Historiantutkimus ja evoluutioteorian ”superpitkä” perspektiivi

Peer reviewe

Multigenerational Effects on Children's Cognitive and Socioemotional Outcomes: A Within-Child Investigation

Associations between grandparental investment and child outcomes were investigated using three waves of a longitudinal British Millennium Cohort Study that included children between the ages of 9 months and 5 years (n = 24,614 person-observations from 13,744 children). Grandparental investment was measured by parent–grandparent contact frequency and grandparental financial support. Child cognitive development was measured using the British Ability Scale and socioemotional outcomes using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Grandparental investment was associated with improved cognitive and socioemotional outcomes among children. However, these associations occurred because of between-person effects and did not exist in within-person analyses that compared the same children over time. The results are discussed in terms of their contribution to multigenerational relationships research.</p

Entry into grandparenthood and subjective well-being among older Europeans

The birth of a grandchild is often assumed to increase subjective well-being of older adults. Previous studies, however, have been both scarce and methodologically limited. Here, associations between grandparenthood and subjective well-being (measured by self-rated life satisfaction and meaning of life scores) were investigated using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). SHARE is a longitudinal study of individuals aged 50 years and above from 16 countries, including five follow-up waves between 2004 and 2015 (n = 67,110 person-observations from 41,123 persons). Within-person regressions focusing on each participant’s variation in subjective well-being over time were applied to detect changes longitudinally. Becoming a grandparent was associated with increased meaning of life scores among participants. However, similar effects were not found in the case of self-rated life satisfaction. The results are discussed in relation to studies examining whether entering parenthood is associated with subjective well-being.</p

The profile of “super-helpers”? Findings from the Generational Transmissions in Finland survey

This study considers “super-helpers,” namely older adults who help others in the private and public spheres. Although super-helpers can be important actors at individual, community, and social levels, only a few studies have evaluated their characteristics. We explored the profiles of super-helpers by drawing upon population-based data of older Finns (n = 2,174) and examined their provision of: 1) instrumental help (i.e., practical help or personal care) to friends and relatives; 2) financial aid to friends and relatives; and 3) public support (i.e., through volunteering or charitable giving). Of the respondents, 75% provided instrumental help, 44% provided financial aid, and 65% offered public support. Overall, 26% were considered super-helpers, that is, they were engaged in providing all three types of support. Having a partner, higher level of education, better perceived financial condition, being religious, and having a larger number of close relatives increased the probability of being a super-helper. The results are interpreted in light of opportunity structures and role extension approaches.</p

Relationship quality among younger and middle-aged siblings: the role of childhood family arrangements

Sibling relationships are the social bonds with longest duration across the life course. Using a large and population-based data of younger and middle-aged Finns, we test how childhood co-residence duration and maternal perinatal association (MPA) correlate with contact frequency, emotional closeness and provision of help between adult siblings. Employing sibling fixed-effect models we find that duration of co-residence in childhood and MPA are indeed associated with increased relationship quality in all three measures. Provided MPA, sibling relationship quality is high independent of co-residence length, but in the absence of MPA, increased co-residence duration is associated with better relationship quality. Co-residence duration is more strongly associated with provision of help in same-gender than opposite-gender sibling dyads. Full siblings report better relationship quality than half siblings do, although the co-residence duration mediates the effect of genetic relatedness in emotional closeness between full and maternal half siblings and in provision of help between full and paternal half siblings. Moreover, MPA serves as a mediator in the case of contact frequency and emotional closeness between full and maternal half siblings. These findings are discussed with reference to key theories of kin detection.</p

Grandparental Childcare for Biological, Adopted, and Step-Offspring: Findings From Cross-National Surveys

Based on kin selection theory, amounts of grandparental investment should reflect the probability to share common genes with offspring. Adoption may represent a special case, however, yet grandparental investment in adopted children has previously been both theoretically misconstrued and little investigated. Here, we study for the first time how grandparental childcare provision is distributed between biological, adopted, and step-offspring. Using Generations and Gender Surveys (n = 15,168 adult child–grandmother and 12,193 adult child–grandfather dyads) and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (n = 17,233 grandmother–adult child and 13,000 grandfather–adult child dyads), we find that grandparents were less likely to provide care to stepchildren than to adopted and biological children, but no difference between adopted and biological children. These findings were present in both data sets and for both grandmothers and grandfathers, after several potentially confounding factors were taken into account. The stepchild disadvantage is in line with kin selection theory. The congruent amounts of care provided to adopted and biological children may reflect similar levels of adult–child attachment, selection effects, and greater need in adoptive families, as well as some degree of genetical relatedness in the case of kin adoption. The study provides new evidence of biased kin investments in contemporary societies and stresses the importance of psychological motivation and attachment in evolutionary studies of kin investment.</p

