Frequently, the principle reason for institutionalizing cognitively impaired older persons is the caregivers' inability to continue providing help, and not the severity of deficits. Factors related to the caregivers' feelings of burden in a sample of 29 community-living older persons with senile dementia were investigated. Caregivers were spouses…

Presents a model for an alternative family form which extends ideological and structural features of open marriage to include children. Open families are characterized by enhanced permeability of internal/external boundaries and a single standard of behavior. A reply is given by Vladimir De Lissovoy with concluding responses by Constantine.…

Members of nuclear families look to one another for support in times of stress. Relationships between spouses and between parents and children contain the conditions required for effective counselling and helping. This paper presents the results of two tests of the hypothesis that such helping relationships in families act as moderators between…

Although studies of social contact and mutual aid between the elderly and their children suggest impressive potentials for family supports, much less is known of this potential in a situation of illness and dependency. The family's potential at that stage when the older person's health deteriorates to the point that some external support is…