A Field in Search of Concepts: The Relevance of Generativity to Understanding Intergenerational Relationships

Intergenerational relationships are increasingly recognized as an important field of practice and research. However, it has been argued that appropriate concepts and theories are still required to guide and consolidate the discipline. Although a number of concepts borrowed from the social sciences have been used with some success thus far, few attempts have been made to conceptualize intergenerational relationships from a psychological and developmental perspective. This article explores the usefulness of the Eriksonian concept of generativity as a framework for understanding intergenerational relationships. We describe the contribution of generativity to the intergenerational field and we explore the prospects, limitations, and potential of this contribution.     

Older Parent–Child Relationships in Six Developed Nations: Comparisons at the Intersection of Affection and Conflict

Intergenerational solidarity and ambivalence paradigms suggest that emotional relationships between generations consist of both positive and negative sentiments. We applied latent class analysis to measures of affection and conflict in 2,698 older parent–child relationships in 6 developed nations: England, Germany, Israel, Norway, Spain, and the United States (Southern California). The best fitting model consisted of 4 latent classes distributed differently across nations but with a cross‐nationally invariant measurement structure. After controlling for demographics, health, coresidence, contact, and support, the following classes were overrepresented in corresponding nations: amicable (England), detached (Germany and Spain), disharmonious (United States), ambivalent (Israel). We discuss policy and cultural differences across societies that may explain why the prevalence of particular emotional types varied by nation.     

Cambodian Refugee Families: Impacts of Immigration-Related Stressors on Intergenerational Relationships

The purpose of this study was to elucidate Cambodian refugees’ perceptions of immigration-related stressors and their impacts on intergenerational relations during the processes of immigration and settlement. We used narrative analysis to evoke older immigrants’ voices as they transitioned to the United States. Thirty-one Cambodian immigrants were interviewed using open-ended interview guides informed by ethnographic tenets of data collection. Participants expressed (a) changes in family structure and elder isolation and (b) intergenerational ambivalence and elder’s dependence on adult children as products of immigration-related stressors. Implications of these results for refugee and immigrant mental health research are discussed.     

The Residential Choices of Ethnic Elders in Affordable Housing: Changing Intergenerational Relationships and the Pursuit of Residential Independence

This study examines the housing choices and residential experiences of ethnic minority elders in affordable senior housing in a large metropolitan area by using a life course perspective in the context of community life. Using in-depth interview data with 138 individuals, the study reveals that the elders’ decisions to move were fueled by their evolving intergenerational relationships, suburban isolation, governmental provisions of housing and health care, and ethnic concentrations in urban centers. Place meanings arose from the relationship between life course factors, urban configuration, and health care provision as they unfolded in a community boundary of the activity setting.     

Experiences of Grandparenting Disabled Children in the UK: A Qualitative Study of Intergenerational Relationships

Contemporary patterns of family, work, and welfare make the experience of grandparenting complex and diverse. This UK-based qualitative study aimed to explore grandparenting in the context of childhood disability. Nine grandparents (aged 59–79 years) with disabled and non-disabled grandchildren took part in semi-structured interviews. Grandparents provided extensive instrumental and emotional care and support and sought a balance between involvement versus interfering. Grandparents actively drew on life experiences to engage with services to maximize support. Contemplating the future, grandparents had concerns for adult children as well as grandchildren. Developing policies to support grandparents of disabled grandchildren are urgently required.     

Reflections on Intergenerational Policy in Europe: The Past Twenty Years and Looking into the Future

This article will start from a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-sponsored meeting on intergenerational programs in Dortmund, Germany, in 1999, as this was an awareness-raising moment for intergenerational programs in Europe. The connection between lifelong learning and intergenerational learning as one reason for the increased interest for intergenerational programs in the creation of European policy are discussed and connected to demography, health, aging, and well-being in policy. Therefore recent actions and reports from a European perspective are analyzed in order to reflect over the social and cultural factors that can have an impact and influence the intergenerational field in Europe in the future.     

The Role of Family Income in the Intergenerational Association of AFDC Receipt

Daughters from low‐income families who did not receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) are compared to daughters from low‐income families who did receive assistance to better account for family income in the intergenerational association of AFDC. The research models the timing of a daughter's first birth and, for those who become mothers, the number of years a daughter receives any AFDC. Women whose families received AFDC during their childhood are more likely to receive AFDC as adults relative to those women whose families did not receive AFDC. Controlling for family income in a more careful and comprehensive way than past research explains part but not all of the effects of childhood AFDC receipt. Among daughters from chronically poor families, however, parental AFDC use is not associated with additional years of AFDC participation. Although the present research cannot confirm or deny a causal role for parental welfare use, the intergenerational transmission of financial resources does explain part of the intergenerational association of welfare use.     

