The image of women as the only caregivers in families is being questioned as demographic evidence becomes more and more available. By exploring two national surveys, the Spanish Survey on Disability, Personal Autonomy and Dependency (EDAD) from 2008 and the 2002-2003 Level-of-Living Survey by Statistic’s Sweden, Antonio Abellan and colleagues looked at dynamics inside households. The author’s main focus lied on the household structure, i.e. intergenerational, single- or couples-only living arrangements, and on the identification of the caregiver for each household type.

Country differences in intergenerational relationships are not only due to economic, policy or housing contexts but also to a cultural tendency towards closer intergenerational ties. In a recent study, Cornelia Mureşan and Paul-Teodor Hărăguş investigated how norms of filial responsibility influence adult children to provide support to their ageing parents in several Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as compared to Western Europe.