Abstract
Societal changes and an increase in personal resources are likely to have an impact on the personal relationships of cohorts coming of age. We expect that, in recent times, (1) relationships more often strike a balance in exchanged instrumental and emotional support and (2) relationships are discontinued more often when there is no balance in exchanged instrumental and emotional support, particularly among nonkin. We compare three birth cohorts from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, aged 55–64 years at baseline (early cohort: born in 1928–1937, interviewed in 1992; middle cohort: born in 1938–1947, interviewed in 2002; late cohort: born in 1948–1957, interviewed in 2012). The results indicate that, in the middle and late birth cohorts, personal relationships are more often characterized by a balance in social support exchanges compared to the early cohort. No cohort differences in the effect of balance on relationship discontinuation are observed. The results suggest increased opportunities and preferences of young-olds to maintain balance in their personal relationships.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3371–3388 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Social and Personal Relationships |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 11-12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports, Directorate of Long-Term Care. The data collection in 2012–2013 and 2013–2014 was financially supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in the framework of the project “New cohorts of young old in the 21st century” (file number 480-10-014). Bianca Suanet’s work was supported by a Veni grant from the NWO (file number 451-14-019) and a Van der Gaag scholarship of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Netherlands Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports, Directorate of Long-Term Care | |
| Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 451-14-019, 480-10-014 |
Keywords
- Cohort differences
- individualization
- relationship maintenance
- social change
- social support
- sociology
