This symposium brings together European experts on the micro-macro-links between “generations” in families and societies and assess the interdependencies between social policies and family structures from different perspectives. The papers will focus on the links between demographic changes, different legislations and policies, social exclusion and childlessness and intergenerational solidarity and support in Europe.

There are numerous assumptions about how demographic changes at the macro level have changed individuals’ family structures at the micro level. Bridging the two levels is, however, less straightforward than what it might seem. In this presentation, I will highlight some of the challenges by focusing on the following two concepts: “the parent support ratio” and “the sandwich generation”. These are interrelated terms, but linked to different levels. The first is a constructed macro-level indicator, and is defined by the number of individuals 80 (or 85) and older (assumingly parents in need of care) per 100 persons aged 50-64 (assumingly these parents’ children). The second, on the other hand, is supposed to illustrate family reality on a micro level. Although the “sandwich generation” over the years has been used for different generational positions in the family, it was originally coined to describe the experience of 45-65 year olds in four generational family structures (Miller 1981) – a situation several scholars have stressed is becoming increasingly common in ageing societies. To illustrate my argument about difficulties in moving from considerations of population ageing on a macro level to implications for family structures on a micro level, I will use population statistics and survey data (GGS) from selected European countries.

A social psychological approach to interdependent or “linked” lives (Elder, 1994) dominates the literature. The starting point of this paper is that interdependence is not only social-psychological, but is also structured on a macro-level. Focusing on national policies, I distinguish the ways in which legislation mandates generational interdependence (e.g., legal obligations to provide financial support), blocks generational interdependence (e.g., grandparents not granted the right to raise grandchildren when parents cannot provide adequate care; migration laws not granting temporary visits to enable the provision of care), explicitly shapes intergenerational interdependence (e.g., daddy quota), and implicitly shapes intergenerational interdependence (e.g., grandparental care in Southern Europe in the absence of publicly funded parental support). I pay specific attention to childless men and women, questioning the primacy assigned to kinship ties in the health care and long-term support policies. Gender receives consistent consideration throughout the paper.

Family members help each other in case of need but also due to love and concern for each other. Thus, the family is a safety net, especially in times of crises. We know that most transfers flow between parents and their adult children and functional solidarity is a crucial dimension of intergenerational relations. Until now, however, little attendance has been given to exchange patterns between economically deprived family members within different policy contexts. We thus assess how transfers between older parents and their adult children are linked to social exclusion across Europe on the micro and the macro level; i.e. do socially excluded give less and receive more money and practical help, and do different policy regimes play a role? Using the new exclusion items from the fifth wave of SHARE, we focus the effects of deprivation on exchange patterns between older parents and their adult children in a comparative analysis. We distinguish between different kinds and flows of assistance (financial, time, given and received), and consider the possible impacts of state contexts on the links between solidarity and exclusion. Multilevel models indicate that materially deprived respondents indeed give less but need more help from their adult children and thus lose their normal role as providers. Moreover, social policies matter: In countries with higher social inequality and more poverty fewer transfers of time and money are given and received between generations. Poor families in countries with high social exclusion are thus especially vulnerable.

Childlessness in later life is a topic that has been attracting increased levels of attention from researchers and policy makers. Yet a number of misconceptions about childlessness among the elderly remain, such as the claim that elderly childless people are mainly on the receiving end of intergenerational exchanges, or that they are a homogeneous group. Contrary to these assumptions, we find that elderly childless people give as well as receive, and that parental status is a continuum, ranging from full childlessness across several intermediary conditions to full current natural parenthood. In a study of the elderly population across 11 European countries, we show that non-parents make significant contributions to their social networks of family and friends through financial and time transfers, and that the latter in particular differ little from those of natural parents. The same applies to their participation in charitable and voluntary work. Different parental statuses are significantly associated with the various dimensions of giving and receiving. Social parents (i.e., people who have no natural children, but who have adopted, foster, or stepchildren) are shown to be much more similar to natural parents than to non-parents. Family recomposition thus does not seem to inhibit intergenerational exchanges, as long as social parents have sufficient contact with their non-natural social children. On the other hand, parents who have lost contact with their children – natural or otherwise – are likely to require more formal care in later life.