The ‘sandwich generation’ has been conceptualised as those mid-life adults who simultaneously raise dependent children and care for frail elderly parents. Such a combination of dependants is in fact very unusual, and the more common situation is when adults in late mid-life or early old age have one or more surviving parents and adult but still partly dependent children. It can be hypothesised ...

Based on a sample of matched adult children and aging parents in the rural Midwest, this study examined the effects of family relationship history on depressive symptoms among elderly parents. The study used reports from both adult children and aging parents regarding intergenerational affectional solidarity and relationship strain. Aging parents reported levels of depressed affect. Adult child...

This paper analyses the association between traditional family structures based on intergenerational and gender tasks and kinship solidarity and the family and employment policies in Southern European countries (Spain, Italy and Greece) from a compared perspective. In this way, the paper studies how the persistence of structures and family strategies associated with the male breadwinner model a...

Introduction: Nowadays there is an important distance between generations in our society, especially between senior citizens and young people, who do not regularly live together. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the transfer of knowledge and experience, are the keys to sustainability of culture and tradition, as well as the transfer of values. In this context, it is necessary to promo...

We elucidate the significance of active ageing from an individual as well as from a societal perspective. Taking an individual perspective, maintaining activity in later years is linked to successful ageing because of empirical relationships to positive self-perception, satisfaction with life, and development of competences, whereas from a societal perspective, active ageing implies usage of ol...

This paper focuses on individual and country-level circumstances shaping friendships between young and old to gain insight into conditions for intergenerational solidarity. Using European Social Survey data, findings show that relatively few people have cross-age friendships (18% of the young and 31% of the old). As predicted by the “meeting principle”, individuals who operate in settings where...