Adjustment of Older Soviet Immigrant Parents and Their Adult Children Residing in Shared Households: An Intergenerational Comparison

Adjustment of Older Soviet Immigrant Parents and Their Adult Children Residing in Shared Households: An Intergenerational Comparison* This study examined the impact of sociodemographic, personal, and familial resources on the adjustment of older Soviet immigrants and their adult children living in multigenerational households. The sample included 200 respondents from 100 families who arrived in Israel between 1989 and 1995. Intergenerational solidarity served as a conceptual framework. The study used both quantitative and qualitative procedures. The results show that, overall, the younger generation is better adjusted than the older. Specifically, the best adjustment was reported by married older immigrants who received formal support and by educated, younger male immigrants who had work satisfaction. Past and current intergenerational solidarity and, to some extent, current family functioning affect adjustment among the older generation above and beyond all other variables, but hardly affect the younger generation. Key Words: intergenerational solidarity Israel, multigenerational households, older and adult immigrants. Close to 600,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrived in Israel between 1989 and 1996 and today they comprise over 10% of the Israeli population. Within this large influx of newcomers 88,000 are 65 years and older, a population that faces an acute challenge in adjustment. The process of absorption into a new country is stressful for both the individual and the family (Berry, Kim, & Minde, 1987; Westermeyer, 1985), tests their abilities and resources (Mirsky, Barasch, & Goldberg, 1992), and elicits a variety of coping strategies. One such strategy, widespread among the immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has been the formation of multigenerational households. Although most families in the developed world today, including Israel, live in separate households (parents and children), multigenerational households have not completely disappeared. Data show, for example, that the number of multigenerational households in the United States stabilized somewhat in the 1980s (Glick, Bean, & Van Hook, 1997; Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1989). The proportion of multigenerational households within the Russian immigrant population in Israel is estimated at around 70% (Strosberg & Naon, 1997), a figure that is much higher not only in comparison to veteran families but also as compared to the living arrangements of the immigrants themselves in their country of origin: 40% had lived with their adult children in the same household (Strosberg & Naon, 1997). The main reasons cited by Soviet immigrants in Israel for establishing shared households with children and grandchildren were economic constraints (on the part of the older as well as the younger generation), housing shortages, and the need for mutual help. An additional factor was familiarity with this type of living arrangement from life in the former Soviet Union (Strosberg & Naon, 1997). A similar picture of household arrangements was presented by Gelfand (1989) in a study on immigrants from El Salvador to the United States where 91% lived with their children compared to 76% in their homeland. Family-based migration imbues the immigration process with shared experiences physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Family members of different generations living in the same household provide varying perspectives of a stressful event in the life of both the individual and the family (Hagestad, 1990), while invoking emotional bonds that may embrace care-giving, including housing (Boyd,1991). Immigration and Adjustment Immigration involves a permanent change not only in place of residence but, even more significantly, in lifestyle, values, norms, and language. The process of adjusting to a new society is multidimensional, protracted, and complex. Its final objective is to develop the ability to solve problems in a new environment as a result of social, behavioral, and emotional changes (Eisenstadt, 1954). …