Intergenerational Relationships and Exchanges

Abstract

Increased mobility, longevity, and unpredictability in family forms has led to the emergence of complex relationships, diverse family structures, and interdependent family roles. In an attempt to capture the structure, process, and context of family dynamics through these different stages of the life course – childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, midlife, and later life – studies of intergenerational relationships and exchanges examine what is transmitted across generations and how this transmission occurs. Four trends alter such relations: increased longevity, the global spread of economic uncertainty, mass migration, and shifting family forms. Together, these are transforming family structures.