Future of the Family in Later Life

The study of the family in later life is the attempt to capture an ever-changing process that affects us all as we move through our individual lives, through the domains of family, work, and the political world. As a human service and public service leader, you will find that your family in later life will not be like that of your parents or your grandparents. The dynamic interplay between social change and the aging of cohorts, including your cohort, guarantees that the only thing that you can count on is that the family in later life in the future will be different socially, economically, and (to some degree) physically. As human service and public service leaders, you will need to recognize that individual and large-scale planning, as you face an aging society, must include flexibility. The future of the family in later life is uncertain; only the fact that we are all aging is firmly guaranteed.

The New York Times has had a blog for several years called The New Old Age. It is linked in the Studies for this unit and the Resources for this discussion. It provides a variety of articles and topics related to aging, including a number that you have read about in chapters in your course materials. Scroll through the posts and identify one or two that discuss issues relevant to the future of the family in later life—predictions about policy, health, attitudes, anything that has a future slant. In your discussion post, include the following:

• Identify the issue presented in the blog and the key elements conveyed.
• Connect these ideas to some of the themes or primary topics you have learned or found especially interesting in the course.
• Explain your selection of the issue(s).
• Support your thoughts with references from current professional literature.