This study explores the effect of sociological and demographic factors on the intergenerational support system between adult children and their parents. More specifically it attempts to assess the impact of structural and socio-demographic factors, such as living arrangements, number of children, gender, age, and socio economic status of the adult children and their respective parents, on emotional, financial and instrumental support of the parents in Varamin, a southeastern town in Tehran province, Iran. A representative sample of 381 adult children responded to questions on various aspects of their relationship with their living elderly parents, and the kinds of supports they provide to and receive from them. Results show clear differences between mothers and fathers in their intergenerational exchange patterns. Mothers tend to give and receive more than fathers. Daughter and sons also differ in their exchanges with their parents. Sons support their parents more than daughters but when controlling for socio economic characteristics and structural opportunities of the child, the discrepancy between them tends to decrease significantly. While the flow of exchange and reciprocity persists in intergenerational exchange relationships, the scale tips increasingly in favor of elderly parents as they age or experience poorer health status.

This article focuses on the process through which intergenerational ambivalence is experienced by a group of adult children and their parents with an Iranian refugee background living in Finland. This ethnographic study provides an insight into how the families' struggles to mobilize capital in different forms can contribute to their experience of intergenerational ambivalence. The study indicates that when the parents' social, economic and cultural capitals accumulated prior to migration are not accessible or valuable in Finland, they become dependent on their children's conduct. This produces a contradictory demand on the participants' roles as parents and children, where they face difficulties in navigating their role expectations. The families in this study expressed a significant ambivalence in their intergenerational relationships associated with these stressful conditions.

This article investigates gendered meanings attached to filial obligations when they are negotiated between Iranian refugee parents and their children. We investigate gender in intergenerational relationships by using the frame of social control, understanding it as a form of institutional, normative and internalized control. This research is based on an ethnographic study of Iranian families living in Finland. The data consists of observations and interviews with adult children and their parents. The results show that the daughters were able to negotiate their filial obligations with their parents in strategic ways. They actively spoke against their parents’ normative control to make independent choices. However, following their parents’ wishes was also a way for the daughters to actively maintain their own cultural values. The sons were often expected to take care of their ageing parents and had little agency when negotiating the intensity of these demands for support. So rather than making decisions about maintaining their cultural values like the daughters, the sons were often automatically expected to offer support and guidance. However, the sons experienced less normative control when interacting with their parents.

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