Family-Embedded vs. Family-Deprived Oldest-Old: A Study of Contrasts

Most of the white oldest-old in San Francisco have at least one surviving relative, but only one-half have relatives available to them if they need help. The primary family resources are children, especially for women. They are closer to children than to grandchildren or other relatives. The respondents themselves are more passive and unemotional family members, however, rather than being active kinkeepers. They also seem to derive satisfaction from thinking about relatives now dead—men usually about their dead wives and women about their mothers and siblings. There is a sharp contrast in life style and feelings between those who are most embedded in their families and those at the other extreme, the “family deprived,” with the embedded being much better off.