van der Pas Suzan, van Tilburg Theo G
Department of Public Health and Primary Care/Health Campus The Hague, Leiden University Medical Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2025 Apr 7;80(5). doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaf015.
Older people are increasingly entering their later years in stepfamilies. Because adult children play a central role in older parents' support networks, there is concern that the generally weaker intergenerational ties found in stepfamilies may imply an impending deficit in the care available to stepparents. It is currently unclear whether there are differences across stepfamily types including stepfamilies with only biological children. The aim of the study is to examine whether there are differences in contact frequency with and care receipt from adult biological and stepchildren in biological and different types of stepfamilies.
Data are from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (1992-2022; 10 observations); respondents' ages varied between 54 and 101. An average of 3.7 observations are available from 2,761 parents in biological families and 647 parents in stepfamilies.
Parents in biological families and in stepfamilies with joint children had more contact than in other stepfamily types. There was less contact in stepfamilies with biological and stepchildren formed in midlife and in families with only stepchildren. There were small differences in care receipt; the lowest likelihood was in composite families.
Our study challenges the idea that the relationships of the adult child to older parents in all stepfamilies are weaker than in biological families and points to the importance of considering that only some stepfamilies are vulnerable in terms of contact frequency. We query whether stepfamilies are resilient, for example, to greater pressures from a sharp increase in care needs for one or both parents.
越来越多的老年人在重组家庭中步入晚年。由于成年子女在老年父母的支持网络中发挥着核心作用，人们担心重组家庭中普遍较弱的代际关系可能意味着继父母可获得的照料即将出现不足。目前尚不清楚不同类型的重组家庭（包括只有亲生孩子的重组家庭）之间是否存在差异。本研究的目的是探讨在亲生家庭和不同类型的重组家庭中，与成年亲生孩子和继孩子的联系频率以及获得的照料是否存在差异。
数据来自阿姆斯特丹纵向老龄化研究（1992年至2022年；10次观测）；受访者年龄在54岁至101岁之间。亲生家庭的2761名父母和重组家庭的647名父母平均有3.7次观测数据。
亲生家庭和有共同孩子的重组家庭中的父母比其他类型的重组家庭有更多的联系。在中年形成的有亲生子女和继子女的重组家庭以及只有继子女的家庭中，联系较少。在获得照料方面存在细微差异；可能性最低的是复合家庭。
我们的研究挑战了这样一种观点，即所有重组家庭中成年子女与老年父母的关系都比亲生家庭中的关系弱，并指出了认识到只有一些重组家庭在联系频率方面较为脆弱的重要性。我们质疑重组家庭是否具有复原力，例如，面对父母一方或双方护理需求急剧增加带来的更大压力时。
