Relationships between adult children and older parents in stepfamilies

Ageing stepfamilies are almost invisible in both family research and social gerontological research. Yet many of today's older people belong to the generations that experienced the divorce revolution of the 1970s and began experimenting with new family forms.

A newly started Forte-funded project in 2015 is about "The relationship between adult children and elderly parents in stepfamilies". The project is carried out by Peter Öberg, Torbjörn Bildtgård and Marianne Winqvist (Uppsala County Regional Council).

Ageing stepfamilies are almost invisible in both family research and social gerontological research. Yet many of today's elderly belong to the generations that experienced the divorce revolution in the 1970s and began experimenting with new family forms. Many of today's older people have stepchildren with whom they have regular contact. What do stepparent relationships mean for intergenerational cohesion in ageing families? Recent international research has shown that stepparent relationships are less cohesive than biological relationships between adult children and elderly parents, the so-called 'step-gap'. The proposed project will investigate the relationship between adult children and elderly parents in the aging stepfamily. We will conduct qualitative interviews with 20 adult children and 20 elderly parents (70+) who have lived/are living in a stepfamily and who have both biological and non-biological parents/children in their lives. The work will be guided by the theory of intergenerational solidarity/cohesion. Traditionally, informal support has been seen as a duty relationship between generations, but in stepfamilies the relationship is less predictable. What does cohesion look like? Who provides support in ageing stepfamilies? As the experience of restructured families will become more common in future cohorts, the ageing stepfamily is a strategic place to investigate what intergenerational relationships will look like in the future, and how this affects the exchange of support and help between generations.

Research plan for the project Relationships between adult children and older parents in stepfamilies Pdf, 561.2 kB.