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Relationships between grandparents and grandchildren provide an excellent framework for integrating family theory and family methodology. Systematic differences as a function of age, gender, life expectancy, and health as played out through generations suggest some topics are best studied by disentangling variability between and within families. Using data from 1,345 grandchildren (52% girls, mean age 13.69 years, range 9 to 20) reporting on 3,664 grandparents, we compare results obtained from studying grandparent-grandchild relationships individually and at the family level. Results suggest important predictors of relationship quality at the within-subject and between-subject levels. Future research should more carefully integrate each level into theory and design. doi: 10.2190/AG.69.4.d

Background. We examined within-family variation in siblings' memories of experiences with parents and their associations with current positive and negative affect. Methods. Participants were 1,369 adults with at least 1 sibling, aged 26-74 years from 498 families in the MacArthur Study of Midlife in the United States ([M.sub.age] = 47 years, 59% women, 94% White). Results. There was considerable variability in recalled maternal and paternal treatment across the dimensions of affection (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs] 0.33 and 0.41, respectively), discipline (ICCs 0.39 and 0.43), and conflict (ICCs 0.24 and 0.26). In turn, recalled parental treatment, particularly affection, made unique contributions to current positive (ICC 0.12) and negative affect (ICC 0.08) over and above individual and familial level characteristics such as offspring demographic characteristics, extraversion and neuroticism, family structure, recalled early family environment, and parents' current status. Conclusions. Results link adults' memories of experiences with their parents in childhood to their current well-being and highlight the importance of considering within-family models for family theory. Key Words: MIDUS--Negative affect--Positive affect--Recalled parental treatment--Siblings--Within-family.

Objectives. The present study examined the association of providing assistance to older parents amid everyday circumstances and short-term psychological consequences for adult children providing assistance. Methods. We explored this association using 824 daily diary interviews of 119 adult children providing assistance in the National Study of Daily Experiences by using a left-censored random effects tobit regression model that accounted for the clustered data and floor effects in reported psychological distress. Results. Psychological distress was higher on days adult children provided assistance to their parent (b =0.88, p < .05) even after we controlled for situational variables such as time spent on daily paid work, time spent on leisure activities, and assistance provided to individuals other than parents. Demographic and psychosocial variables such as having resident children (b = 2.14, p < .01), less education (b = -0.54, p < .05), and neuroticism (b = 2.08, p < .05), also predicted daily psychological distress. Discussion. Even after we controlled for within-person (daily situational variables) and between-person factors (background characteristics), the act of providing assistance itself had immediate associations with daily mood for helpers, particularly for those with fewer resources and greater demands on time. Feasibility and success of programs that provide respite and relief services to older adults and their children should be assessed in light of daily living. Key Words: Routine assistance Daily diary--Stress proliferation--Caregiving.

Research on the division of family work has focused on household work and child-care to the exclusion of other domains, whereas studies on care-giving for older people typically ignore spouses' support to care-givers. In this paper we apply an approach that is typical of research on spouses' division of family work in caring for parents, in that the theoretical model focuses on the 'cultural mandates' that guide spouses' division of care, namely gender ideologies about appropriate roles, kinship obligations, and taboos against cross-gender personal care. Other predictors of the spousal division of care drawn from economic and health-care utilisation models are also examined. The analyses use pooled data on 1,449 care occasions from the first five waves of the US Health and Retirement Study. It was found that most couples to some extent share parent care, and that the involvement of husbands depended on a complex interplay of cultural mandates and contexts. Husbands participated most in personal care for parents if the care was mandated by kinship obligations (they cared more for their own than their wife's parents), and by cross-gender care taboos (they cared more for fathers than mothers). Other cultural contexts (such as race), a spouse's other commitments, health-related ability, resources (including support from the parents' other children), and care-burden also played a role. The findings demonstrate that decisions to care for parents emerge from complex negotiations among spouses and their children and siblings or, in other words, that parental care is a family endeavour. KEY WORDS--care-giving, division of labour, gender ideology, filial obligation.

