QUALITY OF INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND CARE FOR THE ELDERLY

This paper will focus on care provided by adult children to elderly parents only. Its main aim is to study effects of the quality of relationships between parents and adult children on the likelihood of care transfers. Attitudes towards responsibilities of elder care and their influence on a probability of care provision are also to be accounted for. We presume that the quality of relationships between parents in need and their adult children and supportive attitudes may be good predictors for care transfers. The contextual background is reflected by an appropriate selection of European countries to be studied.
The data come from the Generations and Gender Survey carried out in selected European countries. The countries representing different care regimes and living arrangements of the elderly are to be selected (i.e. Poland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, Germany, Estonia). The logistic regression models with the dependent binary variable of giving/receiving care will be applied. The models include not only the basic socio-demographic and economic characteristics of givers and receivers of care, but also a spatial proximity and a frequency of contacts between parents and children. Moreover, the quality of relationship as well as opinions on filial obligations are included in the models.