Intergenerational Relationships and Affectual Solidarity Between Grandparents and Young Adults

This study examines whether both parents’ relationships with their offspring, parents, and parents‐in‐law matter for young adults’ perceptions of closeness to grandparents. This study focuses on two groups of grandchildren (ages 18 – 23) in Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households: young adults with married biological parents (N = 442) and those whose biological mother is not married to their biological father (N = 399). Findings suggest that it is important to examine grandparent‐grandchild ties within a complete kinship network. Parents’ relationships with the grandchild and grandparent generations were associated with the grandparent‐grandchild bond. In support of the kinkeeping perspective, mothers’ intergenerational ties across lineage lines appeared to be more influential for grandparent‐grandchild relationships than fathers’.     

The Transmission of Marital Instability Across Generations: Relationship Skills or Commitment to Marriage?

We used national, longitudinal data from 2 generations to assess 2 explanations for the intergenerational transmission of marital instability, one based on relationship skills and the other based on marital commitment. Parental divorce approximately doubled the odds that offspring would see their own marriages end in divorce. Offspring with maritally distressed parents who remained continuously married did not have an elevated risk of divorce. Divorce was most likely to be transmitted across generations if parents reported a low, rather than a high, level of discord prior to marital dissolution. These results, combined with other findings from the study, suggest that offspring with divorced parents have an elevated risk of seeing their own marriages end in divorce because they hold a comparatively weak commitment to the norm of lifelong marriage.     

Extending the Intergenerational Stake Hypothesis: Evidence of an Intra‐individual Stake and Implications for Well‐being

The intergenerational stake hypothesis suggests that parents are more invested in their children and experience better quality parent–child ties than do their children. In this study the authors examined variation in reports of relationship quality regarding parents and children intra‐individually (do people report better quality ties with their children than with their parents?) and whether within‐person variations have implications for well‐being. Participants age 40–60 (N = 633) reported on their relationship quality (importance, positive quality, and negative quality) with their parents and adult children. Individuals reported their relationships with children were more important and more negative than relationships with parents. Individuals with feelings that were in the opposite direction of the intergenerational stake hypothesis (i.e., greater investment in parents than children) reported poorer well‐being. The findings provide support for the intergenerational stake hypothesis with regard to within‐person variations in investment and show that negative relationship quality may coincide with greater feelings of investment.     

Intergenerational Transfers to Adult Children in Europe: Do Social Policies Matter?

Understanding the role of social policies in intergenerational transfers from old to young people is especially important in times of population aging. This paper focuses on the influences of social expenditures and social services on financial support and on practical help from older parents to their adult children based on the first two waves from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, N = 60,250 dyads from 13 European countries). Multilevel models showed that social policy plays an important role for intergenerational transfer patterns: The more public assistance was provided to citizens, the more likely parents supported their adult children financially and practically, but this support was less intense in terms of money and time given. Thus, the analyses support the specialization hypothesis that posits a division of labor between family and state for downward intergenerational transfers.     

Life Course Status and Exchanges of Support Between Young Adults and Parents

The authors investigated intergenerational support exchanges in relation to young adults' life course status. In a sample of 2,022 young adults (ages 18–34 years) in The Netherlands, single young adults reported receiving more advice from parents than married young adults, and those with children of their own received more practical support. Married young adults and young adults with children provided less support to parents than, respectively, single young adults and young adults without children. Congruent with the life course perspective, the authors' findings suggest that the intergenerational support network is both durable and flexible, responding to the resources and needs associated with an individual's life course status.     

Life Course Stage in Young Adulthood and Intergenerational Congruence in Family Attitudes

We investigated how intergenerational congruence in family‐related attitudes depends on life course stage in young adulthood. Recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study were used; the present sample included 2,041 dyads of young adults and their parents. Findings are discussed in terms of the elasticity in intergenerational attitude congruence in response to young adults' life course transitions. Our results suggest that intergenerational congruence in attitudes about partnership (e.g., marriage, cohabitation, divorce, women's and men's family roles) decreases after young adults have left the parental home and increases when young adults enter parenthood. Congruence concerning intergenerational obligations was not related to young adults' life course stage.     

The Legacy of Leaving Home: Long‐Term Effects of Coresidence on Parent – Child Relationships

This study investigated how early, “on‐time,” and late home leavers differed in their relations to parents in later life. A life course perspective suggested different pathways by which the time spent in the parental home may set the stage for intergenerational solidarity in aging families. Using fixed‐effects models with data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 14,739 parent – child dyads), the author assessed the effects of previous coresidence on intergenerational proximity, contact frequency, and support exchange more than 5 years after children had left home. The results indicated that, compared with siblings who moved out “on time,” late home leavers lived closer to their aging parents, maintained more frequent contact, and were more likely to be providers as well as receivers of intergenerational support. Overall, this evidence paints a positive picture of extended coresidence, revealing its potential to promote intergenerational solidarity across the life course.     

