Adult children are key confidants for their aging parents, often providing emotional and advisory supports. Still, adult children are not a guaranteed presence in older people's core discussion networks. Geographical distance is a leading explanation for why some children are excluded from the confidant network, but we hypothesize that certain parent- and dyadic-level factors make these intergenerational ties more or less resilient to distance. Using wave six of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, we identified whether a living adult child was also a member of the parent's egocentric confidant network. We found that fifty-eight percent of children were excluded from a parent's network and that such network exclusion was more common the greater the distance between parent and child. Random slope logit models indicate that parents with higher education were less sensitive to longer distances when listing a child as a confidant, whereas poor parental health exacerbated distance consequences. We also observed regional differences, with Northern Europeans being more impervious to geographical distance than older adults living in areas of the continent considered most familistic. Together, results point to the contingency of distance, as a number of demographic factors and personal and social resources contribute to the elasticity of parent-child ties across geographic space.

成年子女是年迈父母的重要知己，经常提供情感和咨询支持。尽管如此，成年子女仍不能保证出现在老年人的核心讨论网络中。地理距离是为什么一些孩子被排除在知己网络之外的主要解释，但我们假设某些父母和二元层面的因素使这些代际联系或多或少地适应距离。使用欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查的第六波，我们确定了在世的成年子女是否也是父母以自我为中心的知己网络的成员。我们发现 58% 的孩子被排除在父母的网络之外，并且这种网络排除在父母和孩子之间的距离越大越常见。随机斜率 logit 模型表明，受过高等教育的父母在将孩子列为知己时对较长距离的敏感性较低，而父母健康状况不佳会加剧距离后果。我们还观察到区域差异，北欧人比生活在被认为最家庭化的大陆地区的老年人更不受地理距离的影响。总之，结果表明距离的偶然性，因为许多人口因素以及个人和社会资源有助于跨地理空间的亲子关系的弹性。北欧人比居住在被认为最家庭化的大陆地区的老年人更不受地理距离的影响。总之，结果表明距离的偶然性，因为许多人口因素以及个人和社会资源有助于跨地理空间的亲子关系的弹性。北欧人比居住在被认为最家庭化的大陆地区的老年人更不受地理距离的影响。总之，结果表明距离的偶然性，因为许多人口因素以及个人和社会资源有助于跨地理空间的亲子关系的弹性。