Off the beaten track - Childlessness and social integration in late life
Off the beaten track - Childlessness and social integration in late life
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DOI：
10.1177/0164027506291745
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发表时间：
2006-11-01
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Dykstra, Pearl A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dykstra, Pearl A.
为了揭示父母身份的社会整合功能，本研究的重点是在网络的大小之间的差异，老年人有和没有孩子，从阿姆斯特丹（n=661）和柏林（n=516）的调查数据。对无子女者的多样性和他们的过去经历给予了明确的关注。两个国家的结果模式相似。那些从未有过孩子的人在老年时的网络比父母小，这一发现部分归因于亲属供应更有限。没有证据支持一个竞争性的假设，即无子女是提高社交能力的一种手段。与预期相反，那些比孩子活得更久的人并不比那些从未有过孩子的人更孤立。也没有人支持女性的父母历史差异比男性更大的预期。最后，调查结果表明，父母身份有助于社会融合，而与婚姻和就业无关。
Aiming to uncover the socially integrating functions of parenthood, this study focused on differences in network size between older adults with and without children, using survey data from Amsterdam (n=661) and Berlin (n=516). Explicit attention was paid to diversity among the childless and to their biographical pasts. The pattern of results was similar for both countries. Those who never had children had smaller networks in old age than parents, a finding partially attributable to a more limited supply of kin. There was no evidence for a competing hypothesis, namely, that childlessness is a means for greater sociability. Contrary to expectations, those who had outlived their children were not more socially isolated than those who had never had children. Neither was there support for the expectation that parenthood-history differences would be greater among women than men. Last, the findings showed that parenthood contributes to social integration independently of marriage and employment.