母语正迁移对二语习得的影响

与备受关注的母语负迁移研究相比,对母语正迁移缺乏足够的关注。从减轻心理焦虑、增强学习兴趣的目的出发,分别从字词及写作层面对母语正迁移的积极作用进行了尝试性地探索。     

Intergenerational solidarity: the paradox of reciprocity imbalance in ageing welfare states

In this article a new theoretical framework is applied to a research field that is somewhat fragmented, namely that of intergenerational solidarity in ageing welfare states. Inspired by utilitarian considerations many scholars tend to problematize the lack of reciprocity characterizing intergenerational exchanges. As some generations are longer old and more numerous they may receive excessive state‐administered support of the younger generations, especially in a democratic setting. However, in reality there is limited empirical evidence of intergenerational conflict and theoretical explanations of this paradox are rare. An integrated and dynamical approach that incorporates Durkheim's solidarity theory, Honneth's intersubjective recognition theory, and the current work on reciprocal exchange is necessary in order to understand the survival of intergenerational solidarity in ageing welfare states. According to this model reciprocal recognition leading to the empathization of exchanges is the driving force of intergenerational solidarity in a prefigurative and democratized culture where the status of the young has risen dramatically. Hence, we come to the paradoxical conclusion that attempts to preserve intergenerational solidarity by openly denouncing excessive transfers and trying to bypass them institutionally sometimes might be counterproductive because they may erode their empathic underpinnings.     

Beyond the Nuclear Family: The Increasing Importance of Multigenerational Bonds

Family relationships across several generations are becoming increasingly important in American society. They are also increasingly diverse in structure and in functions. In reply to the widely debated “family decline” hypothesis, which assumes a nuclear family model of 2 biological parents and children, I suggest that family multigenerational relations will be more important in the 21st century for 3 reasons: (a) the demographic changes of population aging, resulting in “longer years of shared lives” between generations; (b) the increasing importance of grandparents and other kin in fulfilling family functions; (c) the strength and resilience of intergenerational solidarity over time. I also indicate that family multigenerational relations are increasingly diverse because of (a) changes in family structure, involving divorce and stepfamily relationships; (b) the increased longevity of kin; (c) the diversity of intergenerational relationship “types.” Drawing on the family research legacy of Ernest W. Burgess, I frame my arguments in terms of historical family transitions and hypotheses. Research from the Longitudinal Study of Generations is presented to demonstrate the strengths of multigenerational ties over time and why it is necessary to look beyond the nuclear family when asking whether families are still functional.     

Employer Policy and Practice Toward Older Workers in Hong Kong: The Role of Shifting Intergenerational Dynamics

Many governments are seeking to encourage the extension of working lives to counteract potential labor market shortages that might result from population aging. Nevertheless, research shows that older workers continue to face a range of barriers to their labor market participation. However, this research has not tended to take a holistic view of the factors shaping employer policy and practice or acknowledge that older workers’ experiences are embedded within broader social structures and age dynamics. This article reports on exploratory qualitative research undertaken in Hong Kong. It demonstrates how employer policy and practice toward older workers are shaped by intergenerational dynamics and by the social responsibility that employers feel toward different generations. It is argued that in order to more fully understand employer policy and practice toward older workers, an approach that acknowledges the social context and position of different age groups is required.     

The Structure of Intergenerational Relations in Rural China: A Latent Class Analysis

Most existing typology studies of intergenerational relations have used samples in North America and Europe. The present study expands on previous research by determining whether similar family relation typologies could be found using a sample of Chinese rural elders. The data were derived from a survey of 1,224 older adults in China's rural Anhui province in 2009. Latent class analysis revealed 5 types of intergenerational relations in rural Chinese families: (a) tight‐knit, (b) nearby but discordant, (c) distant discordant, (d) distant reciprocal, and (e) distant ascending. The authors argue that the distant ascending ties reflect the strong filial obligations that Chinese adult children have toward their parents and that the distant reciprocal ties reflect collaborative and mutually beneficial parent–child relations in rural China in the context of massive rural‐to‐urban migration. The findings of this study demonstrate how family relations in contemporary China are shaped by the larger economic, geographic, and cultural contexts.     

The Best of Ties,the Worst of Ties: Close,Problematic, and Ambivalent Social Relationships

This study builds on research addressing intergenerational ambivalence by considering emotional ambivalence toward the wider social network. Men and women ages 13 to 99 (N = 187) completed diagrams of their close and problematic social relationships. Social ties were classified as solely close, solely problematic, or ambivalent, based on network placement (n = 3,392 social contacts). Multilevel models revealed that individuals viewed certain close familial ties (e.g., spouse, son or daughter, parent, sibling) with greater ambivalence than they viewed more distal family ties, friendships, or acquaintances. Participants classified more acquaintances than other relationships as solely problematic. Feeling closer to a social partner was associated with increased ambivalence. Older adults were more likely to classify their relationships as solely close than as ambivalent, in comparison with younger adults. Discussion focuses on tension and closeness in familial and nonfamilial relationships.     

