A path not taken: a cultural analysis of regrets and childlessness in the lives of older women.

This paper explores regrets about childlessness in 90 older women interviewed using qualitative methods. Regrets were discussed in the context of the changing meaning of childlessness over the life course. We found that issues of regret are situated in a cultural system that renders childless women marginal. We argue that regrets should be understood in a wider cultural context that incorporates the cultural construction of the self over time.

Cultural differences among elderly women in coping with the death of an adult child.

This article describes differences between elderly Jewish and non-Jewish women in dealing with the death of an adult child. Dimensions of difference include the meaning of the death to the mother, her expression of grief, and her conceptualization of the future in the face of the loss. Results are based on data from 12 Jewish and 17 non-Jewish women taking part in a larger study examining generativity as a predictor of well-being in women over 60. Data collection included in-depth life histories and quantitative evaluations of well-being, affect, generativity, and personality variables associated with mothering. Qualitatively, Jewish women were depressed and fixed in grief, with the loss remaining central to their lives. Non-Jewish women articulated philosophies of acceptance, putting the death in a perspective that enabled them to move beyond their loss. Well-being, affect, generativity, and personality measures statistically supported the qualitative differences found between the groups.

Key relationships of never married, childless older women: a cultural analysis.

The key relationships of never married, childless older women, that is, those relationships described as central, compelling, enduring, or significant throughout their lifetimes, were explored in this study. Analysis of qualitative, ethnographically based interviews with 31 women indicated that the key relationships they describe fall into three classes: ties through blood, friendships, and those we label "constructed" ties (kin-like nonkin relations). We report on types of key interpersonal relationships of these women and also examine limits to these key relations, describing some strategies these women have adopted for gaining kin-like relations and the problems inherent in them for the expectation of care in later life. Theoretical work by anthropologist David Schneider concerning American kinship as a cultural system is used to explore dimensions of these relationships.

A psychometric study of the family adaptability and cohesion evaluation scales.

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES), a measure of family functioning, contains three scales: cohesion, adaptability, and social desirability. These were slightly modified (FACES-R) on the basis of pilot data and were administered to 42 clinic families (families seeking or receiving psychological services) and 206 nonclinic families. Support for the scales was found in high coefficient alpha reliabilities and similarity of the sample means and standard deviations to those of the standardization sample. However, there was little agreement among family members' scale scores. Therapists' ratings of cohesion and adaptability did not correlate with scale scores among clinic families. There was no difference between clinic and nonclinic samples on the cohesion or adaptability scales, although the social desirability scale did discriminate between groups. Factor analysis suggested that cohesion, adaptability, and social desirability cannot be clearly differentiated using this measure.