Household, family and intergenerational interaction of rural Arab elderly in Israel

The rural Arab elderly in Israel live in a society undergoing rapid social, political and economic change. Family relations, as expressed in intergenerational interaction, are intensive, frequent and mutually supporting, and probably not motivated by the overt needs of the old. The findings on the household history of the investigated population indicate that the establishment of separate household by young couples, at marriage, is not a "modern" phenomenon. This fact helps to explain the positive attitude toward the single generation household found in this study. The data indicate that family structure and household structure, as well as intergenerational interaction basically have not been affected by the rapid changes occurring in the political and economic structure of the rural areas.