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Having grandchildren is known to reduce individuals' labour supply. However, it is unclear whether there is a negative association between grandchild care provision and employment among grandparents. Moreover, we do not know how the magnitude of any association between the two activities may vary across countries characterised by different child-care policy regimes. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, this paper investigates the association between daily grandchild care provision and two employment outcomes for grandmothers and grandfathers aged 50–69: the probability of being employed and the average weekly working hours. Recursive bivariate models are used to account for the potential selection of grandparents with different unobserved traits into work and family care. Estimates are compared across four country groups characterised by different child-care policy orientations: optional de-familisation, service de-familisation, supported familism and familism by default. On average, across 20 European countries, grandparents looking after grandchildren daily are no less likely to work than grandparents who do not; however, employed grandfathers work eight hours less per week if providing daily child care. Evidence of a negative association between daily grandchild care and employment is strongest in countries with familistic approaches to child care, with no association in countries characterised by optional de-familisation. This suggests that public support to child care may help retain grandparents in the labour force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the education of significant others may affect an individual's mortality. This paper extends an emerging body of research by investigating the effect of having highly educated adult children on the longevity of older parents in Europe, especially parents with low educational attainment. Using a sample of 15,015 individuals (6,620 fathers and 8,395 mothers) aged 50 and above, with 1,847 recorded deaths, over a mean follow-up period of 10.9 years from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we examine whether the well-established socio-economic gradient in mortality among parents is modified when their adult children have higher educational attainment than their parents. We find that having highly educated adult children is associated with reduced mortality risks for fathers and mothers with low educational attainment, compared to their counterparts whose adult children have only compulsory education. The association is stronger in early older age (ages 50–74) than in later older age (ages 75 and over). Part of the association appears to be explained by health behaviours (physical (in)activity) and health status (self-rated health). Our findings suggest that the socio-economic–mortality gradient among older parents might be better captured using an intergenerational approach that recognises the advantage of having highly educated adult children, especially for fathers and mothers with only compulsory education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Europe grandparents play very different roles. This paper studies to what extent grandparents' role as providers of child care relates to the country policy context, focusing on public child-care services and parental leave regulation, and to the availability of part-time jobs for women. We also explore whether mothers' needs to combine family and work differently influence the frequency of grandparental child care across countries. The analysis combines micro-data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and macro-indicators from the Multilinks database and Eurostat. We find a clear association between policy context and frequency of grandparental child care. Three models emerge. In countries close to the familialism by default model (i.e. characterised by scarce public child-care services and parental leave), when grandparents provide child care they often do it daily. In countries characterised by defamilialisation and supported familialism policies (with generous public services and parental leave) grandparents take on a marginal role. An intermediate model emerges in countries characterised by a limited offer of child care or parental leave, where grandparental child care complements state support and tends to be offered on a weekly basis. Our analysis corroborates the idea that the highly intensive involvement of grandparents in countries with low availability of part-time jobs for women is influenced by the need (unmet by the welfare) of mothers to combine work and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elderly people with functional limitations are predominantly cared for by family members. Women – spouses and daughters – provide most of this care work. In principle, gender inequality in intergenerational care may have three causes: first, daughters and sons have different resources to provide care; second, daughters and sons respond differently to the same resources; third, welfare state programmes and cultural norms affect daughters and sons differently. In this paper, we address the empirical question whether these three assumed causes are in fact responsible for gender differences in intergenerational care. The empirical analyses, based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), reveal that parents in need are in fact more likely to receive care from daughters than from sons. Daughters are more responsive to the needs of their parents than sons and respond differently to the same resources. Gender inequality is highest in countries with a high level of intergenerational care, high public spending on old-age cash-benefits, a low provision of professional care services, high family obligation norms and a high level of gendered division of labour. Welfare state programmes reduce or increase gender inequality in intergenerational care by reducing or increasing the engagement of daughters in intergenerational care. In general, care-giving by sons is hardly influenced by social care policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following Reher's (1998) seminal paper on family ties in western Europe, the perspective that family solidarity patterns are divided between an individualistic north and a famialistic south has dominated the literature. We challenge this view and address the variability in intergenerational family solidarity within and across countries. Using multiple dimensions of intergenerational solidarity drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we develop a typology of late-life families which is robust across northern, central and southern regions. The