Intergenerational relations across the life course

Issues of intergenerational relationships within family and kinship increased in salience in the public's mind as well as in scientific research beginning in the late 20th century, when intense demographic change, including increased life expectancy and decreased fertility, began to impinge upon the functioning of the welfare state. One effect of this new interest was that several larger studies were launched to explore the situation of elderly individuals in modern western societies, including also questions of their relationships with family members. Furthermore, both previously and newly initiated longitudinal surveys now make more frequent use of instruments on parent–child relationships. In this volume, Intergenerational Relations Across the Life Course, papers were assembled reporting on important longitudinal studies in modern western societies that utilized measures on intergenerational relations, including for example the LSOG (USA), the NKPS (The Netherlands), the LOGG (Norway), pairfam (Germany), and SHARE (15 European countries). Bringing these papers together clarifies the important joint findings of these studies, which until now have not been compared systematically from the perspective of intergenerational relationships.