Sociology of Elders

Sociology of the Family: the Elderly/the Aging.

Be nice to your kids they'll choose your nursing home

Aging may be seen on a biological, social, or psychological level, all of which vary within and across societies. This paper will concentrate on the biological aspect of aging; the elderly. Physical aging is inevitable, and today there are around 34 million Americans over the age of sixty-five. By the year 2030, it is expected that there will be around 80 million elderly Americans. Today most of these American elders manage to live independent lives, however, poverty and high medical bills, physical and social isolation, inequality and discrimination (ageism), are all perfectly present. With the life expectancy of human beings increasing with time, the elderly are a large and rapidly growing group that can be examined from a sociological perspective in relation to the family. Analyzing the latter as an institution and a unit of socialization, while keeping the relationship between the nuclear family and industrial capitalism, allows the elderly in a family to be viewed from economic, social, and political perspectives. Globalization and social change jeopardize the traditional roles of the elderly in a family and in many societies or cultures (where respect and care for them may vary as well). There are many theories of aging: functionalist/disengagement theories (suggesting that the elderly should pull out from their social roles making room for the younger people); activity theory (suggests the importance of elderly being engaged with society for health and vitality); conflict theory (suggest how social institutions result in inequality among the elderly); etc. Basic sociology concepts to explore relating to the elderly include alienation, civil rights, community, culture, freedom, discrimination, equality, freedom, etc. Another area to touch on deals with the aspect of life-long learning, which refers to older-adult learning (geragogy), as well as the possible changes to come, socially, economically, and politically, based on the baby-boomer generation moving into the elder stage. Questions to consider: what is the significance or role of elders in society? What is perceived as right/normal in terms of aging? Who makes what choices when it comes to the elderly (for example in terms of nursing homes)? When did nursing homes become popular and what kinds of consequences/roles to they play? My initial plan for this research paper was to be base it entirely on secondary sources (books, articles, etc.), and I do believe that there is enough documentation, studies, statistics, and research available on sociology of the elderly. However, I am still considering combining it with primary research, which would include interviews with friends and family members.

Books & Article:

Newman, L.
A Woman Like Me
WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly - Volume 37, Numbers 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2009, pp. 173-175

Giddens, A., Duneier, M., Appelbaum, R. Introduction to Sociology (5^th ed.) Chapter 12

Article by Daniel Greenfield, Socialized Medicine’s Logic of Killing the Elderly

Article by Tara Parker-Pope on Health, How to Choose A Nursing Home, NY Times Sun. Oct. 17, 2008

Other topics considered:

1) Disabilities

2) Inbreeding

Research Paper

In a somewhat predictable fashion, I’d like to write my research paper on the effects of divorce on children, in particular, the tendency for children of divorce to grow up with weak paternal connections.  In today’s age of divorce, with many children and adults growing out of single-parent households, what role does sex have on likelihood of retaining a parenting role post-divorce?  If households headed by single-mothers are more common than single-fathers, why is this so?  What becomes of fathers after divorce?  Similarly, how does the experience of family change for children without consistent fathers?  For this paper, I do not wish to look at single-parent households from birth, rather, I will focus on households with children, who ,at some point, contained two parents (for this paper, the two parents will be female and male sexes, not same-sex).  It would be interesting to look at not only the amount of time awarded to fathers, but also, if possible, to investigate the variation in roles between the two parents to better understand how being a divorced father shapes individual behavior (for example, do divorced fathers adopt more of a care-giving role during the time spent with their children?).  What I hope to accomplish is a better understanding of the changes and variations in parenting styles of divorced fathers, and the impacts on children of these individuals.  The main difficulty I foresee is in data collection: choosing the correct variables to analyze will be very important (I can’t exactly quantify the happiness or satisfaction of children, can I?).  If anyone has suggestions on this topic I would be glad to have them!

Research Proposal

It has been shown in research that there is a relationship between a child’s family’s socioeconomic status and their cognitive development. It has been found in past research that there is a negative relationship between low socioeconomic status and the cognitive development of a child in that they lag behind their peers from higher socioeconomic backgrounds in phonemic awareness, reading skills and mathematical skills. Personally, I am interested in this subject because I had two field placements during my undergraduate in education in schools in which the students were from low socioeconomic households. I found that these students were lagging behind their peers from higher socioeconomic backgrounds that I had previously taught. I also noticed that most of the students were not from a traditional nuclear family but were either in single parent households and in many cases the child was in the foster care system. Another area of interest for this research paper would be to discover if there are any longitudinal studies on this topic. Thus far the articles that I have examined only discuss the effect socioeconomic status has on school performance in primarily elementary students and more specifically prior to grade four. I would be interested in trying to determine if it has been shown that socioeconomic status has a long lasting effect on a child’s school success or if they catch up to their more affluent peers in high school.

I believe this research topic is relevant to the topic of sociology in the family because as nuclear families become less common and the rate of divorce and single parent households increases the amount of students coming from lower socioeconomic classes may increase. Also, with the crash of the economy the rate of families who are facing economical difficulties has also increased. I believe it is important to study whether this decrease in financial resources for families will have a negative effect on children’s success in school.

Research Paper Proposal

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are classified as mental disorders under the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). According to the DSM-IV, a diagnosis of ADHD requires that the person display six or more symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity, and that the symptoms persist for at least 6 months, to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with the developmental level. Some of these symptoms include fidgeting, talking excessively, and interrupting. As a child or an adult being diagnosed with ADHD puts a lot of strain on a marriage and family. Once a child is diagnosed, the household is required to change and adapt in order to fit the needs of the ADHD child. In 1989, Szatmari et al. indicated that ADHD affects four to six percent of the school-age population in North America. One study compared the rate of marital dissolution between parents of adolescents and young adults with ADHD to parents of those without ADHD. Parents of youths diagnosed with ADHD in childhood were more likely to divorce and had a shorter latency to divorce. (Wymbs, et. al.) Although it is mostly children who are diagnosed with ADHD, it still affects 30 to 50 percent of adults who had ADHD in childhood.