Transition to Grandparenthood and Subjective Well-Being in Older Europeans: A Within-Person Investigation Using Longitudinal Data

The transition to grandparenthood, that is the birth of the first grandchild, is often assumed to increase the subjective well-being of older adults; however, prior studies are scarce and have provided mixed results. Investigation of the associations between grandparenthood and subjective well-being, measured by self-rated life satisfaction, quality of life scores, and depressive symptoms, used the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from 13 countries, including follow-up waves between 2006 and 2015 (n = 64,940 person-observations from 38,456 unique persons of whom 18,207 had two or more measurement times). Both between-person and within-person (or fixed-effect) regression models were executed, where between-person associations represent results across individuals, that is, between grandparents and non-grandparents; within-person associations represent an individual's variation over time, that is, they consider whether the transition to grandparenthood increases or decreases subjective well-being. According to the between-person models, both grandmothers and grandfathers reported higher rate of life satisfaction and quality of life than non-grandparents. Moreover, grandmothers reported fewer depressive symptoms than women without grandchildren. The within-person models indicated that entry into grandmotherhood was associated with both improved quality of life scores and improved life satisfaction. These findings are discussed with reference to inclusive fitness theory, parental investment theory, and the grandmother hypothesis

Short-term reciprocity between adult children and parents: A within-person investigation of longitudinal data

Although reciprocity of intergenerational support has been widely considered in family studies, empirical investigations utilizing panel data are still rather scarce. This study used data from four waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), which were collected in two-year intervals between 2009 and 2016. We examined whether the frequency of received support from parents previously is associated with the frequency of provided support to parents later. Multiple forms of support were considered that may be used as currencies of intergenerational exchange (i.e., one could be exchanged for another): emotional support, practical help, financial aid and personal care. Our analyses used multilevel regression models and investigated both between- and within-person effects. Between-person effects indicated mainly positive associations between different forms of received and provided support. However, these associations were confirmed by only a few of the within-person effects, which examined individuals’ variations over time. According to within-person effects, an increase in the frequency of emotional support that a son received from a parent was positively associated with subsequent provision of financial support for that parent. Additionally, an increase in the frequency of practical help that daughters received from their fathers was positively associated with subsequent provision of financial aid to their fathers. The magnitude of these positive within-person effects was smaller compared to the between-person effects. Within-person effects did not provide further evidence for causal intergenerational reciprocity within the investigated time period

Diluted competition? Conflicts between full- and half-siblings in two adult generations

Sibling relations are typically close but ambivalent, including both altruism and competition. Full siblings are often assumed to exhibit more altruism and less competition than half-siblings. However, previous empirical findings indicate that this assumption may not hold for sibling conflicts in contemporary humans. We study self-reported occurrence of sibling conflicts among adults in two generations with nationally representative data from the Generational Transmissions in Finland surveys in 2012. Respondents represent an older generation (born between 1945 and 1950, n = 2,015) and their adult children (born between 1962 and 1993, n = 1,565). Based on kin selection and parent–offspring conflict theory, we expect reports of any conflict to be more likely between full siblings than half-siblings, between maternal half-siblings than paternal half-siblings, and among the younger generation compared to the older generation. Results mostly support our hypotheses. Full siblings were more likely to report conflicts than were maternal and paternal half-siblings in the younger generation. In the older generation, full siblings were more likely to report conflicts with paternal but not maternal half-siblings. The younger generation was also more conflict-prone than the older. Results held when controlling for contact frequency, emotional closeness, unequal parental treatment, and several socioeconomic variables, as well as for within-family effects. Thus, although full siblings are typically closer and have more contact in adulthood than half-siblings do, they also appear to have more conflicts. We suggest that this can be explained by diluted resource competition over parental investment between half-siblings in societies with serial monogamy