The Role of Family in Modern China

Following the Maoist period (1949–1976), which stressed workplace relations over family ties and the post-Mao era, which restored the family as an important social unit, the family in contemporary China suggests a blended picture of both pre-modern, modern and post-modern characteristics. For instance, the increasing intergenerational relationship accompanied by strong filial piety shows a quasi-return to pre-modern conditions, whereas the freedom of mateselection rather reveals a modern characteristic of Chinese families today. In contrast, China’s current low total fertility rate shows a post-modern feature of the family, albeit as a result of direct state intervention in the private sphere. This blended and compressed characteristic can also be seen in the ambiguous transformation of the private (family) and ‘public’ (defined here as ‘non-private’, such as political, economic and civil society) spheres. However, it can be argued that contemporary China, which offers new perspectives to social sciences for a better understanding of the different paths of modernisation in general, is being characterised by a sort of new modern familism where the family continues to play an essential role in social responsibility and sustainability.

Effects of Intergenerational Relationship and Support on mHealth App Adoption Among Older Adults

As a growing body of literature examining the effects of mHealth for older adults’ diabetes self-management, how relational factors affect seniors adopting mHealth is still unclear. Guided by the transactional approach of intergenerational relations and the technology acceptance model, this study aims at investigating the perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, and intention-to-use of a mHealth app among older adults with Type-2 diabetes in relation to familial (parent-child) relationship and to e-learning support from child/ren or from external youth volunteering tutors. Using data from the Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program (IMTOP), 304 Taiwanese participants (an average age of 64.6 years, 43% female, and 62.5% received at least a high school degree) who had at least a child were included for analysis using structural equation modeling. Results showed that perceived ease-of-use (β = .58, p < .001) and perceived usefulness (β = .27, p < .001) are significant predictors of intention-to-use. Positive associations are found only between external intergenerational, but not familial, e-learning support and perceived ease-of-use (β = .45, p < .001) and perceived usefulness (β = .42, p < .001). Parent-child relationship is positively associated with both familial (β = .73, p < .001) and external intergenerational support for e-learning (β = .36, p < .001), as well as directly (β = .12, p = .030) and indirectly related to intention-to-use. Our findings suggest the importance of intergenerational relationship and appreciation of both familial and external support to facilitate and sustain older adults’ adoption for mHealth programs.

Bližšia košeľa ako kabát? Sociálne siete rodiny a komunity seniorov v slovenských mestách

The quality of social networks influences the quality of life in old age because the absence of them leads to social exclusion and loneliness, which are, according to the literature, the most serious concerns perceived by seniors. We focused on the social networks of seniors and loneliness in the urban environment. We were interested in how seniors reflect their social networks. Do they place emphasis on family or community networks? The paper was based on a mixed-method with a questionnaire on a sample of 1,026 seniors living in cities in Slovakia in combination with in-depth interviews. In connection to the assumption of the influence of long-term patterns of family structures on intergenerational relationship and relationships with friends, it was found that there is a preference for family networks. Friendship networks are long-lasting, transforming and, unlike kinship networks, do not extend geographically beyond city boundaries.

Rising Inequality in Mothers' Employment Statuses: The Role of Intergenerational Transmission

During the late twentieth century, U.S. mothers' propensities to hold full-time jobs became increasingly unequal across the distribution of socioeconomic status (SES). Consequently, daughters in high-SES households became more likely to be raised by working mothers than daughters in low-SES households. To what extent did this unequal exposure further shape maternal employment inequality in the twenty-first century—when these daughters had grown into adults and begun to raise their own children? Leveraging the genealogical structure of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this article estimates intergenerational employment coefficients on a sample of late twentieth century mothers and their daughters. It documents a much stronger intergenerational relationship in high-SES families than in low-SES families. Supplementary analyses reveal that being raised by a working mother significantly reduces the motherhood employment penalty among high-SES women but not among low-SES women. Unequal rates of mother-daughter employment transmission by SES can account for 36% of growing inequality in maternal employment across SES groups, observed in the Current Population Survey, between 1999 and 2016. These findings indicate that family-level transmission processes magnify the effects of structural forces on maternal employment inequality.

Which activities do great-grandparents and great-grandchildren share in family contexts? An analysis of a new intergenerational relationship.

El objetivo general de este trabajo es conocer mejor el rol de bisabuelidad. Se entrevistó a un grupo de voluntarios con bisnietos (n=78) mediante un cuestionario, cuyo contenido fue pilotado previamente, con preguntas sobre sus características sociodemográficas, las actividades que solían compartir con sus bisnietos y su opinión del rol de bisabuelidad, con la satisfacción asociada. Los datos fueron registrados y analizados tanto con tablas de frecuencia y estadísticos descriptivos, como con la prueba no-paramétrica de Kruskal-Wallis. Los resultados obtenidos mostraron numerosas relaciones significativas entre las actividades compartidas y aspectos socio-demográficos de los bisabuelos como la edad (p≤ .05), el nivel educativo (p≤ .01), la salud (p≤ .05), la distancia a la que viven de sus bisnietos (p≤ .05). Además, de mostrar que perciben su rol de bisabuelidad en general como una continuidad del rol anterior de abuelidad, aunque desde una tipología intergeneracional formal, distinta a la tipología informal y, sobre todo, opuesta a la del rol sustituto/subrogado. La mayor satisfacción percibida estaba asociada a esa interacción típica del rol formal (p ≤ .01). Los bisabuelos podrían estar cumpliendo ya alguna función destacable en las familias actuales de cuatro generaciones. The main aim of this study was to find out more about the role of great-grandparenthood. A group of participants with great-grandchildren (n=78) was interviewed using a questionnaire containing questions that had been put through a previous pilot study, covering participants’ sociodemographics, the activities that participants shared with their great-grandchildren, and their view of the role of great-grandparent and their related degree of satisfaction. The data were recorded and analyzed both with frequency tables and descriptive statistics and with the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test. The results showed several significant relationships between the shared activities and the sociodemographic variables, such as great-grandparents’ age (p ≤ .05), education (p ≤ .01), health status (p ≤ .05), the distance at which they live from their great-grandchildren (p ≤ .05). Also, it was found that participants generally consider the role of great-grandparent to be a continuation of their prior role as grandparent, albeit from the perspective of a formal intergenerational typology, distinct from the informal typology and, above all, opposed to the role of substitute/surrogate. Greater perceived satisfaction was associated with this typical interaction of the formal role (p ≤ .01). Great-grandparents may already be fulfilling a notable function in today’s four-generation families.

OPPORTUNITIES AND GOOD PRACTICES FOR STRENGTHENING THE INTERGENERATIONAL LINK IN CENTRAL EUROPE - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

We conducted research entitled “Learning and exchanging good practices strengthening the social role of the family” under project identification number EFOP-5.2.2.-17-2017-00048 “Research on good practices strengthening the social role of the family in the Carpathian Basin in the Hajdúsámson Reformed Parish and Family Pedagogy Association ”in connection with the project. With online questionnaires, we try to explore answers and solutions in research that can help professionals pass them on to families as good practice. The questions are about the family programs for different generations organized by the institution and municipality as well as the functioning of reverse socialization mechanisms in the intergenerational relationship. The aim of the paper is to show some examples of good practices in multigenerational programs, which were examined in the research.