CHANGES AND ETHNICITY IN CARING RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE ELDERLY PEOPLE IN A MIDDLE-SIZED TOWN IN AMERICAN MIDWEST,1850-1985.

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This study aims to contribute to the development of basic knowledge on aging society by revealing hitorical changes from 1850 to 1895 in caring relationships for the elderly among Euro-Americans in a middle-sized town and its surrounding farming area in Midweat, U.S.It identifies similarities and differences in such relationships among people of differnt ethnic backgrounds such as Yankee, Norwegian and Polish. Methodologically U.S.Census original schedules were processed into computer database and analyzed with other historical documents from 1850 to 1910, and ethnographic data of family histories from anthropoligical field research 1984-86 were used to analyze changes in caring patterns from 1920s to 1980s. The results are that the town's population of 60 years old and over steadily increased its proportion throughout the last half of the 19^<th> century from 1.5% to 9%, and that the ratio of houses with the elderly of 60 years old and over also increased from 8.1% to 30.8%. Among the families with the elderly of 60 years old and over : the proportion of the single elderly family head changed from 3.4% in1860 to 9.7% in 1910 ; the proportion of elderly couple fluctuated between 10% and 20%. The proportion of the elderly parent (s) with child (ren) was about 70% throughout the years. Yankee elderly people tended to live with non-kin member in the same household than those of other ethnic groups. Polish people, called "late-comers, " quickly became similar to Yankee people by increasing the number of household with single family haed and with married couple without any cohabitants. However, unlike Yankee people, Polish children found houses within the same town or neighborhood to establish their own families after leaving their parent's house. These results are accorded with findings from our ethnographic research.