Rosemary Blieszner
Biographic Data
| ID | 3620587 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rosemary Blieszner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rosemary |
| FAMILY NAME | Blieszner |
| SIGNATURE | BLIESZNER R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Virginia Tech |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7775-5506 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 272 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Achieving a Comprehensive Understanding of Religion and Spirituality in the Later Years
Dark Times and Second Chances: Perceived Growth From Adversity
Using a lifespan perspective, we investigated a neglected aspect of research on religion, namely, whether perceptions of growth from adversity might strengthen religious worldviews, thus accounting for feelings about one's own death in old age. A directed content analysis of in-depth interviews from 16 adults aged 65+ focused on life events, religious worldviews, and death. Findings suggested that participants’ religious worldview beliefs were as…
Dementia Family Caregiving in Rural Appalachia: A Sociocultural Model of Care Decisions and Service Use
Findings revealed subtle variation across caregivers in this study and in comparison, to caregivers' experiences more generally. We interpret these variations in light of culturally influenced attitudes, family norms, and sources of information about formal services. Place-based cultural experience influenced dementia family caregivers' behaviors and choices regarding formal service use, suggesting that investigators should pay more attention to …
Dementia Caregiving During the “Stay-at-Home” Phase of Covid-19 Pandemic
Use of the transactional model of stress responses yielded important insights about families coping with dementia. Caregivers' perceptions of the pandemic's impact varied, with differential effects on their well-being
Mastery and Longevity in Spousal Caregivers of Persons with Dementia
Findings have implications for support programs that help build personal mastery
Where You Age Matters: Individual- and County-Level Predictors of Formal and Informal Care in Rural Appalachia
Developing effective service promotion tactics, destigmatizing community services, and targeting services and support, especially to women, could decrease health disparities in rural Appalachia and similar geographic areas
Handbook of Families and Aging
This comprehensive, state-of-the-art textbook and reference volume in family gerontology reviews and critiques the recent theoretical, empirical, and methodological literature; identifies future research directions; and makes recommendations for gerontology professionals. This book is both an updated version of and a complement to the original Handbook of Families and Aging. The many additions include the most recent demographic changes on aging …
Effects of Daily Stressors on the Psychological and Biological Well-being of Spouses of Persons With Mild Cognitive Impairment
The findings document the negative physiological effects of having a spouse with MCI and provide new details on probable causes of psychological and biological distress. They shed light on MCI-specific interventions to address couples' needs before severe disease progression occurs that could interfere with spouses' ability to provide home-based care and support
Family Triad Perceptions of Mild Cognitive Impairment
Pursuing family-level data on responses to MCI uncovered more nuanced reactions, often differing across triad members, than individual-based research has found. Family perceptions about changes in elders' memory have important implications for within-family interactions and support that can help families cope successfully with MCI
Perspectives on Extended Family and Fictive Kin in the Later Years: Strategies and Meanings of Kin Reinterpretation
To identify perspectives on the roles of extended family and fictive kin, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 45 older adults diverse in gender, race, and class. Five strategies of kin reinterpretation were found. Kin promotion defined a distant blood relative as a closer blood relative. Kin exchange reclassified a parent-child tie as a sibling tie or vice versa. Nonkin conversion created fictive kin by turnin…
Long-Term Influences of Intergenerational Ambivalence on Midlife Parents' Psychological Well-being
We investigated changes in midlife parents' intergenerational ambivalence toward a focal child and its influence on their psychological well-being over 14 years, as the focal child moved from adolescence into young adulthood. We estimated growth curve models using three waves of data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,510 parents aged 35–54 years at Time 1). Parental ambivalence declined over time, equally among mothers an…
Looking Back and Looking Ahead as Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences Turns 65
Intergenerational Solidarity and Support Between Adult Siblings
Using a Dutch national sample containing 1,259 triads (two siblings, one parent), we examined whether practical support and emotional support between siblings are enhanced by intergenerational solidarity and how this differs for brothers and sisters. Sibling support was affected by sibling dyad characteristics and by the relationship with the parent. Having a poor relationship and low contact frequency with the parent enhances sibling emotional s…
A lifetime of caring: Dimensions and dynamics in late‐life close relationships
This review of research on close relationships in old age is informed by principles of life span developmental psychology and life course theory in sociology. It begins with an elaboration of life span and life course concepts as applied to relationships and an analysis of the multiple forms that caring can take. The discussion continues with presentation of research on the effects of sociohistorical contexts on relationships in old age and studi…
Special Reviewers
Career And Relationship Satisfaction Among Female Faculty in Marriage and Family Therapy Programs
Immigrant Family Strengths: Meeting Communication Challenges
The literature on immigrants punctuates their difficulties with language acculturation and communication. Minimal attention has been given to the diversity of immigrant family communication issues in relation to the receiving communities in which they have lived, and research has not assessed immigrant families' strategies for minimizing communication breakdown. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 immigrant mothers and their adult daughters, we …
