Intergenerational relations between adult children and their older parents: A comparison between host nationals and Portuguese immigrants in Luxembourg

Migration and ageing have become key topics of the contemporary world. In the next years, many western countries will be confronted with specific challenges of an ageing society. Among these, the situation of older migrants is of particular interest in many European countries. Only few studies have, however, focused the relationship quality between adult children and their ageing parents in host national compared to immigrant families. Within this context, expectations of different generations towards one another may be of specific importance. As ageing parents approach a critical period of th... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Barros Coimbra, Stephanie
Albert, Isabelle
Ferring, Dieter
Dokumenttyp: conference poster not in proceedings
Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
Schlagwörter: Intergenerational solidarity / Intergenerational relations / ambivalence / Social & behavioral sciences / psychology / Sciences sociales & comportementales / psychologie
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27521047
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://orbilu.uni.lu/handle/10993/18640

Migration and ageing have become key topics of the contemporary world. In the next years, many western countries will be confronted with specific challenges of an ageing society. Among these, the situation of older migrants is of particular interest in many European countries. Only few studies have, however, focused the relationship quality between adult children and their ageing parents in host national compared to immigrant families. Within this context, expectations of different generations towards one another may be of specific importance. As ageing parents approach a critical period of their life span, they may in general more likely experience a need for intergenerational support and solidarity and develop specific expectations about support exchange. These expectations may be challenged when families migrate from a culture of interdependence to a culture of independence, since cultural contact might lead to core changes in value orientations. As these changes are often more pronounced in the second generation than in the first, a generation gap between ageing parents and their adult children might result out of this process. A major question in this context refers to mutual expectations and obligations between family members of different generations as far as emotional and financial support are concerned. Adult children from immigrant families might, for instance, be subject to the experience of ambivalent or conflictual feelings regarding the desire to become independent from their parents; at the same time, they may feel the urge to conform to parental expectations or to support their parents in accordance to the values of their parents’ culture of origin. However, older parents may also undergo changes in their perception of intergenerational support and lower their expectations in the process of acculturation. In the present study, a cross-cultural comparison between Luxemburgish and Portuguese triads of adult children and their older parents living in Luxembourg (N = 120) will be realized. We will ...