Intergenerational Coresidence Among Small Farmers in Brazilian Amazônia

This article examines intergenerational coresidence among rural farm families near Santarém, Pará, Brazil using survey data collected by the authors on 896 children whose parents live in 175 households on 150 farms. Married adult children, daughters, and the best educated are more likely to live off their parents’ rural property (vs. on the property). Results support arguments that coresidence results from the interests of children rather than the control that parents exert over children. These results have implications for our understanding of intergenerational relations in the developing world and for the future development of similar areas.     

SWITCHING REGRESSION ESTIMATES OF THE INTERGENERATIONAL PERSISTENCE OF CONSUMPTION

The influential economic theory of intergenerational transfers predicts a negative connection between credit constraints and intergenerational mobility of consumption. Existing work has used bequest receipt to signal a parent's access to credit markets when investing in his children's human capital. However, measurement error in bequest receipt generates misclassification error and, in turn, attenuation bias. Employing switching regressions with imperfect sample separation to deal with this error, we show that the intergenerational persistence of consumption in the United States for credit constrained families is much higher than that for unconstrained families, contrary to what the theory implies. This means that children from constrained families are more likely to have consumption levels similar to those of their parents than children from unconstrained families. Our results are robust to the choice of bequest variables and other predictive variables in the switching equation. (JEL C13, D12, E21, J62)     

Are “daddy’s boys” just as rich as daddy? The transmission of values between generations

The influence of parents’ savings behaviour on that of their children has often been remarked. This paper attempts to explain this “poids d’Anchise” via a unique French dataset collected by DELTA and TNS-Sofres in 2002 (Pat€r survey), which contains both savings and subjective information for two or three generations of the same family. Parents’ and children’s risk and discounting preferences are significantly positively intergenerationally correlated. The correlation coefficients are around 0.25, so that the two preferences are nonetheless far from identical. In addition, the elasticity of children’s wealth with respect to that of their parents is around 0.22. This correlation is corrected for the influence of age on wealth, and concerns only co-existing generations, that is before the most significant intergenerational transfers have taken place. The analysis of the raw correlations with a series of explanatory variables reveals that over 40 % of this elasticity can be explained by the permanent incomes of the two generations. Each of education and preferences separately account for about 20 %, and previous intergenerational transfers for about 13 %. When permanent income is controlled for, the contribution of savings preferences is around 13 %. The transmission of preferences therefore plays a non-negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of wealth inequalities, but is far from being the most important factor.     

Geographic distance and intergenerational relationships in Chinese migrant families

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effect of adult Chinese migrants’ geographic distance from home on their intergenerational relationships with parents who remain behind. We compared monetary and family care support as well as emotional relationships among four parent-child groups: older adults and international migrant children, older adults and internal migrant children (who migrated to other cities in China), older adults and coresiding children, and older adults and local children (living in the same city as their parents). Data were derived from 332 older adults in Beijing, China, with at least one child who migrated to another country or city. Results from chi-square tests, anaylsis of variance (ANOVA) tests, and regression analyses indicate that international and internal migrant children maintain similar intergenerational relationships with their parents, and that both of those groups are less likely than coresiding and local children to have family care exchanges and emotionally close relationships with their parents. The results may help professionals develop supportive services and policies for older adults in migrant families.     

Till Marriage Do Us Part: Adult Children’s Relationships With Their Parents

Although some emphasize the integrative character of marriage, others argue that marriage undermines relations with extended kin, including aging parents. Utilizing NSFH data (N= 6,108), we find that married women and men have less intense intergenerational ties than the never married and the divorced: The married are less likely to live with parents, stay in touch, and give or receive emotional, financial, and practical help. These differences hold even when we control for structural characteristics, including time demands, needs and resources, and demographic and extended family characteristics. We conclude that marriage is a greedy institution for both women and men. Given the inadequacy of structural explanations, we suggest that cultural explanations for this greediness should be explored.     

Married and Cohabiting Parents’ Relationship Stability: A Focus on Race and Ethnicity

We draw on three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N =2,249) to examine family stability among a recent birth cohort of children. We find that children born to cohabiting versus married parents have over five times the risk of experiencing their parents’ separation. This difference in union stability is greatest for White children, as compared with Black or Mexican American children. For White children, differences in parents’ education levels, paternal substance abuse, and prior marriage and children account for the higher instability faced by those born to cohabiting parents, whereas differences in union stability are not fully explained among Black and Mexican American children. These findings have implications for policies aimed at promoting family stability and reducing inequality.     

Parent–Child Coresidence: Who Moves in With Whom and for Whose Needs?

Using administrative data on all adult children living in The Netherlands age 30–40 and their parents (N = 1,999,700), we investigated the extent to which situations and events associated with the support needs and privacy needs of either generation determine intergenerational coresidence and the transition to coresidence. Logistic and multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that both generations' support needs increased the likelihood of coresidence and of a move of the generation in need into the other's home. Turning to privacy needs, we found that coresidence and the transition to coresidence was less likely when a partner or stepparent was present and more likely when the adult child was a never‐married single parent.     

