Generational placement trajectories and their associations with later-life well-being and wealth accumulation

Abstract

Depending on which members of the intergenerational family network are alive, individuals are in specific social roles, like being a child, parent, or grandparent. This position, generational placement, can change across an individual’s life course as members of the preceding generation pass away and members of the following generations are born. The resulting trajectories can vary based on when (timing) and in which ordering transitions happen. As a first step, this dissertation identifies typical generational placement patterns and examines their prevalence across three different birth cohorts in Germany. Sequence, cluster, and regression analyses are applied to data from the German Ageing survey and include family trajectories ranging from birth to age 60. In line with trends described by the 'Second Demographic Transition', the results demonstrate that intergenerational family structures have become more stable, meaning that the family transitions considered occur increasingly later in the life course. This results in more shared living time with members of different generations. As a second step, following the principles of the life course theory, role theory, as well as the concepts of relational reserves and cumulative inequality, the associations of generational placement trajectories with various individual outcomes are investigated. Examining physical and mental well-being of individuals aged 60 to 74 years reveals that a larger demographic life-course reserve, that is, more generations being alive at the same time, seems to have a salutary effect. Moreover, experiencing transitions off-time, that is, when they would normatively not be expected to happen, is associated with lower levels of health and well-being in later life. Such deviations from the most normative generational placement pattern are also found to be associated with a less advantageous wealth accumulation between ages 40 and 64 for individuals born 1953 in Norway. A larger demographic life-course reserve appears to be related to lower rather than higher individual wealth holdings. Moreover, wealth inequalities accumulate over age. This dissertation presents a novel analytical approach towards investigating intergenerational family systems and their later-life and long-term associations with social inequality.