Is family influence declining? The impact of parents and grandparents over 35 years

Professor Bengtson’s talk draws on a mixed-methods approach with 35-year longitudinal survey data and in-depth interviews exploring whether family intergenerational influences have declined in the context of remarkable cultural, religious, and family structure changes since 1970.

Vern L. Bengtson is author of 17 books and over 250 research articles on families, gerontology, and theories of aging. Currently he is Research Professor in the Roybal Institute on Aging of the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work.  He has been honoured with Distinguished Scholar awards from the Gerontological Society of America, the American Sociological Association, and the National Council on Family Relations, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.  He has received several awards for teaching, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.  Among his most recent publications are The Handbook of Theories of Aging and How Families Still Matter:  A Longitudinal Study of Youth in Two Generations.  His most recent project is Families and Faith:  How Religion is passed down across Generations. 

The event is free and open for everybody.