Purpose: Caregiving research has typically relied on cross-sectional data that focus on the primary caregiver. This approach neglects the dynamic and systemic character of caregiver networks. Our analyses addressed changes in adult child care networks over a 2-year period. Design and Methods: The study relied on pooled data from Waves 1 through 5 of the Health and Retirement Study. Based on a matrix of specific adult child caregivers across two consecutive time points, we assessed changes in any adult child caregiver as well as in the primary adult child caregiver. Results: More than half of all adult-child care networks, including more than one fourth of primary adult child caregivers, changed between waves. Gender composition of the caregiver network and availability of other adult child caregivers were particularly important for network change, but socioeconomic context, caregiver abilities and resources, and caregiver burden played a role as well. Implications: The results underline the need to shift caregiving research toward a dynamic life course and family systems perspective. They also raise concerns about the viability of informal care networks for future smaller birth cohorts and suggest that health care providers need to recognize and address coordination and potential conflicts among care network members. Key Words: Family caregiving, Care networks, Care transitions, Intergenerational transfers, Intergenerational supports

This study explores how grandchild care in conjunction with grandparents' retirement affects depressive symptoms, using data from the Health and Retirement Survey. The findings demonstrate that retirement moderates the influence of grandchild care obligations on well-being, measured by depressive symptoms. For retired men, freedom from grandchild care obligations is associated with heightened well-being. Among women, continued employment seems to protect against potential negative effects of extensive grandchild care obligations on well-being. The results for men seem most in line with the argument that family care obligations spoil retirement, whereas the results for women suggest a scenario that is most compatible with the role enhancement thesis.

Objectives. Our objective in this study was to compare assistance received by individuals in the United States and Sweden with characteristics associated with low, moderate, or high l-year placement risk in the United States. Methods. We used longitudinal nationally representative data from 4,579 participants aged 75 years and older in the 1992 and 1993 waves of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and cross-sectional data from 1,379 individuals aged 75 years and older in the Swedish Aging at Home (AH) national survey for comparative purposes. We developed a logistic regression equation using U.S. data to identify individuals with 3 levels (low, moderate, or high) of predicted 1-year institutional placement risk. Groups with the same characteristics were identified in the Swedish sample and compared on formal and informal assistance received. Results. Formal service utilization was higher in Swedish sample, whereas informal service use is lower overall. Individuals with characteristics associated with high placement risk received more formal and less informal assistance in Sweden relative to the United States. Discussion. Differences suggest formal services supplement informal support in the United States and that formal and informal services are complementary in Sweden.

Purpose: Retirement is often treated as a voluntary transition, yet selected circumstances can restrict choice in retirement decision processes. We investigated conditions under which retirees perceive their retirement as 'forced' rather than 'wanted.' Methods: Analyses relied on Waves 1-4 of the Health and Retirement Survey (N = 1,160; 572 men and 588 women). Logistic regression models estimated the effects of background factors, choice and restricted choice conditions, and retirement contexts on perceptions of forced retirement. Results: Nearly one third of older workers perceived their retirement as forced. Such forced retirement reflects restricted choice through health limitations, job displacement, and care obligations. Other predictors include marital status, race, assets, benefits, job tenure, and off-time retirement. Implications: Future research should establish personal and policy implications of forced retirement. Programs are needed to help older workers forced into retirement find alternative employment opportunities and to reduce the conditions leading to forced retirement. Key Words: Retirement, Choice, Context, Health, Work, Caregiving