four types are: (a) descending familialism: living nearby, frequent contact, endorsement of family obligation norms, and primarily help in kind from parents to children, (b) ascending familialism: living nearby, frequent contact, endorsement of family obligation norms, and primarily help in kind from children to parents, (c) supportive-at-distance: not living nearby, frequent contact, refutation of family obligation norms, and primarily financial transfers from parents to adult children, (d) autonomous: not living nearby, little contact, refutation of family obligation norms, and few support exchanges. The four types are common in each European country, though the distributions differ. The findings suggest that scholars should abandon the idea that a particular country can be characterised by a single dominant type of late-life family. Socio-demographic differentials in family type follow predictable patterns, underscoring the validity of the developed typology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dependent older people are predominantly cared for by family members, mostly partners and children, but not every parent in need is cared for by a child, and intergenerational care varies widely across Europe. Previous studies have used care regimes to explain these differences, but because of the lack of large comparative surveys, the prevalence of intergenerational care has rarely been related directly to the institutional and cultural context, including state care provision, legal obligations between family members, and societal opinion about the role of the state in elderly care. This paper reports an analysis of variations in intergenerational care among European countries and the reasons for these differences using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Results from logistic multilevel models show that care by children is influenced by the individual characteristics of both parents and children, and by family structures, welfare-state institutions and cultural norms. Intergenerational care is more prevalent in southern and central European countries, where children are legally obligated to support parents in need, and care is perceived as a responsibility of the family, whereas in northern Europe, the wider availability of formal care services enable adult children, particularly daughters, have more choice about their activities and use of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of relatives and geographical proximity between them affects informal support provided to older persons. In this study, we investigate whether (a) childless persons and parents living remotely from their adult children experience similar shortages in informal support, and (b) whether neighbours, friends and other non-family helpers compensate for these shortages. On the basis of Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data for 12 European countries, we estimate the probability and amount of informal non-financial support received by persons aged 65 and over who remain childless or live at different distances to their children. The contribution of non-family individuals is rather complementary to the help from family. Parents residing in the proximity of their children rely almost exclusively on family; as the geographical distance between adult children and older parents increases, the probability and amount of non-family support increase as well. But childless individuals differ from parents of remotely living children: the former rely on smaller support networks and resort more often to other relatives than the latter. Non-family individuals compensate for the scarcity of informal support only in the case of parents of distant children, but not in the case of childless individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childless individuals are often depicted as 'selfish' as they opt out of raising children in favour of investing resources in themselves. Yet no research has investigated whether this claim holds in domains of social life such as intergenerational family support. Using data from the Generations and Gender Survey for 11 European countries, this article examines differences between childless and non-childless individuals in the provision of financial, practical and emotional transfers to their elderly parents. Results support the idea that the childless are more prone to provide upward support than individuals with children. Specifically, estimates from multivariate logistic regression and propensity score specifications suggest that, ceteris paribus , childless adults are about 20–40 per cent more likely to provide support to their parents, with the association driven by transfers to elderly mothers. These findings enrich the literature on childlessness and ageing, and support the view that researchers and policy makers should take into more consideration not only what childless people receive or need in old age, but also what they provide as middle-aged adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on age-segregated housing for older prisoners has seldom captured the perspectives of older prisoners and professionals (‘stakeholders’) working in a European prison setting. To address this gap in the research, 35 older prisoners from Switzerland and 40 stakeholders from three European countries (including Switzerland) were interviewed for the study. Data analysis was conducted thematically, and the validity of coding was established independently from the primary author. Interpretation of study results was agreed upon by all authors. Participants' opinions regarding age-segregated housing for older prisoners were split. An almost equal number of prisoners and stakeholders had similar arguments in favour of and against such living arrangements. The findings encompassed three major themes: ‘prisons should mirror society’ and thus age-mixed housing was preferable as it ensured generational exchange; a ‘separate unit within the prison’ would allow continuity of personal and other relationships and at the same time respond to older prisoners' specific health and environmental needs; finally, participants felt it was important to think critically about ‘the criteria’ for placing older prisoners in an age-segregated arrangement. We conclude that the debate on consolidated versus separate housing is bifurcated. Any push towards segregation based only on high prison violence and unvalidated context-specific information may result in unreliable public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In debates about ageing western societies it is often assumed that many middle-aged women struggle to combine paid employment and intergenerational support, and that the subsequent stress