Family responses to changing care needs of older Europeans

Jim Ogg, Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Viellesse (CNAV)
Sylvie Renaut, Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Viellesse (CNAV)

Although patterns of care giving to older parents in Europe are now well established, much less is known about the dynamics of the relationships between older parents and their adult children over time. The primary question to be addressed is whether and how adult children respond to a major change in the health or disability status of a parent or parent-in-law. The research proposed here will examine the central question of modifications in support given by adult children to their elderly parents of parents-in-law over time. The data source is the first two waves of the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The research aims to show how current generations of adult children provide help and support to their elderly parents in the context of changing individual situations and wider evolving social transformations linked to individual European nation states.