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The 1979 One-Child Policy in China created a generation of only children, leading to increased elder care dilemmas for this generation and its aging parents, particularly for young adults studying or working abroad. The current study used in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Chinese young adults who were currently studying or working in Montreal, Canada (N = 20), whose parents still lived in China. The interviews focused on the following topics: elder care patterns of respondents' grandparents; family values and expectations; perceptions of professional long-term care institutions (in China and Canada); and future plans for taking care of aging parents. Respondents described their grandparents' care as following traditional elder care patterns with multiple familial caregivers, which they appreciated as a positive model that defined their own obligations towards parents. Respondents reported being very close to their parents. Some planned to settle down in Canada and bring their parents, others planned to go back to China. Citing the tradition of filial piety, they expected to take care of their parents in the future, but they also considered the dilemmas involved in caring for aging parents without siblings to share the task, potentially requiring them to find compromises between their personal lives and caring for older parents. Those who planned to settle in Canada raised additional concerns about the challenges of bringing over their parents, including acculturation and access to and communication with health and long-term care providers. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary demographic, economic, and policy concerns about aging, family care, and immigration.

Changing perceptions of childlessness have been documented in the United States, but little is known about perceptions in developing countries undergoing rapid social changes and globalization, including Turkey. This project uses a survey and hypothetical vignettes about childless couples and parents to assess university students' perceptions of childlessness (N = 850). The authors find that parents are rated higher on interpersonal warmth and marital relationship quality, but mothers are seen as more stressed. Childless men and women are perceived as more driven but also as more emotionally troubled. The results indicate the continued importance of parenthood among Turkish students but also an understanding of women's stresses in combining work and motherhood. The authors find relatively few rural and urban differences, whereas gender and income differences may reflect greater awareness of work-family concerns and acceptance of childlessness among women and higher income students. (Contains 4 tables.)

Prior research has examined whether parenthood is associated with higher levels of well-being among older adults, but definitions of parental status have varied. The authors examine links between parental status and depressive symptoms among older adults, comparing biological and social definitions of parenthood. The study finds few differences between biological and social parenthood but substantial variation in the relationship between parental status and depressive symptoms by gender and marital status. Biologically and socially childless adults had the lowest predicted levels of depression across all marital status groups. Widowed men averaged higher levels of depression than other men. For women, the highest predicted levels of depressive symptoms were observed among never-married biological parents and formerly married women who had outlived their children. Increased sampling of less common parental subgroups and diverse kinship relations to allow for more precise classifications and the consideration of joint marital-parental statuses in future research. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

The prevalence and implications of childlessness in old age are compared across nine major surveys in seven countries: Australia, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Specifically, the researchers examine indicators of the well-being and resources of childless men and women, compare them to their within-country peers with children, and explore the similarities and differences among childless older adults in different countries. The results show strikingly similar patterns across countries (with the exception of Japan). Childless elders are more likely than parents to live alone or in an institution. Childless never-married women have consistently higher education levels than other groups of women. Among men, marriage rather than parenthood is consistently linked with higher socio-economic status. The results suggest important structural processes that differentially shape the resources and well-being of men and women, childless and parents, over the life course and in old age. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)