Generationenbeziehungen

Abstract

The different persons involved in social relationships perceive the same relationship quite differently. This assumption, called the „intergenerational stake hypothesis“ in intergenerational relations research, is tested by an investigation of emotional closeness, perception of conflicts, and the exchange of support among familial generations. In these data, parents tend to perceive greater emotional closeness and less conflict than their children. In the perception of exchanges of support, however, both parents and children impute greater weight to support received than to support given. Given that some differences among generations are observable, the fact that both parties of the same relationship are rarely captured in survey data presents a potential problem for empirical social research. What kinds of skewing or bias can be expected when not all perspectives are accounted for? The constructed models indicate that the bias so produced is marginal, thus the current practice of surveying only one side of the relationship would appear to be adequate.