Resource Exchanges in Dyadic Family Relations in the u.s. And Japan: Towards a Theory of Dependence and Indepenence of the Elderly (United States)
Akiyama, Hiroku Shimazu
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/68940
Description
Title
Resource Exchanges in Dyadic Family Relations in the u.s. And Japan: Towards a Theory of Dependence and Indepenence of the Elderly (United States)
Author(s)
Akiyama, Hiroku Shimazu
Issue Date
1984
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Gerontology
Abstract
The present study attempted (1) to identify and compare the exchangeability of six interpersonal resources: money, goods, services, status, love and information in American and Japanese family relationships, (2) to isolate exchange rules distinctive to each system, and (3) to examine the relationship between resource exchangeability and the acceptability of elderly dependence.
In the first part of the two phase study, 500 female college students in each country were given a questionnaire in which they indicated whether certain resource exchanges were acceptable in 15 dyadic family relations. A discriminant analysis showed two relevant distinct exchange patterns. Expressive resources (i.e., love and status) were exchangeable with material resources (i.e., money and goods) in Japan. But in the U.S., only similar resources were exchangeable.
Phase two consisted of the administration of semi-structured open-ended interviews conducted with thirty-two female elderly respondents in each country in order to examine the relationship between resource exchangeability and the acceptability of elderly dependence. The respondents were given hypothetical exchange situations involving older women and asked to state whether the exchange was typical, appropriate, fair and emotionally satisfiable. A content analysis of three interviews from each country identified two exchange rules distinctive to each of the two family systems and evidence for more acceptability of elderly dependence in the Japanese system than in the American system.
The American exchange rule for elderly family members is symmetrical reciprocity which prescribes immediate repayment by a resource in kind and of equivalent value. Such American rules suppress one way transactions characterized by the failure of equivalent repayment which results in dependence. By contrast, the Japanese exchange rule tends to prescribe repayment by an expressive resource regardless of the kind of resource received. The unquantifiable nature of expressive resources makes debt discharge less determinate and more ambiguous, and places the recipient in a continual debtor position, in which one must be continually vigilant for another opportunity of repayment. This diffuseness and indeterminateness of the Japanese exchange rule engenders a state of continuous indebtedness and dependence among family members and strengthens the family solidarity based upon dependence.
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