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Liminality and Low-Income Aging Families by Choice: Meanings of Family and Support*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2014

Susan McDaniel  and
Amber Gazso
Susan McDaniel
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Lethbridge
Amber Gazso
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, York University
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Abstract

Through the lens of individualization, aging families demonstrate changes both in family composition and in meanings of family and support. So, also, do low-income families that – in order to survive – choose flexible, sometimes novel, social-support relations, including kin and non-kin: these are aging families by choice. Applying the concept of liminality (transitional states of being) created through individualization, we explored the experiences of close relations in low-income families consisting of aging kin and non-kin members. Qualitative interviews with respondents representing two or three generations of aging families of choice illustrated how these families perceive the meanings of family and social support. We find that reciprocity is less vital to relationships of older with younger members in familial networks than may be expected. Liminality contours meanings and exchanges in low-income aging families of choice such that no matter how tenuous relations may be, they provide a sense of belonging and meaning.

Résumé

Le vieillissement, à travers la lentille de l'individualisation, démontre des changements, tant dans la composition de la famille et le sens de la famille et du soutien. Les familles à faible revenu qui – pour survivre – aussi choisissent parfois de nouvelles relations flexibles de soutien social, y compris les parents et non-parents : celles sont les familles vieillissantes par choix. En appliquant le concept de liminalité (états transitoires de l’être), créé par l’individualisation, nous avons exploré les expériences de liens étroits dans les familles à faible revenu constitutées de parents et membres non-parents vieillissants. Des entretiens qualitatifs avec des répondants représentant deux ou trois générations de familles vieillissantes par choix ont montré comment ces familles perçoivent les sens de la famille et du soutien social. Nous trouvons que la reciprocité est moins essentielle aux rapports entre les plus vieux et les plus jeunes dans les réseaux familiaux que l’on pourrait s’attendre. La liminalité façonne les sens et les échanges dans les familles vieillissantes à faible revenu par choix, de sorte que n’importe la façon dont les relations soient-elles ténues, elles procurent un sentiment d’appartenance et de la signification.

Keywords

agingfamilies by choiceliminalitylow incomesocial supportsvieillissmentfamilles par choixliminalitéà faible revenusoutiens sociaux
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 33 , Issue 4: Special Issue on Aging Families , December 2014 , pp. 400 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2014 

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Standard Research Grant, No. 410-2008-1996.We gratefully acknowledge the time and energy with which respondents volunteered to be interviewed for this study. We also thank Katherine Osterlund, Amal Hanna, and Jackie Boyce for their valuable research assistance in data collection and analysis. The article also benefitted from comments offered at the symposium on Aging Families at the University of Victoria, June 2013. Further, we thank the editors of the Canadian Journal on Aging and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments which significantly improved the article.

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