to work or health deteriorates so badly that the person can no longer function independently.
Not everyone passes through each stage and the sequence is not universal.

44. Stages of Retirement

45. Planning For—and Living—a Good Retirement
Plan ahead financially
Consider tapering off from work gradually
Explore interests before retirement
If you are married or in a long-term partnership, spend some time discussing views of ideal retirement with partner
Consider where you want to live
Determine advantages and disadvantages of downsizing your current home.
Plan to volunteer your time
Factors related to success:
Plan ahead financially. Because most financial experts suggest that Social Security pensions will be inadequate in the future, personal savings are critical. Similarly, having adequate health care insurance is essential.
Consider tapering off from work gradually. Sometimes it is possible to enter into retirement by shifting from full-time to part-time work. Such a transition may be helpful in preparing for eventual full-time retirement.
Explore your interests before you retire. Assess what you like about your current job and think how that might be translated into leisure activities.
If you are married or in a long-term partnership, spend some time discussing your views of the ideal retirement with your partner. You may find that you need to negotiate a vision that will suit you both.
Consider where you want to live. Try out, temporarily, a community to which you are thinking of moving.
Determine the advantages and disadvantages of downsizing your current home.
Plan to volunteer your time. People who retire have an enormous wealth of skills, and these are often needed by nonprofit organizations and small businesses. Organizations such as the Retired Senior Volunteer Program or the Foster Grandparent Program can help match your skills with people who need them.

46. REVIEW Review and Apply
Elderly people live in a ____ of settings, although ____ live at home with a family member.
____ issues can trouble older people, largely because their incomes are ____, health care costs are ____, and the life span is ____.
People may pass through stages, including a ____ period, ____, ____, ____ ____, and ____, as the adjust to retirement.
variety; most
Financial; fixed; increasing; lengthening
honeymoon; disenchantment; reorientation; retirement routine; termination

47. Review and Apply
APPLY
Based on research on successful aging, what advice would you give someone who is nearing retirement?
See page 623 in the text

48. RELATIONSHIPS: OLD AND NEW

49. Marriage in Later Years: Together, Then Alone
It's a man's world—at least when it comes to marriage after the age of 65.
The proportion of men who are married is far greater than that of women.
One reason for this disparity is that 70 percent of women outlive their husbands by at least a few years.
Because there are fewer men available (many have died), these women are unlikely to remarry.

50. Stress of Retirement
Stress of retirement or old age may change relationship
2 percent of divorces in the U. S. involve women over 60
Husband may be abusive or alcoholic
Husband may find a younger woman
Divorce is harder on women than men
5 percent of the elderly never married and late adulthood brings fewer changes to their lives

51. Refashioned Relationships
For many couples, retirement means that relationships need to be renegotiated
More time together
More sharing in household chores
Role reversals
Health changes
Couples spend more time together.
Provides an opportunity for sharing household chores.
Men become more affiliative and less competitive and women become more assertive and autonomous.
Shifts in health mean that in late adulthood men and women may have to care for an ill spouse.
May provide closeness and a sense of fulfillment.
The caregiver may not be in good health either.
In most cases, the caregiver is the wife.

52. Caring for an Aging Spouse
Wide variety of reactions
Positive
Negative
Women more likely to provide care
Men die earlier
Traditional gender role of “caregiver”
Wide variety of reactions
Feel great frustration and even despair
View caring for an ailing and dying spouse in more positive light, regarding it in part as a final opportunity to demonstrate love and devotion
Feel quite satisfied as a result of fulfilling what they see as their responsibility to their spouse
Find initial experience emotionally distressful but distress declines as they successfully adapt to stress of care giving
In most cases, caregiver is wife.
Just under three-quarters of people who provide care to a spouse are women.
Part of the reason is demographic: Men tend to die earlier than women, and consequently they contract the diseases leading to death earlier than women.
A second reason, though, relates to society's traditional gender roles, which view women as “natural” caregivers. As a consequence, health care providers may be more likely to suggest that a wife care for her husband than that a husband care for his wife.

53. Death of Spouse Few events are more painful than death of spouse
No longer part of a couple
Must deal with profound grief
No one to share life with and social life often changes
Economic changes often occur

54. Process of Adjustment to Widowhood
Stages of widowhood adjustment
In the first stage, preparation, spouses prepare for the eventual death of the partner.
The second stage, grief and mourning, is an immediate reaction to the death of a spouse.
May last years or months.
Length depends on the degree of support and personality factors.
The last stage is adaptation, where the widowed individual starts a new life.
These stages do not apply to everyone.
It is important to keep in mind that this three-stage model of loss and change does not apply to everyone. Furthermore, the timing of the various stages in the model differs substantially from one person to the next. Still, for most people, life returns to normal and becomes enjoyable once again.
Do you think the process of adjustment is identical for men and women? (Source: Based on Heinemann & Evans, 1990.)

55. Social Activity in Late Adulthood
Elderly people enjoy friends as much as younger people do, and friendships play an important role in the lives of those in late adulthood.
Time spent with friends is often valued more highly during late adulthood than time spent with family, and friends are often seen as more important providers of support than family members.
Around a third of older persons report that they made a new friend within the past year, and many older adults engage in significant interaction.
Friends and family play an important role in the social activities of the elderly.

