A Cross-Cultural Study of Intergenerational Relations

lndustrialized countries with rising life expeetaney and falling birthrates are expcricncing a far-reaching demographie transformation involving changcs in variolls areas of soeiety. The inereasing li fe expectancy signifies a potentially longer common lifespan among generational cohorts of different ages. These changes imply questions about the shaping of intergenerational relations under conditions of demographie and also socioceonomie change. Adding to the drama ofthese rcIationships [ür modern industrialized societies at present is the question 01' wh ether intergenerational confliets will arise. The scenario acquires even more explosive power when seen against the idea 01" the individualization of society and the dissolution of üllnilial bonds ostensibly assoeiated with it. On the other hand, Bengtson has developed another scenario, suppOl·ted by an abundance of empirical data, whieh includes the model of intergenerational solidarity (Bcngtson 200 I, Bengtson/Roberts 1991, SilversteinlBengtson/Lawton 1997). The theoretieal and empirieal advantage of Bengtson's approach is that intergenerational relations are not simply seen at the aggregate level as rcIationships between eohOlts. On the eontrary, Bengtson sees intergenerational relations as rdationships between generations that have t,unilial attaclunents to one another, such as those that ehildren have to their parents and to their parents' parents (the ehildren's grandparents). Bengtson's approach, however, means that studies must [oeus on individual family 111embers who belong to the ditlerent generations and Oll tbe rclatiollsbips that they have to one anolher.