Older Adults' Preferences for Future Care: Formal Plans and Familial Support
A total of 45 adults, ranging in age from 56 to 88, were asked whom they expected to provide care for them if they became frail. Past experiences, family structure, and current relationships with children and grandchildren influenced their perceptions of how they would manage in the future. For some individuals, evidence of family conflict was linked with plans not to rely on family members. Others with formal plans, and those who identified fami…
Grandfathers' Perceptions and Expectations of Relationships With Their Adult Grandchildren
Combining life course, feminist, and social-constructivist approaches with an inductive qualitative methodology, the authors explored the relationships of older men with their grandchildren. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 men, ranging in age from 59 to 82, who were part of a larger sample of 45 older adult grandparents. From their analyses of the men's perceptions of their family relationships, three main themes emerged: Geographic pr…
Families in the Middle and Later Years: A Review and Critique of Research in the 1990s
Research on families in the middle and later years came into its own during the 1990s, documenting the complexity, malleability, and variety of older family connections. We examined 908 articles on family gerontology topics, observing 4 trends: Conceptually, an appreciation for pluralism and resilience as individuals and families age is apparent. Theoretically, life course, feminist, socioemotional selectivity, and family solidarity theories are …
Definitions of friendship in the third age: Age, gender, and study location effects
Older Women, Their Children, and Grandchildren: A Feminist Perspective on Family Relationships
Using gerontological and feminist frameworks, we explored the relationships older women have with their children and grandchildren. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 34 women, ranging in age from 55 to 88. From our analyses of the women's perceptions of their family relationships, two themes were prevalent: the centrality of children and the peripherality of grandchildren in their everyday lives. The women had varying degrees o…
Structural predictors of problematic friendship in later life
The purpose of this study was to examine the constraining and facilitating effects of social structural position (age, sex, race, class, financial sufficiency, and number of friends) on opportunities for friendship. We hypothesized that the greater the number of people who share a given social structural location and the more access they have to situations where it is possible to meet new people, the less likely they are to have problematic frien…
Problems with friends in old age
Diversity and Dynamics in Late-Life Mother-Daughter Relationships
We employed gerontological and feminist frameworks in an investigation of normative late-life mother-daughter relationships. Building on previous research, we used data from a representative sample of older mothers to explore in depth the predictors of relationship quality and the satisfactions and complaints prevalent in relationships with mothers in later life. Structured interview data revealed that the intimacy dimension of relationship quali…
Aging Parents and Adult Children: Research Themes in Intergenerational Relations
Dominant themes representing the relationships of older parents and their adult children are discussed. These pertain to roles and responsibilities, parent-child interaction (contact patterns, exchange, assistance, and support), individual well-being, relationship quality, and caregiving by adult children. These are discussed within the context of societal age structure changes. Speculation on the future of research on aged parents and adult chil…
An Integrative Conceptual Framework for Friendship Research
In light of the increase in the number and rigor of studies on adult friendship and the tendency of kin and neighbor relationships to have become more structurally similar to friendship, this is a crucial juncture at which to pause and assess what we know and do not know about adult friendship, to begin a needed theoretical synthesis, to identify gaps in the literature and to produce guidelines for future research. The purpose of this article is …
Definitions of friendship in the third age: Age, gender, and study location effects
Intergenerational Solidarity and Support Between Adult Siblings
Using a Dutch national sample containing 1,259 triads (two siblings, one parent), we examined whether practical support and emotional support between siblings are enhanced by intergenerational solidarity and how this differs for brothers and sisters. Sibling support was affected by sibling dyad characteristics and by the relationship with the parent. Having a poor relationship and low contact frequency with the parent enhances sibling emotional s…
Perspectives on Extended Family and Fictive Kin in the Later Years: Strategies and Meanings of Kin Reinterpretation
To identify perspectives on the roles of extended family and fictive kin, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 45 older adults diverse in gender, race, and class. Five strategies of kin reinterpretation were found. Kin promotion defined a distant blood relative as a closer blood relative. Kin exchange reclassified a parent-child tie as a sibling tie or vice versa. Nonkin conversion created fictive kin by turnin…
Aging Well With Friends and Family
Aging encourages people to enhance their friend and family relationships. In general, the elderly tend to have more heterogeneity in relationships as they grow older. They depend on these relationships for instrumental, financial and emotional support. As a result, older adults who have many friends and have close ties with their families are more socially and psychologically well-adjusted than those who are alienated from their networks
Resources in Older Adults' Old and New Friendships
This research investigated the exchange of resources in old and new friendships with a sample of twenty-seven older adults who had recently relocated to a retirement community. Using quantitative measures, the study documented specific short-term changes in resource exchange (love, status, information and services) and measured related changes in affection. Open-ended interviews were used to tap the participants' views of the importance of resour…
