Older parents and adult children: Traditional relationship or closeness throug or at distance?

• Main Author: Dragišić-Labaš Slađana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociological Scientific Society of Serbia 2016-01-01
• Series: Sociologija
• Subjects: older parents; adult children; reproductive activities; “closeness by distance”
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0038-0318/2016/0038-031816287D .pdf

A good relationship between older parents and adult children is an important part of active aging. This relationship is being transformed in different ways through all stages of life. Closeness, support and care of elderly parents by children and the other way around of descendants, both children and grandchildren by their parents and grandparents definitely facilitates and reduces the amount of care to be delivered from the community and wider society as such. However, the state often conveys its own part of responsibility to the elderly or the children, whereas the traditional culture presupposes a reciprocal care to be a moral norm, hence we get the so called “nonsense” situation i.e., overloaded and exhausted adult children or burdened parents on the one side and preserved “state” of well-being, on the other. In this work, we will consider the relationship between older parents and adult children using the collected data from 52 interviews (with content analysis method applied) conducted with people over 65, from Belgrade. It becomes clear that this relationship marks the everyday life - work, reproductive activities, leisure, health, i.e., the most relevant aspects of our respondents´ lives. The so called “distant closeness” proved to be efficient in Western societies and referring to our research, it is described as desirable but not always feasible. . It is also more preferable for female than for male respondents. The male respondents have higher expectations from their children when it comes to care and help. Sharing of more responsibility over needs of elderly and their children by society, could significantly enable the realization of what we here labelled „distant closeness”. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179035: Izazovi nove društvene integracije u Srbiji - koncepti i akteri, podprojekat: Politike roditeljstva]