How gender and generation matter: examples from research on divorced parents and adult children

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of taking gender and generational position seriously in research on intergenerational family relations, using as illustration the association between parents’ marital status and perceived quality of the relationship between parents and adult children. The data stem from the Norwegian Life-course, Generations and Gender Study (N = 15,156). Findings revealed the importance of considering who is being asked and which parent–child dyad (mother–son, mother–daughter, father–son, and father–daughter) is in question. Respondents’ generational position mattered considerably. Parents perceived the relationship as more positive, compared to views of adult children. The contrast was magnified when parents were divorced. How gender mattered differed by generational position. Mothers perceived the relationship quality as higher than fathers did, whereas daughters rated the quality as lower, compared to sons. When parents were divorced, data from children showed stronger dyad contrasts than parent-derived data.