In my paper, I plan on discussing the effects of an ADHD diagnosis on marriage and divorce rates, examining whether the disease is genetic, detailing the differences between adult and childhood ADHD, and showing the immediate and long-term effects of ADHD on parents and other siblings. Having a sister who was diagnosed with ADD at age two, I have many personal experiences with the disorder, which proved to be difficult at times. The symptoms that accompany ADHD can dramatically alter a family’s experience, not only affecting the child with the disorder, but changing the lives of all of the family members, as well as impacting relationships with those outside the family.

Research Paper Proposal

International migration implicitly means people leaving behind family members. Depending on the context and legal framework, while some temporary workers need to migrate alone and are forced to return to their home country where relatives have remained, permanent immigrants may move along with others. Countries have different policies for those that want to reunite with family members that have migrated previously, as well as regulations for dependents to enter the labor market or have access to certain rights and services. It has been shown that family structure and household living arrangements are important factors for immigrant integration and for their children’s future.
For most of the twentieth century, most migrants to the United States from Mexico were temporary, moving for seasonal work and returning to the communities where the rest of the family had remained. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Mexican migration to the United States has taken on an increasingly permanent character as migrants obtained year-round jobs and were joined by other family members. A flow that was before mainly composed of males migrating alone has been changed to include an increasing number of women and children. In terms of living arrangements and family structures, it has been shown that recent Mexican immigrants in the US are more likely to live in extended family or non-kin households than nonimmigrant households in the US and Mexico.
In this paper I am interested in analyzing family structures and living arrangements of Mexicans in Canada, a recent destination, and comparing these to the patterns in the United States, the traditional destination. I would expect differences that can be attributed to Canadian immigration policy, the maturity of the flow and selection of immigrants. My main objective will be to describe first the phenomena and give possible explanation of how to disentangle the interaction of the sources of these differences. The specific research questions of this paper are: how do household and family structures of immigrants differ in the United States and Canada? How does immigration policy differ in terms of family reunification and migration of dependents? How are Mexicans living in Canada in terms of their family and household structures and how do these differences relate to age, gender, socio-economic status, human capital and time since arrival? The first two questions will be informed by a literature review while the third question will be answered using a statistical analysis of the complete confidential set of individual records of the Canadian 2001 and 2006 censuses. Due to time limitations, I will use secondary data and published results for the United States in order to focus on the analysis on Canada.

Paper Proposal

For this paper I would like to examine the role of the family in the prevention of HIV/AIDS in adolescents. Higher parental involvement correlates negatively with risk taking behaviors in adolescents, which includes less risky sexual behavior such as sex with fewer partners and a greater incidence of contraceptive use. Ecodevelopmental theory cites that this must include family involvement at an individual/intimate level, parental monitoring of interactions with peers, and parental involvement in school. It also acknowledges that macro factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and immigrant status have an effect on the rate of adolescent infection. However the theory does little to address the tensions between the micro level expectations and macro level patterns, and for that reason it remains incomplete. The micro level structures focuses mainly on an “ideal” of the middle class nuclear family, while Hispanic, Black, and those of a low socioeconomic status are overrepresented in the macro level structures. In addition, the majority of families affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly childhood and adolescent cases, are Black or Hispanic, single parent families, and of a lower socioeconomic status.

While studies necessitate a functionalist role of the family in health, variation among race, socioeconomic class, and changing family structures challenge and complicate this theory.

By looking at studies of family structure and involvement over ethnicity and socioeconomic class I would like to examine the correlation between greater parental involvement and rates of HIV/AIDS in adolescents. In addition, I would like to examine different types of family structures on rates of infection, and the effect of tension between micro and macro level effects on intimacy and care. The highest prevalence is currently among Black single-mother families, but can changing family structures affect infection rate? The micro level structures of involvement focus on the time spent on intimate relations and care, but I do not think that this can, or should, be prescribed only to the nuclear family.

SOCI 535 Research Paper Proposal

While there have been several researches done on the theme of “family of choice”, I believe that there is a lack of enthusiasm of the scholars on the issue of interracial families. There is a gradual shift in academics where scholars are paying more attention to divorced, single parent, lesbian/gay partnerships, cohabitation, and adoption. Compared to these topics, there is a dearth of interest of scholars on interracial unions and their significance/impact on society—they are cast away as secondary concentrations. Even if there is any attention paid to it, it is greatly restricted to looking at the so-called “Black-White” couples.

Interracial families are another component of the “family of choice” framework. I would like to look at how and if there are any conflicts on the emotional work/investment in families from different races. With different cultures and backgrounds, how can the parents/partners of these interracial unions agree on how to raise their children, divide emotional/care work, and division of labor within the family? In addition, children of interracial couples tend to have a harder time in developing their self-identities. Do they choose a certain racial identity from their parents? Do they create a new self-identity? Or do they think of their identity as fluid and flexible so they can adjust it in all situations? Can this journey to self-identification affect the society? If so, how? These are some of the questions I wish to look at and hopefully provide some answers.

Interracial families are highly significant to the sociology of the family as globalization is deeply embedded in all aspects of our personal lives. How these people of different backgrounds are able to form and keep this union stable might provide an insight to dealing with the highly diversified forms of families today.