Although reciprocity of intergenerational support has been widely considered in family studies, empirical investigations utilizing panel data are still rather scarce. This study used data from four waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), which were collected in two-year intervals between 2009 and 2016. We examined whether the frequency of received support from parents previously is associated with the frequency of provided support to parents later. Multiple forms of support were considered that may be used as currencies of intergenerational exchange (i.e., one could be exchanged for another): emotional support, practical help, financial aid and personal care. Our analyses used multilevel regression models and investigated both between- and within-person effects. Between-person effects indicated mainly positive associations between different forms of received and provided support. However, these associations were confirmed by only a few of the within-person effects, which examined individuals’ variations over time. According to within-person effects, an increase in the frequency of emotional support that a son received from a parent was positively associated with subsequent provision of financial support for that parent. Additionally, an increase in the frequency of practical help that daughters received from their fathers was positively associated with subsequent provision of financial aid to their fathers. The magnitude of these positive within-person effects was smaller compared to the between-person effects. Within-person effects did not provide further evidence for causal intergenerational reciprocity within the investigated time period.

尽管在家庭研究中已经广泛考虑了代际支持的互惠性，但利用面板数据进行的实证研究仍然很少。这项研究使用了来自德国家庭小组（pairfam）的四次浪潮的数据，这些数据是在2009年至2016年之间每两年一次的时间收集的。后来。考虑了多种形式的支持，可以用作代际交换的货币（即，一种可以交换为另一种）：情感支持，实际帮助，经济援助和个人护理。我们的分析使用了多级回归模型，并研究了人与人之间的影响。人与人之间的影响主要表明不同形式的接受和提供的支持之间存在积极的联系。然而，只有少数人际效应证实了这些关联，这些效应检验了个体随时间的变化。根据人际效应，儿子从父母那里获得情感支持的频率增加与随后为该父母提供经济支持呈正相关。此外，女儿从父亲那里得到的实际帮助频率的增加与随后向父亲提供经济援助有正相关。与人际关系相比，这些积极的人际关系影响的幅度较小。