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Intergenerational Relationships

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging

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Synonyms

Intergenerationality; Multigenerationality; Intergenerational solidarity/conflict/ambivalence; Intergenerational contract; Intergenerational fabric; Intergenerational compact; Parents-children relationships; Cross-generational relationships; Multigenerational relationships

Definition

The term intergenerational relationships refers to any type of relationship between individuals and groups of different generations. This is the most common and generic meaning. Relationships between parents and children or between grandparents and grandchildren are good examples of intergenerational relationships. However, a relationship between an older volunteer and a child in a nursery school is also an example of an intergenerational relationship, even though no kinship ties exist between them. Both terms – relationship and intergenerational – have multiple meanings and are multidimensional (Höpflinger 2009).

Lüscher et al. (2017, p. 40) argue that intergenerational relationships “are...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Mariano Sánchez

  2. Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Pilar Díaz

Authors
  1. Mariano Sánchez
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  2. Pilar Díaz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mariano Sánchez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Population Division, UN Dept of Economic Social Affairs Population Division, New York, NY, USA

    Danan Gu

  2. Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Matthew E. Dupre

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD, USA

    Christine A. Mair

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Sánchez, M., Díaz, P. (2020). Intergenerational Relationships. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_895-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_895-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

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