There at any distance? Geographic proximity and the presence of adult children in older Europeans’ core discussion networks
Section snippets
Does distance matter?
Over the past several centuries, social change including urbanization and industrialization, the globalization of labour markets, the development of automobile travel and mass transit systems, and advances in communication technology has put people on the move and altered the way they sustain ties to family and community. We identify three perspectives on how geographical distance may now impact the form and function of personal networks, including the presence of children in such networks
Sample
We test the link between distance and network inclusion/exclusion using the sixth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a study of Europeans aged 50 and above initiated in 2004. We use the main household respondent sample, as spouses (included in the expanded sample) did not report on key child-level information used in the analysis. The sixth wave was collected in 2015 and included the following 18 countries: Austria, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France,
Results
Characteristics of the SHARE older adult sample are displayed in Table 1. Nearly half of the sample has two children, and about 22% have only one living child. Relatively few older Europeans have four or more children (10.4%). Nearly two-thirds of the sample is currently partnered. The sample is relatively healthy, with over 60% reporting good, very good, or excellent health. On the other hand, SHARE respondents take a more pessimistic view of their computer skills, with 69% of adults
Discussion
Though adult children are strong and enduring ties for most people as they age (e.g., Silverstein and Bengtson, 1991; Umberson, 1992; Ward, 2008), a majority of sons and daughters, in fact, fall outside older adults' confidant networks. The current study proposed that geographical distance between the generations may shed light on this apparent paradox, explaining why some children are selected as core discussion partners while others are more peripheral. Research on family sociology and social
Conclusion
This study elaborated three perspectives on how distance shapes the presence of adult children in older adults' close networks. Results indicate that consequences of distance are contingent, not irrelevant or intransigent. Though the gendered combination of parent-child had little to do with whether far-off children fit within older people's confidant networks, multiple other factors either heightened or diminished the role of distance. Still, the consequences of geographical space for family
Acknowledgement
We thank the SSR reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 6 (DOIs: 10.6103/SHARE.w6.710), see Börsch-Supan et al. (2013) for methodological details. The SHARE data collection has been funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812), FP7 (SHARE-PREP: GA N°211909, SHARE-LEAP: GA N°227822, SHARE M4: GA N°261982,
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