Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Metropolitan Building, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2010 Mar;65B(2):236-45. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbp108. Epub 2009 Dec 11.
This article examines the effect that family structure has on the contact between older adults and their (step)children. A comparison is made among 3 family structures: biological families, complex stepfamilies, and simple stepfamilies.
The sample consists of respondents aged 55 years or older from the "Living Arrangements and Social Networks of Older Adults in the Netherlands" survey of 1992. The contact between biological relationships and steprelationships is measured by means of 2 items: contact frequency and whether contact is perceived as regular and important.
Parents have less contact with their biological children in stepfamilies compared with parents with their children in biological families. The contact with biological children is perceived as more often regular and important in biological families and complex stepfamilies compared with simple stepfamilies. No difference was found in the contact between stepparents and stepchildren in simple and complex stepfamilies. However, the contact with stepchildren is perceived as more often regular and important in simple stepfamilies in comparison to complex stepfamilies.
It is not so much the difference between biological children and stepchildren that counts when studying the contact between (step)parents and (step)children, as what the structure of the aging (step)family is.
本文考察了家庭结构对老年人与其（继）子女之间联系的影响。比较了三种家庭结构：亲生家庭、复杂继亲家庭和简单继亲家庭。
样本来自于 1992 年“荷兰老年人的居住安排和社会网络”调查中年龄在 55 岁及以上的受访者。通过两个项目来衡量与亲生关系和继亲关系的联系程度：联系频率和联系是否被认为是有规律且重要的。
与父母与亲生子女在亲生家庭中的联系相比，继亲家庭中的父母与亲生子女的联系较少。与简单继亲家庭相比，在亲生家庭和复杂继亲家庭中，与亲生子女的联系更经常且被认为更为重要。在简单继亲家庭和复杂继亲家庭中，继父母与继子女之间的联系没有差异。然而，与复杂继亲家庭相比，在简单继亲家庭中，与继子女的联系更经常且被认为更为重要。
在研究（继）父母与（继）子女之间的联系时，重要的不是亲生子女和继子女之间的差异，而是老龄化（继）家庭的结构。
