Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2008
Recent work on family life in old age may be considered in several dimensions. First, it encompasses different substantive areas: parentchild relationships, care-giving, changing family forms. Second, it involves different types of discourse, which variously reflect social policy considerations, legal and ethical debates, academic discourses and prescriptive writing for professionals and older people. A third dimension consists of methodological and theoretical variations. These include synchronic and life history approaches, quantitative and qualitative methods, positivistic and phenomenological research paradigms, and cross-cultural and historical comparisons.