Sharing Lives

Sharing Lives Sharing Lives explores the most important human relationships which last for the longest period of our lives: those between adult children and their parents. Offering a new reference point for studies on the sociology of family, the book focuses on the reasons and results of lifelong intergenerational solidarity by looking at indi viduals, families and societies. This monograph combines theoretical reasoning with empirical research, based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The book focuses on the following areas: x adult family generations, from young adulthood to the end of life, and beyond; x contact, conflict, coresidence, money, time, inheritance; x consequences of lifelong solidarity; x family generations and the relationship of family and the welfare state; x connections between family cohesion and social inequality. Sharing Lives offers reliable findings on the basis of state-of-the-art methods and the best available data, and presents these findings in an accessible manner. This book will appeal to researchers, policymakers and graduate students in the areas of sociology, political science, psychology and economics. Marc Szydlik is Professor of Sociology at the University of Zurich. He previously worked at the German Institute for Economic Research, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Free University of Berlin and the University of Erfurt. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Stanford and Cambridge Universities, and has published widely in the field of generations. Routledge Advances in Sociology 161 Retail and the Artifice of 167 Dynamics of National Social Change Identity Steven Miles Media and Societal Factors of What We Are 162 Theorizing Social Edited by Peter Schmidt, Josef Memories Seethaler, Leonie Huddy and Concepts and Contexts Jürgen Grimm Edited by Gerd Sebald and Jatin Wagle 168 Beyond Capital Values, Commons, Computing, 163 Addiction, Modernity, and the Search for a Viable and the City Future A Users’ Guide to Urban David Hakken, Barbara Andrews Space and Maurizio Teli Christopher B.R. Smith 169 Values, Economic Crisis and 164 Medicine, Risk, Discourse Democracy and Power Edited by Malina Voicu, Edited by John Martyn Ingvill C. Mochmann, Chamberlain Hermann Dülmer 165 Pragmatic Humanism 170 Understanding Southern On the Nature and Value of Social Movements Sociological Knowledge Edited by Simin Fadaee Marcus Morgan 171 Sharing Lives 166 The Social after Gabriel Adult Children and Parents Tarde Marc Szydlik Debates and Assessments, 2nd edition Edited by Matei Candea Sharing Lives Adult Children and Parents Marc Szydlik First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Marc Szydlik The right of Marc Szydlik to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Szydlik, Marc, author. Title: Sharing lives: adult children and parents / by Marc Szydlik. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2016. Identifiers: LCCN 2015035958 | ISBN 9781138125711 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315647319 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Parent and adult child. Classification: LCC HQ755.86.S99 2016 | DDC 306.874–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015035958 ISBN: 978-1-138-12571-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-64731-9 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK Cover painting: Family portrait of father, mother, son and daughter, by Marie Brøgger. Contents Figures and tables vii Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Concepts and contexts 8 Generations 8 Solidarity and conflict 14 Theoretical model 19 Generation and state 27 Generation and inequality 37 Summary 43 3 Crisis? What crisis? 45 Introduction 45 Potentials 46 Types 54 Summary 58 4 Contact: Staying in touch 61 Introduction 61 Research and hypotheses 62 Explaining contact 67 Summary 75 5 Conflict: Quarrels and fights? 77 Introduction 77 Research and hypotheses 78 Explaining conflict 83 Summary 91 vi Contents 6 Space: Living together 93 Introduction 93 Research and hypotheses 94 Explaining space 98 Summary 106 7 Money: Financial support 109 Introduction 109 Research and hypotheses 110 Explaining money 115 Summary 122 8 Time: Who helps, who cares? 