Long-Term Influences of Intergenerational Ambivalence on Midlife Parents' Psychological Well-being
We investigated changes in midlife parents' intergenerational ambivalence toward a focal child and its influence on their psychological well-being over 14 years, as the focal child moved from adolescence into young adulthood. We estimated growth curve models using three waves of data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,510 parents aged 35–54 years at Time 1). Parental ambivalence declined over time, equally among mothers an…
Grandfathers' Perceptions and Expectations of Relationships With Their Adult Grandchildren
Combining life course, feminist, and social-constructivist approaches with an inductive qualitative methodology, the authors explored the relationships of older men with their grandchildren. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 men, ranging in age from 59 to 82, who were part of a larger sample of 45 older adult grandparents. From their analyses of the men's perceptions of their family relationships, three main themes emerged: Geographic pr…
Immigrant Family Strengths: Meeting Communication Challenges
The literature on immigrants punctuates their difficulties with language acculturation and communication. Minimal attention has been given to the diversity of immigrant family communication issues in relation to the receiving communities in which they have lived, and research has not assessed immigrant families' strategies for minimizing communication breakdown. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 immigrant mothers and their adult daughters, we …
Dementia Family Caregiving in Rural Appalachia: A Sociocultural Model of Care Decisions and Service Use
Findings revealed subtle variation across caregivers in this study and in comparison, to caregivers' experiences more generally. We interpret these variations in light of culturally influenced attitudes, family norms, and sources of information about formal services. Place-based cultural experience influenced dementia family caregivers' behaviors and choices regarding formal service use, suggesting that investigators should pay more attention to …
Dementia Caregiving During the “Stay-at-Home” Phase of Covid-19 Pandemic
Use of the transactional model of stress responses yielded important insights about families coping with dementia. Caregivers' perceptions of the pandemic's impact varied, with differential effects on their well-being
Career And Relationship Satisfaction Among Female Faculty in Marriage and Family Therapy Programs
Family Triad Perceptions of Mild Cognitive Impairment
Pursuing family-level data on responses to MCI uncovered more nuanced reactions, often differing across triad members, than individual-based research has found. Family perceptions about changes in elders' memory have important implications for within-family interactions and support that can help families cope successfully with MCI
Problems with friends in old age
A socialist-feminist perspective on widowhood
Resources for Friendship Intervention
Programs affecting friendship patterns can be implemented at the individual, dyadic, network, immediate environment, community, or societal level. Literature specifically focused on friendship intervention is scarce. The relevance of other resources for the design and assessment of friendship interventions at each of these levels is described. Practitioners who design social interaction interventions are prompted to familiarize themselves with th…
Mastery and Longevity in Spousal Caregivers of Persons with Dementia
Findings have implications for support programs that help build personal mastery
Where You Age Matters: Individual- and County-Level Predictors of Formal and Informal Care in Rural Appalachia
Developing effective service promotion tactics, destigmatizing community services, and targeting services and support, especially to women, could decrease health disparities in rural Appalachia and similar geographic areas
Effects of Daily Stressors on the Psychological and Biological Well-being of Spouses of Persons With Mild Cognitive Impairment
The findings document the negative physiological effects of having a spouse with MCI and provide new details on probable causes of psychological and biological distress. They shed light on MCI-specific interventions to address couples' needs before severe disease progression occurs that could interfere with spouses' ability to provide home-based care and support
Resources in Older Adults' Old and New Friendships
This research investigated the exchange of resources in old and new friendships with a sample of twenty-seven older adults who had recently relocated to a retirement community. Using quantitative measures, the study documented specific short-term changes in resource exchange (love, status, information and services) and measured related changes in affection. Open-ended interviews were used to tap the participants' views of the importance of resour…
Aging Parents and Adult Children: Research Themes in Intergenerational Relations
Dominant themes representing the relationships of older parents and their adult children are discussed. These pertain to roles and responsibilities, parent-child interaction (contact patterns, exchange, assistance, and support), individual well-being, relationship quality, and caregiving by adult children. These are discussed within the context of societal age structure changes. Speculation on the future of research on aged parents and adult chil…
Older Adult Friendship: Structure and Process
Adult Friendship
A socialist-feminist perspective on widowhood
Resources for Friendship Intervention
Programs affecting friendship patterns can be implemented at the individual, dyadic, network, immediate environment, community, or societal level. Literature specifically focused on friendship intervention is scarce. The relevance of other resources for the design and assessment of friendship interventions at each of these levels is described. Practitioners who design social interaction interventions are prompted to familiarize themselves with th…
Adult Friendship
Adult Friendship
An Integrative Conceptual Framework for Friendship Research
In light of the increase in the number and rigor of studies on adult friendship and the tendency of kin and neighbor relationships to have become more structurally similar to friendship, this is a crucial juncture at which to pause and assess what we know and do not know about adult friendship, to begin a needed theoretical synthesis, to identify gaps in the literature and to produce guidelines for future research. The purpose of this article is …
