Study led by URI professor compares perspectives of African American age groups
KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 15, 2026 – A study led by Nekehia Quashie, an assistant professor of public health in the University of Rhode Island’s College of Health Sciences, examined how different African American age groups felt about the responsibility of supporting older adults.
The research compared whether African American young adults (ages 18–39), midlife adults (ages 40–64), and older adults (65 and older) felt taking care of older adults’ finances, household chores, and personal care should be the responsibility of family members, a combination of family and the government, or mainly the government.
The results of the study were published in the August issue of the journal Sociological Focus.
“Life course stage is an important factor in attitudes toward family-based responsibility for supporting older adults, potentially due to differences in resources and awareness of the need for government involvement in different types of support,” the article explained.
Previous studies analyzed differences in care and support by race and/or by age group, but not by age group within the African American community.
“Addressing this gap is important because African Americans experience financial and health disadvantages, particularly during midlife, which may influence their views of whether the family should be mainly responsible for support if given the option for the government to be involved,” said Quashie.
When comparing the different African American age groups, Quashie and the research team found that more than half of young adult respondents (56.9%) supported equal responsibility for financial support to older adults, compared to 47.1% of midlife adults and 35.6% of older adults. More than one-third of midlife and older adults, 33.7% and 38.2%, respectively, endorsed mainly government responsibility compared to 22.7% of young adults.
For household chores, young adults had the highest endorsement of mainly family responsibility (67.3%), midlife adults were most likely to support equal responsibility (29.5%), and older adults were most likely to endorse mainly government responsibility (13.7%).
When asked about personal caregiving, young adults were most likely to support equal responsibility (45.2%). Midlife adults were split in their endorsement of mainly family and equal responsibility at 43.6% and 43.8%, respectively. Older adults were most likely, of the three groups, to endorse mainly government responsibility (19.0%).
According to the study, although African Americans highly value family support, African Americans are in favor of the government having some or the main responsibility for some types of support for older adults.
“Understanding age differences in African Americans’ views of whether the family and/or government should be responsible for different types of support to older adults provides valuable information on how support services may be targeted for different age groups,” said Quashie.
The study was based on data from the 2001–2003 National Survey of American Life Adult Reinterview, using a sample of 1,696 African American adults between the ages of 19-90. It was the only data available that allowed an examination of social attitudes toward supporting older adults across multiple types of tasks with a large sample of African Americans and differences by age.
“With an increasingly diverse population of older adults in the U.S., and unequal aging and
disability processes by race, more work is needed to understand attitudes toward the support of older adults among African Americans,” the study concluded.
The other researchers included Sarah Patterson, research assistant professor at the University of Michigan; Michelle Stage, a health studies graduate student at URI, and Neil Mehta, professor and associate dean for research of the University of Texas’ medical branch.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research.
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