Theme 2

Intergenerational exchanges and implications for health and well-being

We examined demographic and socio-economic, regional and policy influences on the provision and receipt of various types of family support and contact, including co-residence, proximity, and provision of care, and the impact on health and wellbeing. Outcomes investigated included happiness, life satisfaction, loneliness, quality of life, depressive symptoms, self-rated health and medication use.

In some papers we focussed on the older generation and in others the younger. An important theme explored in some papers was diversity between European regions in implications of, for example, intergenerational co-residence for the well-being of older people. We also built on the concept of ‘linked lives’ to investigate how events such as parental divorce and death impacted  the  health  of  offspring  in  adulthood  and  how  older  parents’  quality  of  life  was affected by events in the life of adult children, such as unemployment or a new partnership.

Data used included the GGS and associated national studies, SHARE, the German Ageing Study and Norwegian register data. Specific topics addressed included

a) Intergenerational co-residence:

Using data from several rounds of the European Social Survey, we examined whether older widows were happier if they lived with a child and whether this association varied by region of Europe and gender of the child. We also used SHARE data to examine changes in the quality of life of parents associated with a ‘boomerang’ child returning home.

b) Contacts with children and mental wellbeing of parents

We investigated whether contact with children was protective against depressive symptoms in older adulthood, focussing on parents in three post-Soviet countries in which support from children may be particularly important. We also examined how separation from partners and children was associated with loneliness in a sample of Polish migrants to the Netherlands

c) Parental poor health and death and adult children’s mental well-being

Using data from France, we examined how having a parent in need of care, and providing care for a parent, were associated with adult daughters’ feelings of loneliness. Norwegian register data were analysed to investigate the impact of a parent’s death  on use of antidepressant medication by adult children.

We additionally examined associations between policy context, family configuration and the provision of care to a parent.