A Comparative Perspective on Intergenerational Support

Abstract

It has often been argued that Southern European countries are more familialistic in their culture than Western and Northern European countries. In this paper, we examine this notion by testing the hypothesis that adult children are more responsive to the needs of their elderly parents in countries with more familialistic attitudes. To test this hypothesis, we analyse the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We focus on three indicators of need: (a) the partner status of the parent, (b) the health status of the parent, and (c) the education of the parent. Using Heckman probit models, we examine the effects of these variables on whether or not the parent receives instrumental support from children, thereby controlling for whether or not children live independently from their parents. We estimate effects of need on support and we compare these effects across 10 European countries, using both graphic devices and a multilevel probit model where individuals are nested in countries. We find significant cross-level interactions of need variables and the degree of familialism in a country. Our analyses, thereby provide more positive evidence for the hypothesis than earlier studies, which have focused largely on comparing aggregate levels of support among countries.

Experienced Support from Adult Children in the Retirement Process

“…People in need of assistance will be given support and are not expected to do anything in return (Krebs, 1970). In line with this perspective, research has shown that children respond to their parents' need for support, where factors like partnership status, health, educational level and financial position are frequently used as indicators of need for support (Eggebeen & Davey, 1998;Grundy, 2005;Kalmijn & Saraceno, 2008). When applying this principle to the retirement transition, it can be expected that the more support parents need upon retirement, the more support they will receive from their children (Hypothesis 1: the need hypothesis).…”

Generational interdependencies in families

“…It has been typical to describe patterns of exchange in European families in terms of a North-South gradient (Albertini, Kohli and Vogel 2007;Hank 2007;Kalmijn and Saraceno 2008;Ogg and Renaut 2006). Intergenerational transfers of time and money among family members tend to be less frequent in the Nordic than in the Southern European countries, with the Continental European countries being somewhere in the middle.…”

“…They not only reflect the cultural climate in which people live (Daatland and Herlofson 2003;Kalmijn and Saraceno 2008), but also the individual circumstances in which they find themselves (Gans and Silverstein 2006). Family norms are of interest because they are predictive of intergenerational support behaviour: they predispose people to behave in a certain way towards their family members.…”

Diversification des trajectoires familiales des Canadiens âgés de demain et conséquences prévisibles sur le réseau de soutien

“…Cette question revêt pourtant une pertinence grandissante dans les pays à tradition libérale anglosaxonne, comme le Canada, où le sentiment d'obligation filiale apparaît être affaire de négociation plutôt que de devoir entre parents âgés et enfants devenus adultes, et ce, alors que l'État cherche à renvoyer à la famille les responsabilités d'aide à ses membres âgés (Daatland et Herlofson, 2003 ;Kalmijn et Saraceno, 2008). Jusqu'à tout récemment, il n'y avait peut-être pas lieu de s'inquiéter des répercussions de la baisse de la fécondité et de la montée de l'instabilité conjugale sur la prise en charge des aînés, les personnes âgées d'aujourd'hui étant relativement nombreuses à n'avoir connu qu'une seule union, un mariage ayant de plus donné lieu à une descendance passablement nombreuse.…”