Doing Their Share: Comparing Patterns of Help Given by Older and Younger Adults

There was a period when I couldn't say no, but I can now. When you get to my age you can do what you want. 72-year-old married woman Two very different images of the emerge from research on aging and recent trends public policy. Early research on aging viewed the as a potential social problem--as mainly recipients, rather than providers, of care. Shrinking family size and high mobility of kin and neighbors prompted concern that increasing numbers of older people would finish their lives loneliness and isolation. As a result, the myth of the isolated elderly has been a persistent theme aging research (Shanas, 1979). More recently, concern over the financial and emotional costs involved caring for aging parents has shifted the emphasis towards research on caregivers to the dependent (Abel, 1991; Schulz, Visintainer, Nunn, 1989). Yet we know relatively little about the involvement of older people providing informal help to family and friends, and even less about help given others through formal volunteer efforts. Moreover, no research to date has examined the relationship between formal volunteerism and informal help given to family and friends. This study examines a number of dimensions of the help older and younger adults provide and how these contribute to our understanding of age, social integration, and public policy regarding the privatization of care. PREVIOUS LITERATURE Contrasting images of the as either isolated and alone, or active volunteers reflect two larger theoretical perspectives on aging. The first, coming out of research on intergenerational relations, argues that, while not isolated, the are involved shrinking networks of both kin and nonkin (Babchuk Booth, 1972; Smith, 1966). The primary explanation for this process is that of psychological disengagement (Cumming Greenberg & Becker, 1988), and provide material help, such as housing, during periods of transition (DeVanzo & Goldscheider, 1990). …