Commentary: The Emergence and Application of Active Aging in Europe

Active aging is established as the leading global policy strategy in response to population aging. In practice, however, the term active aging serves as a convenient shelter for a wide range of policy discourses and initiatives concerning demographic change. The twin purposes of this article are, first, to examine its European origins and how it has been applied in the world's oldest region. This policy analysis illustrates the contrast between the primarily European discourse on active aging, which emphasizes health, participation, and well-being, and the U.S. discourse that prioritizes productivity. The application of active aging in Europe has, nonetheless, been predominantly in the productivist mold. The examination of the emergence of this key policy concept in Europe is contextualized by an outline of the changing politics of aging in this region. The second purpose of the article is to set out a new, comprehensive strategy on active aging that is intended to realize the full potential of the concept. Understanding of the need for this broad vision of active aging is facilitated by the historical policy review.     

The Role of Father’s Occupation on Intergenerational Educational and Occupational Mobility: The Case of Second‐Generation Chinese Americans in New York1

A considerable body of research has found a positive relationship between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s educational achievement and attainment. The predictive role of parents’ socioeconomic status generally applies for most racial and ethnic groups, but that association does not always hold for groups that exhibit high levels of education, such as Asian Americans. This article considers the role of parents’ education and occupation on children’s educational and occupational attainment for Chinese Americans aged 18–32. The results corroborate the positive link between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s educational and occupational attainments. Children of professionals command an educational and occupational advantage over children of entrepreneurs and children of manual workers. Yet, the children of entrepreneurs attend selective colleges and obtain professional occupations in proportions closely following those of the children of professionals. Although the educational attainments between the fathers who worked as entrepreneurs and those fathers engaged in manual work were comparable, it was the children of entrepreneurs who surpassed the children of manual workers with respect to educational and occupational achievement and attainment. This suggests that immigrant entrepreneurship contributes in the upward educational and occupational mobility of the children of entrepreneurs.     

The Perspectives of Older Greek-Australians Toward Changes in the Nature of Family Support: Implications for Family Care Policies

Internationally, public policies encourage “aging in place,” and the majority of older Australians requiring care in the community receive informal care, supplemented by publicly subsidized formal services. The effect of contemporary social changes on informal care in aging migrant communities is poorly understood. This articles explores the perceptions of older Greek-Australians toward changes in the nature of family support. Bicultural and bilingual researchers carried out in-depth interviews (n?=?27) and five focus groups (n?=?63 total participants) with older Greek-Australians in modern Greek. While “cultures of care” remain among Greek-Australian families, the means for a family to assist have shifted, and these compromises are met with considerable powerlessness among older Greek-Australians. Implications for policy include the need to better involve older migrants and their families in decisions about their care needs, potentially involving consumer-directed care models. Service providers may also need to adopt the use of new technologies to communicate with increasingly time-pressured family members.     

Into the Dark Heart of Ethnography: The Lived Ethics and Inequality of Intimate Field Relationships

In response to critiques from feminist, existential, and postmodern qualitative researchers, the idea of maintaining objective and distant relationships with research subjects gave way to the belief that researchers could and, in some cases, should become intimately connected to research participants. These traditions opened the door for contemporary field workers to unapologetically forge close relationships to setting members. Several ethical evaluations have emerged from this intimate literature warning researchers of the harm that can come when we “go to far” in the quest for intimate familiarity. In this paper, I reflect on some of the debates regarding intimacy and exploitation by examining my experiences of dating, marrying, and eventually divorcing my key informant. I trace the way that, despite my attempts to follow the existing ethical guides, I reinforced several larger inequalities in my intimate stance. Using my failure to avoid or mitigate harm, I argue that our discussions of intimate methods and immersion in the field have failed to accurately note how we reinforce or resist structure in our research endeavors. Viewing ourselves as “doing structure” in the field would lead us to stop debating whether intimacy is better than objectivity, celibacy is better than sex, disclosure is better than silence, or conventional behavior is better than deviance in the field. Instead, we should locate how our behaviors, research roles, or discursive choices enact structures and the effect this enactment has on the people who we research.

Explaining the Gender Gap in Help to Parents: The Importance of Employment

Although it is well established that adult daughters spend more time giving assistance to their parents than do sons, the sources of this gender gap are not well understood. This paper asks: To what extent can this gap be explained by structural variation, especially the different rates of employment and kinds of jobs that women and men tend to hold? Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 7,350), the paper shows that both employment status and job characteristics, especially wages and self‐employment, are important factors in explaining the gender gap in the help given to parents, and that these operate similarly for women and men.