Intergenerational Reproduction and Solidarity in an Era of Family Complexity

Project Information

FamilyComplexity

Grant agreement ID: 669334

DOI

10.3030/669334

Project closed

EC signature date 27 August 2015

Start date 1 November 2015

End date 31 August 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 499 533,00

EU contribution

€ 2 499 533,00

Coordinated by

KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - FamilyComplexity (Intergenerational Reproduction and Solidarity in an Era of Family Complexity)

Reporting period: 2020-02-01 to 2021-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

As a result of the divorce revolution which has occurred in all western societies in the past fifty years, the nature of parent-child relationships has been changing rapidly. An increasing number of children grow up with multiple ‘types’ of parents: resident and non-resident biological parents, as well as, the possible partners of these parents. Similarly, more and more parents have multiple types of children: children from a current union, children from a former union, with whom they do or do not share a household, and possibly stepchildren. This increase in what can be called ‘family complexity’ has raised important questions about the foundations of parent-child relationships. Family complexity may also have important consequences in the long run, when children are adult and parents are ageing. Although adult parent-child relationships are generally strong in western societies increases in family complexity warrant further theorizing and new data for better understanding of the present-day diversity of such ties.

The aim of this project is to study how rising family complexity has affected two fundamental aspects of intergenerational relationships: reproduction and solidarity. Intergenerational reproduction is defined as the transmission of individual characteristics and behaviors across generations (e.g. educational attainment). Intergenerational solidarity has been defined as the degree to which parents and their adult, independently living children provide each other with support, combined with feelings of obligation and affection which foster this support.

Understanding the long-term repercussions of family complexity is essential for two main reasons. Foremost, family complexity adds an important element to debates about population ageing. Life expectancy beyond the retirement age has increased considerably which has implied increasing shared life time of the generations. This has increased the demand for social, emotional, and practical support from adult children. Especially during old age, having high-quality relationships with adult children is essential for the well-being of older parents. This increase in ‘demand’ for solidarity may well be at odds with rising family complexity, which may have reduced or at least complicated the ‘supply’ of solidarity. Furthermore, family complexity is a new element in the classic debate about ascription vis-à-vis achievement in the generation of inequality. Did the growing instability of marriage weaken the intergenerational transmission of traits? This could be the case if divorced fathers – and perhaps divorced mothers too – have a weaker influence on their children than married parents. Some authors have even suggested that divorce is an equalizing force in society, in contrast to the more common notion of diverging destinies which argues that single parenthood is not only increasingly common among the lower strata but also more consequential in these groups. To resolve this debate, we need a more nuanced look at the various forces of ascription that children are exposed to when they are young.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

One of the major achievements of the team has been the completion of a highly innovative data collection, titled “Parents and children in the Netherlands” or OKiN (Ouders en kinderen in Nederland). Two aspects make these data unique. Foremost, a major challenge in previous studies of family complexity has been the fact that publicly available data sources do not include a large enough sample of (adult) children who did not grow up with their two biological parents. In contrast, OKiN features an oversample of adults who grew up either with a single parent or with a biological and a stepparent in their household (final sample size of 6,485 adult children, 71.9% from non-intact households).

The OKiN includes self-reported information not only from the adult child but also, from their biological parents, and if applicable, stepparents. In other words, we collected information on family relationships both from the viewpoint of the adult child, as well as, from the viewpoint of the (step)parents. Such multiactor data have been collected previously but never with such a large oversample of children who did not grow up with their two biological parents. What also sets OKiN apart from other multiactor surveys is that the parent figures were approached for participation directly and not via the adult child. What this means is that in these data, we have less of a problem with “happy families” being more likely to participate in data collections in comparison to families with more strained parent-child relationships (for more information, see publication by Kalmijn (2021) in Sociological Methods & Research). The unique features of OKiN have been detailed in a data brief in the top tier journal in Sociology, European Sociological Review and the data are made available to the scientific community via the Dutch Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS).

This project has had a very clear impact on both the scientific community, as well as, the general audience. In terms of scientific outreach, the researchers in the team have published in top-ranking journals in Sociology (e.g. American Sociological Review, Social Forces, European Sociological Review), Family Studies (e.g. Journal of Marriage and Family, Family Relations), and Gerontology (e.g. Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological and Social Sciences) to mention just a few. As can be seen from these examples, the work of this ERC funded team was highly interdisciplinary and of interest for researchers in a wide range of fields. At present, the team members have published about 40 manuscripts in peer review journals. The flagship paper was published in the American Sociological Review in 2019, with the main resukts provided in the figure.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In addition to this academic impact, the team was also involved in outreach to the non-scientific community by, for example, participation in the first congress on reconstituted families, organized by a Dutch NGO (Stiefgoed Academie) and hosting an event on family complexity, together with the Dutch Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Netherlands Demographic Society. The latter event received wide converge in Dutch media outlets such as NOS and RTLNieuws.

The final important accomplishment of this ERC funded project, which should be mentioned here, is the training of several outstanding young scholars, namely three PhD candidates (with two having already defended their dissertations and continuing their careers at (inter)national institutions), one junior researcher who is currently employed by the municipality of Amsterdam, and one postdoctoral researcher who is at present a tenured Assistant Professor at a Dutch university.

Figure 1 from the paper in American Sociological Review, 2019, p. 22