Theories about intergenerational solidarity

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Theories about intergenerational solidarity

• Matthijs Kalmijn
• Department of Social Cultural Sciences
• Tilburg University, Netherlands
• Lecture for Socrates Intensive Program 2006

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Intergenerational solidarity

• Exchanges between (older) parents and (grown-up)
  children

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Types of support

• Practical support (services)
• Financial support
• Social support (visits, contact, attention)

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Definition

• Doing something that is a benefit to the other
  (and a cost to you)
• Both directions
• Upward (from children to parents)
• Downward (from parents to children)

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Research issues

• Variation in intergenerational solidarity
• Across individuals
• Across social groups
• Across countries
• Over time

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Theories

• Exchange
• Altruism
• Norms

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Theories - continued

• Emphasized by different disciplines
• Norms traditional sociological model of man
• Exchange traditional economic model of man
• Altruism psychology and sociology
• Competing theories
• Which theory is most valid?
• More general theoretical issue
• How do we explain peoples social behavior?

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(1) Exchange

• Rational actors
• Considerations of costs and benefits for ego
• Selfish actors
• Act only when benefits ego gt costs ego
• People do something for their parents because it
  makes them better off

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Forms of exchange

• Direct exchange
• Quid pro quo (Something for something)
• Delayed exchange
• Parents invest in children early in life and
  children give support back later
• Insurance element
• Uncertainty
• Prospective exchange
• Children give support to parents in order to
  receive something later from their parents

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Empirical test 1

• Hypothesis
• The support of parents to children decreases over
  the life course and the support of children to
  parents increases over the life course

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Empirical test 2

• Hypothesis
• The more parents have invested in children when
  the children are young, the more support they
  receive from the children when they are old

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Empirical test 3

• Hypothesis
• The more wealth parents have, the more often
  children visit their parents
• Research on bequests
• Confirms hypothesis!
• Only in multiple child families

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(2) Altruism

• Critique on exchange
• Different types of relations
• Different types of behavior

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Definition of altruism

• Altruism is doing something for someone out of
  concern for the others well-being
• Rational behavior
• Behavior based on the costs/benefits for the other

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Empirical test 1

• Hypothesis
• The greater the need of the parent, the more
  support the children will give
• Evidence
• More support to widowed parents than to married
  parents
• More support to ill parents than to healthy
  parents

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Empirical test 2

• Hypothesis
• The greater the need of the child, the more
  support the parent will give
• Research on financial transfers to children
• Comparisons across children
• The poorest children do not get more than the
  richest children
• Equity versus need

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(3) Norms

• General expectation of how to act
• External norm (via sanctions)
• Internalized norm
• Norms of filial obligation
• Feeling that one should care for ones family
• Unconditional
• Should not depend on own cost
• Should not depend on own what they did for you
  (or did not do for you)
• Norm of reciprocity
• Feeling that one should return favors

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child
sibling
grandc
parent
niece
grandp
cousin
aunt
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Empirical test 1

• Hypothesis
• The more people adhere to kinship norms, the more
  support they give to their parents
• Research shows positive relationship for
  individual adult children
• Macro-level test

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Causal direction?
causal effect
Norms of filial obligation
Support to parents
attitude adjustment
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Alternative test

• Test of
• Norm of reciprocity versus rational exchange
• Focus on consequences of support
• Perceived quality
• Consider the following possibilities
• Ego gives more
• Balance
• Ego gives less

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Conclusion

• Solidarity toward the elderly is perfectly
  compatible with a rational and selfish model of
  man
• The high levels of family solidarity in southern
  Europe (compared to the western/northern parts of
  Europe) point to higher levels of altruism in the
  south
• Coresidence of parents and older children is not
  a form of children helping parents it is a
  continuation of parents helping children
• The lower levels of intergenerational contact
  among the higher educated can be explained by
  weaker norms of filial obligation among the
  higher educated
• The increase in divorce threatens
  intergenerational solidarity

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More reading?

• Review paper (presented to Netspar)
• http//www.netspar.nl/events/pensiondays/upcoming/
  nov24/