The Roles of the Family and the Welfare State

Abstract

Swedish family policies are integrated within a general welfare policy where the state has acquired a significant responsibility for the welfare of individuals, independent of family membership. A common assumption is that the state has contributed to weakening the sense of personal and family responsibility in Swedish families. In this article, the interrelationship between public and private financial support is investigated as are some dimensions of practical help. Drawing on results of a survey carried out in 2001 in Sweden comprising 2666 individuals, this article explores financial support and practical help between family members of different generations. The article presents results regarding the prevalence of private financial support, attitudes to giving support and motives for giving and receiving financial support. The sample, aged from 18 to over 65 years old, was drawn from a public database providing longitudinal data (1993—2001) on public transfers. The respondents supplied information about private transfers given and received over a period of five years. The survey data and the register information from the database make up the full data set.

Intergenerational Transfers to Adult Children in Europe: Do Social Policies Matter?

“…The strong, continuing support relations between family members stem from a number of distinct factors. Love and concern are surely major motives to support each other in the family (Björnberg & Latta, 2007). Help is often provided to increase the welfare of the receiver, without the giver expecting help or support in return, because the giver enjoys giving (Lüth, 2001) and is thus altruistically motivated.…”

Parental financial support: A safety net for young adults with debt problems

“…Children are very likely to receive parental financial help as young adults, and the amount of help decreases rapidly with the age of the child (as well as of the parent). Previous Nordic studies have investigated the interrelationship between public and private financial support (Björnberg & Latta, 2007;Majamaa, 2011). The results indicate that private support, or to be more precise, parental financial support to adult children, is somewhat complementary in nature.…”

“…The results indicate that private support, or to be more precise, parental financial support to adult children, is somewhat complementary in nature. Indeed, it is given to young adults on a low income in particular (Björnberg & Latta, 2007;Majamaa, 2011), but the need for help is not the only motive: approximately 25% of help givers provide money for "no reason at all" (Björnberg & Latta, 2007). Love and concern for the wellbeing of the recipient are apparently the main motives behind helping.…”

“…Love and concern for the wellbeing of the recipient are apparently the main motives behind helping. In other words, maintaining social and emotional relationships is a major condition for intergenerational support, although altruism, solidarity and reciprocal aspects have also been highlighted in the previous studies on intergenerational help (Björnberg & Latta, 2007;Kalmijn, 2013;Kohli, 1999;Majamaa, 2011;Silverstein, Conroy, & Gans, 2012).…”

Struggling to Make Ends Meet: Lone Mothers and Intergenerational Support in Sweden

“…Björnberg and Latta 2007;Björnberg and Ekbrand 2008a;2008b;Halleröd 2008), the way in which this support is carried out and experienced differs between different lone mother groups, and requires further qualitative analysis. In this article, I will look further at the practice of grandparents' functional solidarity in terms of care and money.…”