Longitudinal secondary dyadic data from first time marriages were analyzed from the National Survey oat Families and Households (Sweet, Bumpass, & Call, 1988), for the purpose of examining gender-related predictors of husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction and marital conflict over time. This study extended the line of thinking of previous research by taking a longitudinal look at predictors of marital satisfaction and marital conflict in stable marriages. Results indicate that there is some support for gender-based influences on husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction and conflict over time. Additionally, the findings from this study suggest that wives' marital and interpersonal functioning may be a greater predictor for husbands' marital satisfaction and marital conflict. Recommendations for clinicians working with couples are also presented.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of type of retirement (forced, early, abrupt) and spouse's disability on longitudinal change in depressive symptoms. Methods: The analyses rely on Waves 1-4 of the Health and Retirement Survey (N = 2,649). Generalized estimating equations models with bootstrapped standard errors and adjustment for survey design and non-independence of dyad members estimate effects of retirement, type of retirement, and spouse's disability on depressive symptoms, controlling for relevant covariates. Results: The results suggest that depressive symptoms increase when retirement is abrupt and perceived as too early or forced. Women retirees who stopped employment and were either forced into retirement or perceived their retirement as too early report significantly more depressive symptoms with increasing spouse activities of daily living (ADLs) limitations. There is no similar effect for men. In contrast, for working retirees who retired on time, depressive symptoms decrease with increasing spouse ADLs. Discussion: These results highlight the importance of retirement context on postretirement well-being. They suggest that both type of retirement transition and marital contexts such as spouse's disability influence postretirement well-being, and these effects differ by gender.

Depressive symptoms have been represented in the research and clinical literature in terms of both an episodic phenomenon and as enduring individual differences. We investigated depressive symptoms longitudinally in a sample of older adults. Participants were 737 individuals ([M.sub.Age] = 73 years initially, 39% women) in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who provided biennial Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression data on up to five occasions over an 8-year period. We found both trait and slate-residual variability, with symptoms increasing longitudinally on all subscales and accounting for an approximately 1-point increase per decade. Trait-like variability accounted for at least two thirds of the reliable variance. Interindividual differences were consistent over time, but occasion-specific variability diminished across occasions.

With hypotheses derived from a life course perspective in conjunction with life event stress and role theories, we examine whether a spouse's employment and length of retirement affect a person's postretirement depressive symptoms and whether such effects differ by gender. Analyses use pooled data from Waves 1-4 of the Health and Retirement Survey, using a subsample of married individuals who either remained continuously employed over time or completely retired since the Wave 1 interviews (N = 2,695). Recently retired men seem to be negatively affected by their spouses' continuous employment when compared with men whose wives were continuously not employed. In contrast, spouses' joint retirement has a beneficial influence on both recently retired and longer-retired men. However, for recently retired men, the positive effect of wives' retirement seems to be contingent on spouses' enjoyment of joint activities. Among women, effects of spouses' employment occur only among very recently retired wives (0-6 months). These wives report more depressive symptoms if their spouses were already nonemployed prior to wives' retirement. These results demonstrate the complexity of retirement adaptation processes and suggest that marital context plays an important role in retirement well-being.

This study examines whether the meaning of marital conflict and marital solidarity are affected by the transition to retirement, whether the retirement transition alters stability and variability of, and cross-spouse influences on, marital quality, and whether retirement influences latent means of marital quality. Data from both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) addressed these questions (N = 407 couples for wives' retirement, and N = 550 couples for husbands' retirement). Results suggest that the structure of marital conflict is unaffected by husbands' and wives' transition to retirement, but that wives' continued employment may be associated with greater conflict longitudinally. Husbands' and wives' constructs of marital solidarity differ from one another; they were unaffected by wives' retirement but converged with husbands' retirement through changes for each partner in the importance of joint time together and potential for divorce. Effects of the retirement transition are far subtler than previously believed. Keywords: marriage; retirement; gender; conflict; solidarity; measurement

Purpose: Few international comparisons of health services are performed using microlevel data. Using such data, this paper compares the need for and receipt of assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) in comparable samples in the United States and Sweden, a country with a universal system of community-based services. Design and Methods: Data from national surveys of community residents completed at approximately the same time in each nation are used to create comparable measures of need and assistance. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses compare need and assistance patterns across the nations and identify individual factors that explain receipt of assistance and unmet needs. Results: Our results indicate that a simple story of greater use of paid formal services in Sweden and more unpaid informal use in the United States masks a more complex relationship. Assistance with ADLs seems to be more targeted in Sweden; narrow differences in assistance widen considerably when the analysis is limited to those reporting need. Implications: Although these two different health systems result in similar levels of overall ADL assistance, a detailed microlevel comparison reveals key distinctions. Further microlevel comparisons of access, cost, and quality in cross-national data can further aid our understanding of the consequences of health policy. Key Words: Cross-national comparisons, Community-based care, Informal support, Long-term care, Unmet need

The effect of causal attribution on marital conflict tended to be mediated through attributions of responsibility for most married partners with children. Cross-spouse effects provided a more accurate model than one with no cross-spouse effects.