56. Why do friends matter? Friendships in late adulthood:
Allow older adults more control about whom to include in a friendship
May be more flexible than family ties
Relate to increasing likelihood, over time, that one will be without marital partner
Because late adulthood may bring with it a gradual loss of control in other areas, such as in one's health, the ability to maintain friendships may take on more importance than in other stages of life.

57. Social Support
Social support is assistance and comfort supplied by another person or a network of caring, interested people
Important for successful aging
Sympathy and empathy
Can help furnish material support such as solve problems, give a ride, or fix broken things
Dogs can be especially good at providing social support

58. Social Support: Significance of Others
Benefits for Recipient
Sympathetic ear and sounding board for one's concerns
Unmatched degree of understanding and a pool of helpful suggestions from like other
Material support
Benefits for Provider
Experience feelings of usefulness and heightened self-esteem
Social support is assistance and comfort supplied by a network of caring, interested people. Such support plays a critical role in successful aging.

59. Family Relationships: The Ties That Bind
Connections important
Siblings, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren provide an important source of comfort to adults in last years of their lives
Siblings are important because of shared life
Children often most important

60. Developmental Stake
Parents see their children as perpetuating their beliefs, values, and standards
Most parents and children remain close
75 percent of children live within a 30-mile drive to their parents
Daughters tend to be in more frequent contact than sons
Mothers tend to be the recipient of communication more than fathers
Children may turn to their elderly parents for advice, information, and monetary help
Parents often have a greater developmental stake in close ties because they see their children as perpetuating their beliefs, values, and standards.
Most parents and children remain close.
75 percent of children live within a 30-mile drive to their parents.
Daughters tend to be in more frequent contact than sons.
Mothers tend to be the recipient of communication more than fathers.
Children may turn to their elderly parents for advice, information, and monetary help.

61. Views of Parents and Children Regarding Behavior of Adult Children Toward Parents

62. Grandparenting Grandparents
Not all grandparents are equally involved with their grandchildren
Gender differences in behaviors and reactions of grandparents and grandchildren
Ethnic differences in grandparenting
Grandmothers tend to be more involved with their grandchildren than grandfathers; similarly, there are gender differences in the feelings grandchildren have toward their grandparents.
Most young adult grandchildren feel closer to their grandmothers than to their grandfathers.
Most express a preference for their maternal grandmothers over their paternal grandmothers.
African American grandparents tend to be more involved with their grandchildren than white grandparents, and African American grandchildren often feel closer to their grandparents.
Moreover, grandfathers seem to play a more central role in the lives of African American children than in the lives of white children.
The reason for these racial differences probably stems in large measure from the higher proportion of multigenerational families among African Americans than among whites. In such families, grandparents usually play a central role in childrearing.

63. When Grandparents Are Great!
Great-grandparents
Play less of a role in the lives of both white and African American grandchildren
Close relationships tend to occur only when the great-grandparents and great-grandchildren live relatively near one another
Ask: Why do you think this happens?
One is that by the time they reach great-grandparenthood, elderly adults are so old that they do not have much physical or psychological energy to expend on forming relationships with their great-grandchildren.
Another is that there may be so many great-grandchildren that great-grandparents do not feel strong emotional ties to them.
It is not uncommon for a great-grandparent who has had a large number of children to have so many great-grandchildren that they are difficult to keep track of.
Even though most great-grandparents may not have close relationships with their great-grandchildren, they still profit emotionally from the mere fact that they have great-grandchildren.

64. Elder Abuse
Physical or psychological mistreatment or neglect of elderly individuals
May affect as many as 11 percent of elderly
Is most frequently committed by family member
Often result of combination of economic, psychological, and social pressures on caregivers
Best approach for dealing with abuse is prevention

65. REVIEW Review and Apply
While marriages in older adulthood are generally ____, stresses due to aging can bring ____.
Retirement often requires a reworking of ____ ____ within the marriage.
The death of a ____ brings highly significant psychological, social, and material changes to the ____.
happy; divorce
power relationship
spouse; survivor

66. REVIEW Review and Apply
Friendships are very important in later life, providing ____ ____ and companionship from ____ who are likely to ____ the older adult's feelings and problems.
Family relationships are a ____ part of most older people's lives, especially relationships with ____ and ____.
Elder abuse typically involves a ____ ____ elderly parent in poor health and a ____ who feels burdened by the parent.
social support; peers; understand
continuing; siblings; children
socially isolated; caregiver

67. Review and Apply
APPLY
What are some ways the retirement of a spouse can bring stress to a marriage?
Is retirement likely to be less stressful in households where both spouses work, or twice as stressful?
See page 633 in the text

68. EPILOGUE
Turn back to the prologue of this chapter, about the prenatal class for grandparents-to-be, and answer the following questions.
What might be some benefits of prenatal classes for prospective grandparents that go beyond merely brushing up on parenting skills?
Do you think that taking a prenatal grandparenting class would help grandparents become more involved with the lives of their grandchildren? Why or why not?

69. EPILOGUE
In what ways might young children benefit from a close relationship with their grandparents? What can the grandparents contribute beyond what the parents do?
How might involved grandparenting help older people to achieve successful aging?