The conference was held in Athens last August, this academic gathering, focused this year on the social dilemmas caused by globalisation and changes in the world economic paradigm. It was an opportunity to present the preliminary results of research into intergenerational solidarity which the Institute for Advanced Family Studies (UIC Barcelona) has been undertaking, along with the Catholic University of Milan, with support from the Santander IsFamily Chair.
The paper that was presented, based on a paper written with Rita Cavallotti, presented the results obtained in Spain based on a sample of people of between 65 and 74 years old with children. The questionnaire, which involved technical management from the CAPI system allowed researchers to select 608 valid cases based on random sampling techniques for each part of the sample.
The aim of this questionnaire was to obtain data focused on reinterpreting both the relational sociological perspective applied to the study of intergenerational solidarity within the family and classic Bengtson-Roberts theory. The data analysis was based on the calculation of indexes, used multi-variable techniques and also involved an analysis of family and social networks.
The questionnaire focused on different relational dimensions: the structure of the family and intergenerational relationships; networks of family solidarity and friendship; mutual intergenerational guidance; memory and feelings of gratitude and equity; health conditions and leisure habits. It also looked at the use of ICT; the human being in paid work; participation in volunteering and socio-political activities; social capital, values and attitudes; representations of the condition of older people, and the financial situation.
The results of the analysis allowed the significance of the dimensions of structural solidarity to be explored (number, type, closeness of family members, etc.) as well as the configuration of intergenerational solidarity within the family, in relation to all the other dimensions of solidarity already explored in the literature: associational, affective, consensual, functional and normative. The results also provided additional evidence for the analysis of intergenerational solidarity according to the relational sociology paradigm.
