Old age comes with health deterioration and limitations in everyday activities, as well as feelings of loneliness and depression. When there is a shortfall between the care and support a person needs and what they actually receive, we are in the presence of unmet needs for support. We investigate the degree of unmet needs for support, as well as the risk factors for such a situation, using Generation and Gender Survey data for Romania (wave 1). We found that the absence of close family members increases the chances for the person to experience feelings of loneliness and not receiving emotional support. Elderly living in urban settlements display lower chances of having unmet needs than their rural counterparts. Similar results were found when analysing feelings of depression and the emotional support received. Persons without a partner are several times more likely to be in a situation of unmet emotional needs than those with a living partner. It appears that difficulties in making ends meet increase the feelings of depression, as well as the probability of not receiving emotional support in this situation. Age is the most important factor when it comes to persons that need regular help in care and do not receive it. The older the person is, the higher the chances are to be in a situation of unmet needs for care. The role of a living partner becomes insignificant this time, as they would have been equally old and not able to provide personal care.

We applied V. L. Bengtson’s six-dimensional model of intergenerational solidarity to a population of Czech families providing care for elderly family members. We found that the complexity of the issue could be summarized into a single one-dimensional construct (Family Cohesion Index). We used a sample of 413 Czech families caring for a senior family member over the age of 75 who is need of personal care. Our research question was: Why is family solidarity a multidimensional construct for the United States and a one-dimensional construct for Czech families? We considered the importance of socio-psychological assumptions for intergenerational family cohesion: family members a) have strong emotional bonds with each other; b) are in frequent contact; c) provide each other with mutual assistance; d) share similar values and opinions; e) feel obliged and responsible for the family as a whole; f) are committed to the family even at personal cost. Bengtson et al. studied the entire U.S. population and found that the strength of ties between family members varies across a person’s lifetime. Therefore, in their sample such unifying conditions did not appear. By contrast, we tested only the families that actually provided care for their elderly members. The Family Cohesion Index (FCI) was constructed as the sum of five indexes, i.e. indexes of emotional solidarity, former associational solidarity, present associational solidarity, consensual solidarity and functional solidarity. Our conclusion is that a one-dimensional construct is feasible and appropiate for Czech families caring for elderly members.

In times of population aging and its pressure on social security programmes it is particularly important to understand the determinants of intergenerational family transfers. Here we study exchanges of support between elderly parents and their children in Hungary, which is a rapidly ageing country with relatively low state involvement in elderly care. We describe patterns of time transfers (personal care and household help) received from children using data from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) wave 4. Our aim is to situate Hungary among the transfer regimes typical in European countries and to describe the main determinants of upward time transfers in a comparative context. Following Brandt et al. (2012) we differentiate between occasional and intensive time transfers and construct multivariate models of the probability of transfers with both parental and child characteristics as explanatory variables. Results showed that intensive time transfers were received by the more „needy” parents: those of higher age, living alone, having health problems and having lower income. Gender and proximity also play a role: intensive transfers were most often received by parents from daughters and children living close. In case of occasional transfers we find evidence of short-term reciprocity: non-intensive support was more often received by parents who gave transfers to children. Eastern European countries have generally high level of intensive support, but are heterogeneous in terms of non-intensive support. Hungary occupies a middle position among Eastern European countries.

The proportions of adults living in the same house as their parents are higher in eastern Europe than in western or northern Europe. We attempt to identify how different characteristics of both parents and adult children are associated with the likelihood of living together in the same house. We adopt a theoretical model that considers that opportunity and needs, as well as family structures, are important in this process. We use data from the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey for seven Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia) and we address the issue from the adult child's perspective. We distinguish three situations of intergenerational co-residence: people who have never left the parental home, people who left and later returned to the parental home and people who took their parents to live with them. For a multivariate analysis, we use multinomial logistic regression. We found a connection between the needs and opportunities of children and parents, and the different situations of co-residence. Weaker opportunities for children, as well as parents' needs, characterize co-residence in the parental home. Meanwhile, better children’s opportunities and parents' needs increase the likelihood of co-residence in the child's home. Acquiring an independent dwelling is strongly connected with marriage and any other situation strongly increases co-residence, especially if the child has never been married.