125 Introduction 125 Research and hypotheses 126 Explaining time 130 Summary 139 9 Inheritance: To him that hath 141 Introduction 141 Research and hypotheses 142 Explaining inheritance 146 Summary 154 10 Conclusions 157 Appendix: Data 167 Survey, sample, statistics 167 Cases, variables, analyses 170 References 186 Index 205 Figures and tables Figures 2.1 Solidarity and conflict 18 2.2 Theoretical model (ONFC) 20 2.3 Family in context 34 3.1 Multigenerational families 46 3.2 Parents and children 48 3.3 Distance 50 3.4 Obligations 53 3.5 Types 56 4.1 Contact: Overview 68 4.2 Contact: People 69 4.3 Contact: Countries 70 4.4 Explaining contact 72 5.1 Conflict: Overview 84 5.2 Conflict: People 85 5.3 Conflict: Countries 87 5.4 Explaining conflict 88 6.1 Space: Overview 100 6.2 Space: People 101 6.3 Space: Countries 102 6.4 Explaining space 103 7.1 Money: Overview 116 7.2 Money: People 117 7.3 Money: Countries 119 7.4 Explaining money 120 8.1 Time: Overview 132 8.2 Time: People 134 8.3 Time: Countries 135 8.4 Explaining time 136 9.1 Inheritance: Overview 148 9.2 Inheritance: People 149 9.3 Inheritance: Countries 150 9.4 Explaining inheritance 152 viii Figures and tables Tables 2.1 Generation and inequality 38 3.1 Generation types 55 A1 Cases 170 A2 Dependent variables 171 A3 Independent variables 172 A4 Contact 174 A5 Conflict 176 A6 Space 178 A7 Money 180 A8 Time 182 A9 Inheritance 184 Preface This book has come a long way. Over twenty years ago, at the Free University of Berlin, I began studying generations. More than ten years ago, I started working at the University of Zurich, expanding my previous research on selected aspects of intergenerational relations to a much broader perspective as well as to inter national comparisons. This book brings together these various strands of research. The aim is to capture the relationships of adult children and parents – comprehensively and in depth. The book’s concern is with family generations per se, but also with the relationship of family and state, of private and public intergenerational solidarity. It addresses consequences of lifelong solidarity, including connections between family cohesion and social inequality. What are the reasons for and results of lifelong intergenerational solidarity – for individuals, families and societies? Above all, the questions pursued are about sharing lives. In what way are adult daughters and sons connected with their mothers and fathers, and vice versa? Do we still find strong, perpetual bonds across separate households, or are the generations rather preoccupied with their own lives with no relevant attachment? How frequent are conflicts? Are quarrels and fights a typical reality of adult family generations? In regard to support, do daughters and sons care for their elderly parents, and do adult children benefit from lifelong financial transfers from their parents, all the way to notable inheritances? This book could not have been written without the most valuable help of many people. Since it goes back a long way, I am still much obliged to Martin Kohli, Karl Ulrich Mayer, Jürgen Schupp and my former colleagues Harald Künemund and Andreas Motel-Klingebiel. Gratitude is owed to all – previous and current – members of the Research Group AGES (LAbour, Generation, Stratification) at the University of Zurich: Ariane Bertogg, Martina Brandt, Christian Deindl, Corinne Igel, Bettina Isengard, Ronny König, Corinne Krohn, Franz Neuberger, Klaus Preisner and Tina Schmid. I am especially grateful to Ronny König for his invaluable work and great patience with the figures and tables. Many thanks also go to Stephan Elkins at SocioTrans for correcting my English as well as to Gerhard Boomgarden and Alyson Claffey at Routledge for their great support. x Preface Sincere thanks belong to those who have been conducting the SHARE survey on which this study is based: to the researchers and administrative staff of the survey, and of course, to the tens of thousands of survey respondents. The many helpful discussions with colleagues at scientific conferences, the audiences of public lectures, journalists and students in research seminars are greatly acknowledged. I am indebted to the Swiss National Science Foundation for contributing funding to the generation project, and to the University of Zurich for providing very supportive working conditions. Finally, my deepest thanks go to my family and friends. August 2015 Marc Szydlik 1 Introduction Mother, father, daughter, son. Those who make up our family generations are some of the most important people in our lives. For many, they are even the most important ones. Acquaintances live their own lives, neighbours move away or are left behind, colleagues change from job to job, friends may come and go, even partners can drift away – but family generations have the potential for lifelong solidarity. For many, no relationship lasts longer than the connection between parents and children. Today, this is truer than ever before. Longer lives dramatically increase the time generations may spend together. When parents live as long as eighty or ninety years, relations with children may last five, six or even seven decades. Nowadays, we are able to accompany our closest relatives for the longest time ever in human history.

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