Intergenerational Help and Care in Europe

Abstract

In Europe, on average, three times as many adult children occasionally help their parents with the housekeeping than do provide regular physical care. This is not surprising, considering the great differences between these two types of support. Care follows needs, whereas help tends to be given sporadically when one has the opportunity. In the familial welfare states in Southern Europe, where little professional support is available, provision of care by children is more likely-whereas parents in the north are more likely to receive help in the household or in dealing with the authorities. Logistic multi-level models enable these differences to be traced back to the availability of social and health services in the individual countries. There is a 'crowding in' of the help children give their parents, but a 'crowding out' of physical care. Overall, the results based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement data thus support the specialization hypothesis: professional providers take over the medically demanding and regular physical care, whereas the family is more likely to provide the less demanding, spontaneous help. Everyone does what they do best. The overall care of older people thus tends to be assured both quantitatively and qualitatively by well-developed service systems.

Structured ambivalence in grandchild care and the quality of life among European grandparents

“…Although marriage and the nuclear family have declined over the past decades (OECD 2012), parents and adult children still support each other over the life course (e.g. Bengtson 2001;Silverstein et al 1997;Brandt et al 2009). Older parents support their children when the latter establish families, especially by looking after the grandchildren.…”

Grandmothers as Replacement Parents and Partners: The Role of Grandmotherhood in Single Parent Families

“…Recent surveys at regional and international levels have highlighted the important role that older people are playing within the European family in terms of family transfers (Harper & Leeson, 2009;Brandt, Haberkern, & Szydik, 2009;Hank, 2009;Hank & Barber, 2009). Most surveys also report a relatively high degree of contact between grandparents and grandchildren, with average physical contact occurring at least once a month, supplemented by other forms of communication (Age Concern, 1997, 1998Arthur, Snape, & Dench, 2003;Dench et al, 1999;Leeson, 2004;Harper, 2003Smith, 1995).…”

Challenges in moving from macro to micro: Population and family structures in ageing societies

“…Finch and Mason (1993) have described in detail how family responsibilities are negotiated over time, and how some children in the family end up committing themselves to taking care of parents, while others do not. Earlier research has demonstrated, perhaps contrary to common belief, that having fewer siblings increases the probability of providing help (Spitze and Logan 1991;Stuifbergen et al 2008;Brandt, Haberkern, and Szydlik 2009) and keeping in touch with parents (van Gaalen, Dykstra, and Flap 2008). Having many siblings may make it easier to avoid care responsibility by passing it on to brothers, and in particular to sisters.…”