Aging Well With Friends and Family
Aging encourages people to enhance their friend and family relationships. In general, the elderly tend to have more heterogeneity in relationships as they grow older. They depend on these relationships for instrumental, financial and emotional support. As a result, older adults who have many friends and have close ties with their families are more socially and psychologically well-adjusted than those who are alienated from their networks
Diversity and Dynamics in Late-Life Mother-Daughter Relationships
We employed gerontological and feminist frameworks in an investigation of normative late-life mother-daughter relationships. Building on previous research, we used data from a representative sample of older mothers to explore in depth the predictors of relationship quality and the satisfactions and complaints prevalent in relationships with mothers in later life. Structured interview data revealed that the intimacy dimension of relationship quali…
Structural predictors of problematic friendship in later life
The purpose of this study was to examine the constraining and facilitating effects of social structural position (age, sex, race, class, financial sufficiency, and number of friends) on opportunities for friendship. We hypothesized that the greater the number of people who share a given social structural location and the more access they have to situations where it is possible to meet new people, the less likely they are to have problematic frien…
Problems with friends in old age
Older Women, Their Children, and Grandchildren: A Feminist Perspective on Family Relationships
Using gerontological and feminist frameworks, we explored the relationships older women have with their children and grandchildren. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 34 women, ranging in age from 55 to 88. From our analyses of the women's perceptions of their family relationships, two themes were prevalent: the centrality of children and the peripherality of grandchildren in their everyday lives. The women had varying degrees o…
Families in the Middle and Later Years: A Review and Critique of Research in the 1990s
Research on families in the middle and later years came into its own during the 1990s, documenting the complexity, malleability, and variety of older family connections. We examined 908 articles on family gerontology topics, observing 4 trends: Conceptually, an appreciation for pluralism and resilience as individuals and families age is apparent. Theoretically, life course, feminist, socioemotional selectivity, and family solidarity theories are …
Definitions of friendship in the third age: Age, gender, and study location effects
Older Adults' Preferences for Future Care: Formal Plans and Familial Support
A total of 45 adults, ranging in age from 56 to 88, were asked whom they expected to provide care for them if they became frail. Past experiences, family structure, and current relationships with children and grandchildren influenced their perceptions of how they would manage in the future. For some individuals, evidence of family conflict was linked with plans not to rely on family members. Others with formal plans, and those who identified fami…
Grandfathers' Perceptions and Expectations of Relationships With Their Adult Grandchildren
Combining life course, feminist, and social-constructivist approaches with an inductive qualitative methodology, the authors explored the relationships of older men with their grandchildren. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 men, ranging in age from 59 to 82, who were part of a larger sample of 45 older adult grandparents. From their analyses of the men's perceptions of their family relationships, three main themes emerged: Geographic pr…
Immigrant Family Strengths: Meeting Communication Challenges
The literature on immigrants punctuates their difficulties with language acculturation and communication. Minimal attention has been given to the diversity of immigrant family communication issues in relation to the receiving communities in which they have lived, and research has not assessed immigrant families' strategies for minimizing communication breakdown. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 immigrant mothers and their adult daughters, we …
Career And Relationship Satisfaction Among Female Faculty in Marriage and Family Therapy Programs
Special Reviewers
A lifetime of caring: Dimensions and dynamics in late‐life close relationships
This review of research on close relationships in old age is informed by principles of life span developmental psychology and life course theory in sociology. It begins with an elaboration of life span and life course concepts as applied to relationships and an analysis of the multiple forms that caring can take. The discussion continues with presentation of research on the effects of sociohistorical contexts on relationships in old age and studi…
Intergenerational Solidarity and Support Between Adult Siblings
Using a Dutch national sample containing 1,259 triads (two siblings, one parent), we examined whether practical support and emotional support between siblings are enhanced by intergenerational solidarity and how this differs for brothers and sisters. Sibling support was affected by sibling dyad characteristics and by the relationship with the parent. Having a poor relationship and low contact frequency with the parent enhances sibling emotional s…
Looking Back and Looking Ahead as Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences Turns 65
Effects of Daily Stressors on the Psychological and Biological Well-being of Spouses of Persons With Mild Cognitive Impairment
The findings document the negative physiological effects of having a spouse with MCI and provide new details on probable causes of psychological and biological distress. They shed light on MCI-specific interventions to address couples' needs before severe disease progression occurs that could interfere with spouses' ability to provide home-based care and support
Psychology (33 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (20 works) · Developmental psychology (19 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Aging and Gerontology Research (13 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Friendship (10 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (8 works)