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Elder Care and the Family
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17 August 2026

Declines in childbearing, coupled with increases in life expectancy, have resulted in a demographic shift which is being felt around the globe – the growth of the elderly population. As family members reach their elderly years, they frequently find themselves in need of various forms of assistance. In many countries, governments attempt to provide such assistance – financial, instrumental, and other varieties. However, elderly people commonly turn to their own families, as loved ones are viewed as being the most reliable and immediate source of assistance and support. The provision of such assistance to elderly family members, however, often creates a wide array of tensions and dilemmas. Given the rapid growth of the elderly population, it is essential that greater research attention be focused upon elder care.
This edited collection provides a broad examination of elder care and the family. Including diverse theoretical and methodological chapters which explore the many issues pertaining to elder care, the collection covers topics such as financial strains of elder care, healthcare decision making, the impact of elder care upon family relationships, family communication, mobility and family residence, stress and burnout, gender differences in the provision of elder care, elder abuse, mental deterioration and family care, decision-making about elder residence, stressors related to care providers, and elderly well-being and family care, among others.
Elder Care and the Family: Relationships, Support, and Strain is appealing reading for scholars of family sociology, the sociology of education, and childhood and youth alike.
FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / General, Sociology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family, Sociology: family, kinship and relationships, Sociology and anthropology
Fang Fang is a Health Services Researcher and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Virginia Health Sciences (VHS) at Old Dominion University, USA.
Sampson Lee Blair is a Family Sociologist and Demographer at The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA.
Timothy J. Madigan is Associate Professor of Sociology at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Chapter 1. Determinants of Adult Children's Care Variations for Aging Parents; Zeynep Zümer Batur, Jorik Vergauwen, and Dimitri Mortelmans
Chapter 2. From Doing-For to Doing-With: Family as a Catalyst for Elderly Digital Inclusion; Saima Qutab, Lesley Gardner, and Udayangi Muthupoltotage
Chapter 3. Unequal Burdens: The Emotional and Relational Strain Between Live-In and Long-Distance Siblings in the Care of Older Adults; Ayesha Mathur and Gauri Sharma
Chapter 4. Assessing the Efficacy of a Physician-Led Multidisciplinary Behavioral Neurology Clinic on the Quality of Life of Caregivers of People with Dementia; David Hage and Michael Floren
Chapter 5. Elder Care and Family Relationships; Joshua Sumankuuro
Chapter 6. Elder Care and Challenges of Family Caregivers in Iran; Maryam Sabaghchi, Abbas Askari-Nodoushan, and Ali Ruhani
Chapter 7. Old Age Homes in India: YouTube Narratives of Aging Away from Family; Shilpa Bandyopadhyay and Kamlesh Singh
Chapter 8. The 'Who' and 'Where' of Family Caregiving: Challenges in Negotiating Care Arrangements in South Korea; Hyuna Moon and Seung-Eun Cha
Chapter 9. Family-Institution Relations as a Mediating Structure in Late-Life Intergenerational Dynamics within Elder Care Institutions in Urban China: Collaboration, Negotiation, and Mutual Constraints; Weijia Zhuo
Chapter 10. From Moral Suffering to Political Outrage: The Emergence of Family Caregivers as Political Agents amid the Care Home Crisis in Spain; Sílvia Bofill-Poch
Chapter 11. Channeling Filial Piety through Care and Economic Policy: China and Singapore; Lynn Yu Ling Ng and Feng Xu
Chapter 12. Aging, Informal Elder Care, and the Evolving Social Landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Call for Sustainable Solutions; James Muruthi, Manka Nkimbeng, Ebenezer Kyeremeh, and Beatrice Oppong