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Residential proximity of nearest child and older adults’ receipts of informal support transfers in Barbados

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2012

NEKEHIA QUASHIE  and
ZACHARY ZIMMER
NEKEHIA QUASHIE*
Affiliation:
Sociology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
ZACHARY ZIMMER
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, Laurel Heights Campus, San Francisco, California, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Nekehia Quashie, Sociology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study assesses the probability that an older person in Bridgetown, Barbados receives financial, functional and/or material support from their adult children according to the proximity of their nearest child, adjusting for demographic and socio-economic factors. As in many countries of the developing world, older Barbadians receive much of their support from adult children. Population ageing, smaller family sizes and high rates of out-migration may be placing stress on systems of formal and informal support within the country. Yet, very little research has examined determinants of support within the Caribbean let alone Barbados, one of the most rapidly ageing countries in the region. Data (N = 1,248) come from the 2000 Pan American Health Organization Survey on Health, Well-being and Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean (SABE). Multivariate logistic regression analyses highlight the overwhelming importance of co-residence in the receipt of informal support transfers. Although there is a lower probability of receiving support as distance to nearest child increases, several indicators of vulnerability, such as having a disability, increases support probabilities among those whose nearest children live outside the neighbourhood. The results have implications for current and future cohorts of older adults in the region given the combination of declining fertility, persistent migration and population ageing within a broader context of social protection systems across the region.

Keywords

ageingBarbadosCaribbeansocial supportintergenerational relationsmigrationresidential proximity
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , February 2013 , pp. 320 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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