‘Ageing without Children’

Abstract

A lot of later life care is centred on the family. A member of a family, usually an adult daughter or son, informally care for an older parent. Families often include people who are not biological kin but who hold a similar status – ‘fictive kin’. For example, a long-term neighbour or friend from school might be known as an Aunty or Uncle. Often the biological child or ‘fictive kin’ is the ‘go-between’ between older parent(s) and formal care services. They perform an essential role in maintaining the dignity and independence of the older person(s) and facilitate access into and out of care services. However, over the last few decades there has been a change in the shape of families. This change is linked to long-term decline in fertility rate, the rise in the age of mortality, economics, increase in divorce rate and stepfamilies. Not only are families smaller than they once were but there is an increase in number of people ageing without children. By 2030 it is estimated there will be over a million people aged 65 or over who are childless McNeil (McNeil and Hunter, 2014). The childless are a much under researched group and as a result they are often absent from both policy and practice information. Research shows that older childless people are not disadvantaged when they are well but should they need help they are more quickly taken into formal care settings than people with family (Albertini and Mencarini, 2014). Moreover, as men tend have smaller social networks and more likely to be estranged from adult children than women, they more likely to be placed in residential care than equivalent women (Arber et al., 2003).

Keywords: Adult children, Ageing, Aging without children, Care policy, Childlessness, Elders, Family, Fictive kin, Formal care, Informal care, Older parent, Nursing, Policy, Residential Care, Social networks