Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA.
Gerontologist. 2012 Apr;52(2):177-88. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnr142. Epub 2012 Jan 31.
We compare the close family resources of Baby Boomers (BBs) to previous cohorts of older adults at population level and then examine individual-level cohort comparisons of age-related trajectories of informal care availability from midlife into old age.
Population data from the U.S. Census and from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) are used to identify a cohort similar to the BBs on marital status and fertility rates. Using generalized linear mixed models and 10-year longitudinal data from Depression and WWII parents (DWP; n = 1,052) and the parents of BBs (PBB; n = 3,573) in the HRS, we examine cohort differences in the time-varying likelihoods of being married and of having an adult child living within 10 miles.
The DWP had similar informal care resources at entry to old age as is expected in the BB. Longitudinal analyses of the DWP and PBB cohorts in HRS reveal that the availability of family changes over time and that the DWP cohort was significantly less likely to have a spouse or a grown child living nearby.
These findings, and future projections based on them, have significant implications for institutions and public policy concerned with the informal caregiving needs of the Boomer cohort as they age.
我们在人口层面上比较了婴儿潮一代（BBs）与前几代老年人的近亲资源，然后研究了从中年到老年的非正式照料可用性的年龄相关轨迹的个体水平队列比较。
使用来自美国人口普查和健康与退休研究（HRS）的人口数据，根据婚姻状况和生育率确定与 BBs 相似的队列。使用广义线性混合模型和 HRS 中来自抑郁和二战父母（DWP；n = 1052）和 BBs 父母（PBB；n = 3573）的 10 年纵向数据，我们检查了队列差异在婚姻和有一个 10 英里内成年子女的可能性的时变。
DWP 在进入老年时具有与 BB 预期相似的非正式照料资源。HRS 中 DWP 和 PBB 队列的纵向分析表明，家庭资源随时间而变化，DWP 队列的配偶或成年子女居住在附近的可能性明显较低。
这些发现以及基于这些发现的未来预测，对关心 BB 一代老龄化时的非正式照料需求的机构和公共政策具有重要意义。