Maternal Employment in Childhood and Adults’ Retrospective Reports of Parenting Practices

Do adults’ perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting practices in childhood vary by their mothers’ employment status? Among adults in the Survey of Midlife Development in United States who lived with 2 biological parents until the age of 16 years (N = 2,246), those who had employed mothers during most or all of their childhood reported less support and less discipline from both parents than those who had stay‐at‐home mothers. Sons but not daughters who had employed mothers reported more verbal or physical assaults by both parents than their counterparts who had homemaker mothers. Despite greater social acceptance of maternal employment among younger Americans, cohort differences were not evident. These findings underscore the significance of mothers’ economic roles in influencing offspring’s perceptions of family dynamics.     

Offspring of Parents with Gambling Problems: Adjustment Problems and Explanatory Mechanisms

We compared offspring of problem gamblers (n = 42) to offspring of parents without gambling problems (n = 100) to see (1) whether the two groups differed with respect to depressive feelings and conduct/antisociality problems and (2) whether ineffective parenting or the offspring’s own gambling problems played a mediating role in this context. Participants were drawn from a relatively large community-based study (N = 1,872). Parents rated their own gambling and other mental health problems when their children were in mid-adolescence. The children’s self-reports on depressive feelings and conduct/antisociality problems were assessed at two points in time: by mid-adolescence and again by early adulthood. Results showed that children of parents with gambling problems reported more depressive feelings and more conduct problems by mid-adolescence than children of parents without gambling problems. Children of problem gamblers also experienced an increase in their depressive symptoms from mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Importantly, ineffective parenting, but not children’s gambling problems, mediated almost all the links between parental problem gambling and children’s adjustment problems. These results add to a very small data base showing that children of problem gamblers are at risk for a variety of adjustment problems.

Intergenerational Patterns of Maltreatment in Families at Risk for Foster Care

Few qualitative studies have investigated the process of parental efforts to break intergenerational patterns of maltreatment. A grounded theory approach was used to understand how 24 parents who had been identified by CPS as being at‐risk of having their children removed from their homes due to allegations of abuse and/or neglect, perceived and connected their own experiences of childhood abuse in light of their experiences as alleged perpetrators of child maltreatment. Three major categories were identified: patterns, beliefs, and behaviors. A majority of the parents stated that they recognized intergenerational patterns, most expressed that they wanted to be different from their own parents, yet many described parenting actions that were “destructive.” We suggest that it is the interrelationship amongst patterns, beliefs, and behaviors that may offer opportunities for parents and therapists to enact change.     

The Association Between Infants’ Attention Control and Social Inhibition is Moderated by Genetic and Environmental Risk for Anxiety

Infant social inhibition is associated with increased risk for anxiety later in life. Although both genetic and environmental factors are associated with anxiety, little empirical work has addressed how developing regulatory abilities work with genetic and environmental risk to exacerbate or mitigate problem behaviors. The current study was aimed at addressing this gap in research by investigating an early emerging regulatory behavior, attention control, in association with genetic and environmental risk for anxiety. Participants included 9‐month‐old adopted infants, their birth mothers, and adoptive parents (N = 361). Lifetime diagnosis of birth mother social phobia was obtained using structured interviews. Adoptive parents completed self‐report measures of anxiety symptoms. Infant social inhibition and attention control were coded during a stranger interaction and a barrier task, respectively. Neither adoptive nor birth parent anxiety was directly associated with social inhibition. The association of attention control with social inhibition in infants was moderated by birth and adoptive parent anxiety symptoms. When infants of birth mothers with social phobia were raised by adoptive parents with high self‐reported anxiety symptoms, greater attention control was associated with greater social inhibition. However, when raised by adoptive parents with low self‐reported anxiety, greater attention control was associated with less social inhibition.     

The Intergenerational Transmission of Union Instability in Early Adulthood

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce should be expanded to incorporate disrupted nonmarital cohabitations. This study (a) examined the transmission of union instability from parents to offspring using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, (b) replaced binary variables (divorced vs. nondivorced) typically used in this literature with count variables (number of disrupted unions), (c) relied on independent sources for data on parents' and offspring's union disruptions to minimize same‐source bias, (d) assessed the mediating role of theoretically derived variables (many not previously considered in this literature), and (e) incorporated information on discord in intact parental unions. Parent and offspring union disruptions were positively linked, with each parental disruption associated with a 16% increase in the number of offspring disruptions, net of controls. The mediators collectively accounted for 44% of the estimated intergenerational effect. Parent discord in intact unions was associated with more offspring disruptions.     

Giving to the Good and the Needy: Parental Support of Grown Children

Parents may provide many types of support to their grown children. Parents age 40 to 60 (N = 633) reported the support they exchange with each child over age 18 (N = 1,384). Mothers and fathers differentiated among children within families, but provided emotional, financial, and practical help on average every few weeks to each child. Offspring received most assistance when they (a) had greater needs (because of problems or younger age) or (b) were perceived as more successful. Parents received more from high achieving offspring. Findings support contingency theory; parents give more material and financial support to children in need. Motivation to enhance the self or to assure support later in life may explain support to high achieving offspring.