Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The issues of eldercare and parenting children with disabilities have both received considerable emphasis. Little attention, however, had been given to the special circumstances of eldercare in families of children whose disabilities require extraordinary or lifelong parental care. The current study utilizes the results of extensive interactive interviews between the author, who is the mother of a child with cerebral palsy, and two other mothers whose unusual parenting responsibilities have converged with the need to provide care for elderly relatives. Transcripts of the interviews have been analyzed for themes related to the positive and negative components of the experience of convergent care. Primary among the emergent themes are: 1. Penalties of convergent care (limits on the support available for eldercare because of support previously received for parenting); 2. Effects of the child's disability on the attitudes of others toward maternal competence as a provider of eldercare; and 3. Empathy between children with disabilities and elders in need of care. The experiences of these mothers suggest important avenues for future research that cross the boundaries between social gerontology, disability studies and medical sociology and are likely to have fruitful implications for policy and practice.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The family ecology for adolescent development includes social capital resources, family activities and routines, parent-child relationships, and parenting styles. These aspects of family ecology systematically vary by demographic factors, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic resources, and parental family structure and the living arrangements of children. This paper first investigates how the family ecology of children with disabilities differ from that of children without disabilities, taking into account these other known factors. This paper then examines how the ecology of children differ by the disability status of their fathers and mothers. The paper uses data from the 1997 Cohort of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Children with disabilities experience family life equivalent to children without disabilities. They do not enjoy improved physical environments or social capital nor do parents compensate for their disabilities by enhanced parenting. Nor are they disadvantaged by less favorable family ecologies even though they may need additonal family resources. There is some evidence that fathers are more lenient than mothers of chldren with disabilties; mothers often interpret this is fathers doing to little to develop self-reliance among children. Mothers and fathers with disabilities are in many ways better parents as parents who do not have disabilities; these advantages mainly are associated with a stronger physical presence in the home. But some Fathers with disabilities withdraw from disciplining their children. Mothers only reduce their supervisory and disciplinary when they have a husband who is disabled, indicative of the gendered nature of caregiviing in American families.

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: Results of a collaborative initiative with a research university, school districts, and local agencies to increase the participation of culturally/linguistically diverse families in the education of their children with disabilities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, we explore within-family differences in mother-to-child support in later life, using data collected from 144 African American and 407 white mothers ages 65-78. The findings indicate substantial within-family variation in mother-to-child support in both Black and white families; specifically, most mothers appeared to differentiate among their children rather than provide support to all or to none of them. Some factors found to be most important in understanding intergenerational support using between-family designs also helped to explain within-family differences—mothers were more likely to provide support to daughters, to children who were single, and to those who lived nearby. Comparisons of models for Blacks and whites revealed more dissimilarities than similarities. Child’s gender and health problems in adulthood played roles in explaining within-family differences in both Black and white families; however, effects of gender were greater among whites, whereas effects of children’s health problems were greater among Blacks. Further, some factors that were important in explaining white mothers’ differentiation among her children, such as child’s marital status, had no effect on Black mothers’ differentiation. In sum, the findings indicate that within-family differences in support to children continue across the life course in white and Black families, although the factors explaining these patterns differ somewhat by race.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This is a study of the lived experiences of three families who adopted interracial and international children. Using communication privacy management as an underpinning, in-depth interviews revealed two major patterns of behavior: talking within the family and talking outside of the family. Race and acknowledging differences were significant themes within the family while concealing private information, their stories, and revealing everything were three main themes outside of the family.