The article explores the relevance of intergenerational relationships within the overall network of young mothers and grandmothers in seven societies: Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Israel, and Germany. The empirical base is 2,945 named network members in 249 pairs of interviews of grandmothers and their daughters from a cross-cultural pilot study. The network composition of both generations and the network activities with spouses, daughters, and mothers is described. The results confirm the high exclusivity and expressivity of the conjugal family in societies with an affinal kinship regime and the high, lifelong significance of instrumental and expressive exchange relationships between mothers and daughters in patrilineal societies. Furthermore, in all societies, common expressive activities are decisive for the perceived quality of the intergenerational relationships, whereas instrumental activities are without any influence even in those societies where they are of great importance for the intergenerational relationships.
The increasing importance of friends: Changes in core discussion network composition in post-communist Hungary between 1997 – 2015
