Family Ties and Aging - Softcover

This advanced textbook covers issues of family ties and aging broadly, the goal being to provide an integrated and thorough representation of what we know from the current research. Whereas books on families and aging have traditionally focused on ties to a spouse and to children and grandchildren, Family Ties & Aging is more extensive and more reflective of contemporary society. The text includes groups and relationships that typically receive short shrift, exploring such neglected populations as single, divorced, and childless older people and their family relationships, as well as sibling relationships among the elderly, live-in partnerships not formalized by marriage, and the kinds of family ties forged by gay and lesbian persons over the life course. The book weaves the vast range of information we now have about the many facets of family relationships and aging into a critical, comprehensive, and integrated whole.

Ingrid Arnet Connidis is Professor of Sociology at Western University (formerly, University of Western Ontario), London, Canada. In 2001 she was the Petersen Visiting Scholar in Gerontology and Family Studies at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, and in 2011 she was Visiting Chair in Gerontology at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Her research on various family ties and aging and on ambivalence appears in a variety of books and journals including Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Theory and Review, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Research on Aging, Journal of Aging Studies, and Canadian Journal on Aging. A theme of Ingrid’s work is the challenge of negotiating family ties in the face of social inequality and the consequent contradictions that are embedded in social institutions including family and work. Ingrid is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). In 2004 she and Julie McMullin were awarded the Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award from GSA for their work on ambivalence (“Sociological Ambivalence and Family Ties: A Critical Perspective.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 2002:64:3:558–567). In 2013, Ingrid was a proud recipient of the inaugural Wiley Alexis Walker Award at the National Council on Family Relations in recognition of her influence on and contribution to the field and for best research publication in family studies (“Interview and memoir: Complementary narratives on the family ties of gay adults” published in the Journal of Family Theory & Review in 2012). This award is in memory of a woman of intellect, integrity, humility, and generosity, Alexis J. Walker, whose example and mentoring continue to have a profound influence on the lives of many scholars and students.