Intergenerational Solidarity and Ambivalence: Types of Relationships in German Families

Abstract

For at least two decades the research regarding generations in family sociology has been dominated by the multidimensional concept of intergenerational solidarity. Recently, the concept of intergenerational ambivalence, emphasizing the simultaneity of positive and negative aspects in family relations, has become a popular counterpart to the solidarity model. The aim of this paper is to integrate empirically both positive and negative aspects in families. Thus, firstly, four types of intergenerational relations (amicable, civil, ambivalent, and disharmonious) are generated by cross-classifying both scales on intimacy (positive) and conflict (negative) in the family. Secondly, differences in the four types of relations regarding the dimensions of intergenerational solidarity are empirically investigated. The analysis is based on the German data taken from the cross-cultural study “Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations” (VOC) which was carried out in 2002. A binary logistic regression analysis shows that the likelihood for the daughter-mother-relation to be ambivalent increases if daughters receive financial, instrumental, and emotional support from their mothers (functional solidarity). For the daughter-father-dyad, the likelihood to be ambivalent is slightly higher if the daughters indicate a higher agreement on familial norms (normative solidarity). Solidarity dimensions are better suited to explain the association with a certain type of relationship in the case of amicable, disharmonious, and civil relations (for both mother and father relations), where frequency of contact (associational solidarity) and emotional closeness (effectual solidarity) are also relevant.