As a consequence of increased life expectancies and the overall improved health status of elderly people in industrialized countries, grandparents and grandchildren are now sharing a longer period of their lives together, from which they can both actively benefit. In addition, grandparents help their children by looking after their grandchildren and are consequently an important service provider in the domain of childcare, especially for mothers active in the labour market. The analyses, which are based on the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland), show significant country differences in the occurrence and intensity of grandchild care in Europe: whereas grandparents in southern Europe engage less often but more intensively in childcare, grandchild care is provided more often but much less intensively in northern Europe. Multilevel logistic regression models show that country-specific differences are associated with welfare state arrangements and, specifically, with public investments in childcare infrastructures. Public investments ‘crowd in’ grandparental willingness to engage in childcare but ‘crowd out’ the intensity of this intergenerational time transfer. Family and state thus complement one another, with grandparents taking over sporadic, less time-intensive care while public institutions provide regular, time-consuming childcare services.

Intergenerational time transfers can be differentiated and divided into two support forms: help and care activities. Adult children support their elderly parents with more or less intensive and widely differing transfers ranging from help with household chores and paperwork to personal care. However, elderly people are also an important source of intergenerational support, as they help their children by looking after the grandchildren for example. In general intergenerational solidarity patterns are influenced by opportunity, need, family and culturalcontextual structures, which have differing impacts on help and care: Care is mainly depending on the need structures of the receiver while help activities to parents and children are primarily influenced by the opportunity structures of the giver. Additionally, using the SHARE data, logistic multilevel modeling allows national help and care levels to be traced back to the provision of public services. The empirical findings support the “specialization hypothesis”: A higher national level of social services coincides with less intensive help and more demanding care. Well-developed welfare states thus lower the risk of an overburdening of the family and secure the overall support of older people and young families through efficient collaboration between family and state.

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This study profile describes COCON – the acronym for COmpetence and CONtext. This is an interdisciplinary, multi-cohort and multi-informant longitudinal study with a primary focus on how children and adolescents cope with the developmental tasks of early life course transitions. It strives to detect the social and individual antecedents and consequences associated with the handling of these transitions. The project frames child and adolescent development in the triple theoretical perspective of challenges imposed by early transitions in the institutionalised life course, inequality in resources and opportunities, and young people’s competencies. Thanks to the longitudinal and multi-cohort design of the study, this conceptual perspective facilitates the joint examination of intra-individual development, inter-individual differences in developmental outcomes and social change in developmental processes.COCON consists of three age groups, whereby each groups represents a prototypical stage in the process of growing up: mid-childhood (6-year-olds), mid-adolescence (15-year-olds) and early adulthood (21-year-olds). The samples are representative for the French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland. The large sample sizes and the multilingual context of Switzerland permit the analysis of group disparities as well as cross-cultural differences. The multi-informant component of the study includes the primary caregiver and class teacher.The current study profile outlines the most important characteristics of the study in the context of the conceptual framework and discusses strengths and caveats related to study management as well as ethical considerations and information on data availability.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>The COCON study is a multi-cohort and multi-informant longitudinal study which enlightens challenges imposed by early transitions.</li><br /><li>COCON examines intra-individual development, inter-individual differences in developmental outcomes, and social change.</li><br /><li>The large sample sizes and the multilingual context of Switzerland permit to analyze group disparities as well as cross-cultural differences.</li></ul>

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