Power of the Korean elderly in the extended family

Abstract

<p>Using a sample of 252 Korean elderly living in Korea with a married child, this research focused on factors related to decision-making power (DMP) between generations in the extended family. In general, the elderly had distinctly less DMP than the younger generation in most family matters, although they had greater power in decisions about financial support for relatives, ancestor worship, and children's religion;To determine factors affecting DMP of the elderly in the extended family, three groups of variables were examined: (1) modern environment of the aged--individual modernity, residential area, and education of their children; (2) exchange resource variables--education, health, employment status, and family role involvement of the aged; and (3) demographic characteristics--age, sex, and marital status. The coefficients for the path model of DMP were estimated using LISREL. Marital status, age, employment status, and individual modernity were significant predictors of DMP of the aged, indicating that those who were married, younger, employed, and had modern attitudes had more power in decision-making. The positive relationship between individual modernity and DMP implies that having modern attitudes becomes a resource as the elderly deal with power distributions in the family.</p>