leads them to experience an increase in depressive symptoms. Cross-sectional studies have supported this notion, but the question remains whether combining work and intergenerational support actually causes an increase in depressive symptoms. In order to fill a gap in the literature, this study examines the proportion of middle-aged women combining paid work and support to an adult child and/or parent, and the extent to which combining these roles affects women's depressive symptoms over time. For this purpose, we make use of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data set which includes longitudinal data collected on European women aged 50+. Descriptive analyses indicated that 14 per cent of middle-aged women combine the roles of employee, support provider to an adult child, and/or support provider to a parent. Results from semi-dynamic and full-dynamic regression analyses indicate that combining roles can take away some, of the positive mental health effects of fulfilling a role. These findings support the role combination stress hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the strength and character of responsibility norms between older parents and adult children in a European context. Data from the ‘Generations and Gender Survey’ are analysed to compare seven countries from the North West to the South East of Europe: Norway, Germany, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and Georgia. Norm strength is measured as the level of support for filial and parental responsibility norms. Character differences are indicated by how conditional the norms are, and how they are balanced between the younger and older generations. The general findings are in line with the family culture hypothesis – family norms are stronger towards the East and South of the continent, with Norway and Georgia as the extreme cases. National differences are considerable for filial norms, but moderate for parental norms. Parental responsibility is relatively stronger in the North West, filial responsibility in the South East. Family norms have a more open character in the West, where the limits to responsibility are widely recognised. Women are less supportive of family obligations than men. It is suggested that where the welfare state is more developed, it has moderated the demanding character of family obligations and allowed a more independent relationship between the generations to form. The level of support for filial obligation is for these reasons a poor indicator for family cohesion in more developed welfare states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Financial support and practical help between older parents and their middle-aged children vary greatly among the regions of Europe. Northern and Western Europe is characterised by a high likelihood of practical help to and financial transfers from parents, while in Southern and Eastern Europe these kinds of support are much less likely. Financial transfers to parents show an almost opposite distribution, with more children supporting a parent in Southern and Eastern welfare regimes. Using the second wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe encompassing 14 European countries conducted in 2006–07, these country differences can be linked to different social policies. Controlling for different aspects of country composition in terms of individual characteristics and family structures impacting on intergenerational support, it was found that the more services and transfers provided publicly, the more people aged 50 or more years helped their older parents sporadically, and the less monetary support they provided. On the other hand, generous public transfers enabled parents aged 64 or more years to support their offspring financially. Thus, neither ‘crowding in’ nor ‘crowding out’, but a modification of private transfers depending on public transfers and vice versa is found, suggesting a specialisation of private and public support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article uses a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain why parents send money to particular children, and examines whether intergenerational solidarity is shaped by spending on various welfare domains or provisions as a percentage of gross domestic product. The theoretical model at the level of parents and children distinguishes parental resources and children's needs as the factors most likely to influence intergenerational money transfers. Differences in state spending on various welfare domains are then used to hypothesise in which countries children with specific needs are most likely to receive a transfer. For parents we hypothesise in which countries parents with specific available resources are most likely to send a transfer. We use data from the first wave of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to analyse the influence of welfare-state provisions on the likelihood of intergenerational transfers in ten European countries. The results indicate that, in line with our expectations, the likelihood of a transfer being made is the outcome of an intricate resolution of the resources (ability) of the parents and the needs of a child. Rather large differences between countries in money transfers were found. The results suggest that, at least with reference to cross-generational money transfers, no consistent differences by welfare state regime were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of childlessness in European societies, its consequences have become a matter of concern. Studies in this field, however, have concentrated on what childless people lack and need in terms of social, financial and moral support. In contrast, this article focuses on what childless people give to their families, friends, unrelated others and to society at large. Using 2004 data on social support and financial transfers given and received by people aged 50 or more years in ten European countries from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the analyses show that the support networks of childless older people tend to be somewhat weaker than those of parents and that links with members of the younger generations in the family are stronger for parents than for those without children. The results also indicate, however, that the differences in transfer behaviour between parents and childless adults are small, and that the support networks of the childless are more diverse than those of parents, and characterised by stronger links with ascendants and lateral relatives and with nonrelatives. Moreover, people without children tend to be more intensely involved in charities and comparable organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]