“If I Can’t Take Care of Myself, Who Will?”: Reflections on Older Israeli Childless Men

The social work profession has neglected the population of aging men in both research and practice. Scholars and practitioners have therefore been called upon to explore subgroups within this population and identify the opportunities and challenges they face. The present research meets this call by investigating nine Israeli childless older men (COM), using a multicase qualitative approach and by focusing on their experience of aging without children and their support sources. The authors’ findings suggest three themes: (1) an attitude of self-reliance, (2) lack of informal support, and (3) the importance of formal social safety nets. These are discussed within the Israeli social context of ideal masculinity. The authors also examine the applicability of the hierarchical-compensatory model to participants’ chain of support. The findings add a key theoretical factor to the hierarchical model, namely the degree of caring attributed to the helper, whether formal or informal. The authors therefore recommend that formal and informal care relationships be analyzed not only across the axis of availability or actual need but also across the emotional axis of being meaningful to someone. This article concludes with implications for theory, practice, and policy.