ISRAEL: Modernity In Israeli Arab Society Reduces Care For Elderly, Study Shows

TEL AVIV (Haaretz.com), February 5, 2008: The higher the level of modernization and urbanization in Israeli Arab locales, the less devotion there is to caring for elderly parents, according to a research study carried out by Rabia Halaila, a doctoral student at Hebrew University. The study involved interviews with 250 people who care for their elderly parents in 11 locales of different degrees of urbanization in the north. The caregivers were asked about their attitudes toward caring for their parents. According to their responses, there is a negative correlation between a higher level of individualism and the willingness to be more devoted and committed to their elderly parents. The researcher, Rabia Halaila, says that all over the world there has been a decline in the level of commitment and devotion to caring for the elderly, and his findings show that the change is not skipping over Arab society. "The processes of modernization, and the transition from a traditional agricultural society to a modern urban society that the society has been undergoing during the past three decades have led to a decline in the status of the elderly within the family and in society as a whole," he says. Nevertheless, according to the researcher, there is still a positive attitude toward the elderly, and a high level of commitment to caring for them. In this context it should be noted that in Arab society it is not customary to hire foreign workers to care for the elderly, in contrast to Jewish society. Moreover, the few old-age homes where the elderly live are intended mostly for people who have no family, and not for old people who have families and who generally remain within the bosom of the family. A study of the responses showed that for the most part there is no single main caregiver for elderly Arabs, but rather a social-familial network that supports him or her. The number of family members who care for an elderly person on average is five. Usually this is the elderly person's daughter, in about 36 percent of cases; son, 32 percent of cases; or daughter-in-law, 27 percent of cases. This means that about two-thirds of the caregivers for the elderly are women. The conclusions of the study will be presented at the biennial conference of the Israel Gerontological Society at Tel Aviv University this week. By Yoav Stern © Copyright 2008 Haaretz.