This article addresses problems researchers face when conducting longitudinal surveys to address developmental processes and longitudinal change. The authors, focusing on selective nonresponse and survey attrition, examine missing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and compare results with multiple imputation and listwise deletion, concluding multiple imputation can correct possible shortcomings.

The improvement made by L.A. Kurdek on the data analysis produced by Frank D. Fincham and colleagues cannot be seen as accounting for the discrepant longitudinal or concurrent links between depression and marital quality. When all disturbance terms were permitted to correlate freely across spouses, there were signs of a gender difference in Fincham's data but no indication of any cross-lagged effects in the Kurdek data. It has been possible to identify a number of factors that may affect the ability to detect any potential causal link between marital distress and depression.

Past research on intergenerational exchanges suggests that parents and adult children remain vitally involved in supportive exchanges in later life. What has not been examined is the long-term importance of patterns of intergenerational exchange for individual mental health and well-being. Using data drawn from the two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households on adults aged 50 and older (N = 2237, [M.sub.Age] = 62.3), we tested hypotheses derived from three theoretical explanations of the relationship between exchange patterns and psychological well-being. We found strong evidence for the importance of contingent exchanges between parents and adult children in promoting older adults' psychological well-being. Whereas receiving contingent exchange has positive consequences, noncontingent giving can have negative consequences around specific transitions in the lives of parents and children.

Purpose: This study examined whether parents' retirement influences their contacts (visits, telephone/letter) with adult children outside the household. Design and Methods: The study relied on data from the National Survey of Families and Households. The sample consisted of parent-adult child dyads where parents were aged 55-75 at time 2 and adult children resided outside the household at both waves (N = 2,153 parent-adult child dyads, based on reports from 792 parents). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) with robust standard errors were used. Results: Retirement has no significant effect on telephone contacts. Retired parents maintain frequent visits with children. For children living within 10 miles, mothers' retirement is associated with fewer and fathers' retirement with more visits. This trend varies by number of children, length of retirement, and child's gender. For children living more than 10 miles away, retired mothers decrease visits with childless children, whereas retired fathers increase visits with childless children. Implications: We attribute these findings to the gender-specific salience of child contacts for retirees and suggest that future research address children's and parents' expectations for postretirement contacts. Key Words: Gender, Intergenerational relations, Kin relationships

Objective. This study examined whether economic and care obligations for family and kin salience influence retirement decisions and whether such influences differ by race, gender, and marital status. Data. Data from the first 2 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households were used. The sample consisted of individuals who were employed at baseline and aged 55-75 at follow-up (N = 897). Cox proportional hazard regressions were used. Results. Economic kin obligations impeded the likelihood of retiring. Individuals who made financial contributions to children outside the household and White women with resident children in the household were less prone to retire. Among Blacks, household composition effects were more complex and seemed to depend on the mix of care obligations, financial obligations, and financial contributions by resident kin. Kin salience also impinged on retirement decisions. Some groups who lacked family ties (e.g., nonmarried childless men) were less inclined to retire, whereas other subgroups (e.g., nonmarried men with monthly pre-retirement contacts with children) were more likely to retire. Conclusions. Our data suggest the importance of family obligations and relationships in retirement decisions and demonstrate considerable diversity in these processes. Models of retirement should pay greater attention to the interdependence of work and family spheres and to the diversity of retirement processes among various population groups.

The significance of behavior problems when predicting rates of change in stressors and depression is examined.

The impact of support from adult children for their parents was investigated by studying a sample of parents, who are 50 years old and above, from the 1988 and 1992 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households. Findings showed that parents who undergo one or more transitions in the time between survey waves have better chances of getting support from their adult children over and above previous exchange patterns.