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Recent long-term care (LTC) reforms in the Netherlands are illustrative of those taking place in countries with a universalistic LTC model based on extensive provision of state-supported services. They entail a shift from de-familialisation, in which widely available state-supported LTC services relieve family members from the obligations to care for relatives in need, to supported familialism, in which family involvement in care-giving is fostered through support and recognition for families in keeping up their caring responsibilities. Using data from four waves of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 2,197), we show that between 2002 and 2014 the predicted probability that adult children provide occasional household support to impaired parents rose substantially. Daughters more often provided household support to parents than did sons, but no increase in the gender gap over time was found. We could not attribute the increase in children's provision of household support to drops in the use of state-supported household services. The finding that more and more adult children are stepping in to help their ageing parents fits a more general trend in the Netherlands of increasing interactions in intergenerational families.

Using four-wave panel data of 1,327 older adults in rural China, this study examined potential gender and marital status differences in the relationships between three forms of intergenerational support (monetary, instrumental and emotional support) and the level of depression of the older adults. Results from a pooled time-series fixed-effects model showed that receiving and providing monetary support had a comparable beneficial effect on mothers and fathers, but mothers benefited more psychologically than fathers from closer relationships with their children. Exchanges in instrumental support was not related to either mothers' or fathers' level of depression. Widowhood further affected the gendered relationships between support and depression in that recently widowed fathers had a significantly higher level of depression when they received more monetary support from their children. In contrast, providing monetary support to children was associated with a significantly higher level of depression among recently widowed mothers. We explained the findings in the context of familial and gender norms in the Chinese culture and temporal needs for family support that link with bereavement coping stages among older adults. We argued that the gender and marital status patterns observed in this study are attributive to more fundamental differences in men's and women's social positions in the Chinese society.

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 actuallycausesan 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.

This investigation examines how support from adult children is affected by their parents' involvement in grandchild care. Instead of focusing on dyadic interactions, we adopt a gendered extended family perspective to examine how financial and emotional support from children was influenced when their siblings received help with child care from their elder parents. The data were from a two-wave (2001, 2003) longitudinal study of 4,791 parent–child dyads with 1,162 parents, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. Random effects regression showed that emotional support from both sons and daughters was strengthened when parents provided more child care for their other adult children; in addition, daughters were more emotionally responsive than sons under this situation. Concerning dyadic parent–child relationships, daughter and sons increased their financial support, and sons increased their emotional support when they themselves received help with child care from parents. We suggest taking a gendered extended family perspective when studying intergenerational relationships in rural China.

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.

Intergenerational transfers play an important role in individuals' lives across the lifecourse. This paper reviews theories on intergenerational transfers and social change to inform our understanding of how changes in the educational context that arise from the spread of mass education influence children's support of their parents. By examining multiple aspects of the educational context in rural Nepal, including husbands' and wives' education and exposure to schools, this paper provides new information on the mechanisms through which changes in social context influence children's support of their parents. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between schooling, exposure to schools, and the likelihood of couples giving to their parents. It was found that schooling and exposure to schools have independent and opposite effects on the support of older parents. Higher levels of schooling for husbands were associated with a higher likelihood of having given support to husbands' parents. On the other hand, increased exposure to schools for husbands and wives was associated with a lower likelihood of having given to wives' parents. The findings provide evidence that multiple motivations for intergenerational support exist simultaneously and are related to social context through different mechanisms.

The current study describes from an attachment-theoretical viewpoint how ntergenerational support in adult child-parent relationships is associated with wellbeing in both generations. The attachment perspective and its focus on affective relationship characteristics is considered as an important theoretical framework for the investigation of special relationships across the life span. Data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N=1,456 dyads) were analysed to investigate if relationship quality moderated the association between providing intergenerational support to parents and wellbeing in adult children, on the one hand, and receiving intergenerational support from children and wellbeing of older parents on the other hand. The perspectives of both relationship partners were taken into account to allow for dependence within dyads. Intergenerational support, in terms of instrumental help provision, was negatively associated with the child’s and parent’s wellbeing. Being the stronger and wiser partner in adultchild parent relationships, as reflected by giving advice and being the initiator within the relationship, was beneficial for the wellbeing of both generations. Additionally, relationship quality was the strongest predictor of wellbeing in both generations. Parental wellbeing was benefited by filial support in high quality relationships. If an intergenerational relationships was of high quality, the challenges of intergenerational support provision and receipt were easier to deal with for both generations, parents and children. Key words: adult child-parent relationships, intergenerational support and wellbeing, relationship quality.

The paper focuses on intergenerational support relations between grandparents and their grandchildren in Germany, and how they have changed from 1996 to 2002. The paper begins with a brief review of the literature on functional aspects of the grandparent-grandchild relationship, after which the research hypotheses about intergenerational support in the relationship are elaborated. Following a description of the data source, the German Ageing Survey, and its samples and measures, the evidence on the patterns of grandparents' provision and receipt of intergenerational support to and from their grandchildren are presented and compared with parent-child support patterns. The analysis also considers variations by age groups and birth cohorts and changes over time. The main empirical finding is that there was a greater likelihood of financial transfers to grandchildren in 2002 than six years earlier. Nevertheless, the grandparents' relationships with their grandchildren remained imbalanced or asymmetrical, at the older generation's expense. It was found that financial and instrumental support patterns between grandparents and grandchildren were best explained using an ‘intergenerational stake’ hypothesis rather than one of ‘intergenerational solidarity’; the latter is more consistent with parent-child support patterns.

The division of responsibility for aged people in modern society, between the State and their adult children, has received little systematic attention although the matter remains a perennial item of public debate. This paper reports the Australian experience of debate and legislation in this field. It is argued that the State assumed responsibility for the support of the elderly when, under pressure from prevailing demographic and economic changes, nineteenth-century public welfare, charitable, penal and insane institutions were unable to respond. This claim is illustrated by reference to the legislation, which was passed in several of the States, requiring the provision of intergenerational support for close categories of kin. The reasons for the failure of the measures legislating filial piety are discussed and an assessment is offered of the utility of such schemes.