Family Culture and
Intergenerational Allocations
John C. Henretta, Principal
Investigator
This project is funded by the National Institute on Aging ( 1 R01
AG024051) for the period September, 2003 to August, 2008.
Abstract: Intergenerational
transfers occur within a family context, yet most research on the topic
is atomistic, focusing on the attributes and behaviors of individuals
in the family matrix and not on the family itself. Social norms and
behaviors related to familial obligation and responsibility differ
across families, distinguishing the transfer behaviors of one family
from another and defining the intergenerational culture within which
family members act. This research focuses on shared family traits, in
addition to more conventional measures of individual kin, to develop a
sociological analysis that: a) examines why similarly-configured
families differ in their kin exchange behaviors and why individual
characteristics have variable effects across families; b) locates
research on transfers to older and younger generations within the same
conceptual framework; and, c) examines race and ethnic transfer
differences across families. Four central questions guide the proposed
research: a) Do families differ in their collective orientation to
intrafamily transfers, and what characteristics distinguish among
families' transfer behavior?; b) How similar to each other are the
family transfer cultures of the families of orientation of marriage
partners?; c) How does family change over time affect transfers and is
that relationship conditioned by family transfer culture?; and d) Are
there meaningful cohort differences in family transfers, distinct from
differences in family structure? The Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
is the major data source. Over the course of the proposed project,
seven biennial waves of data (1992-2006) will become available. These
data provide dynamic measures of transfer behaviors across as many as
four generations of a family and a changing pool of donors and
recipients as well as direct and indirect measures of family transfer
culture. HRS oversamples of African Americans and Hispanics are
adequate for the analyses of ethnic differences. Because the new
Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is modeled on the HRS, comparable
data are available to examine intrafamily transfers in a transnational
perspective. Multilevel modeling is the primary analytic strategy. Each
of the goals listed above requires parallel analyses of parent-to-child
and child-to-parent transfers, incorporating a broad range of transfer
and family measures, including indicators specific to each
spouse/partner.