Children-parent relations at various stages of a life cycle in Georgia (by the generations and gender survey)

Irina Badurashvili, Georgian Centre of Population Research

Increased life expectancy at birth has created new patterns of “co-longevity” in family lineages: parents and children commonly share half a century of life. In this context the knowledge about intergenerational networks, quality of family ties and solidarity between generations became the one of the most crucial topic of social science. At this moment of history, many European societies have experienced profound changes in their social structure as well as culture. Looking across societies, two trends are striking with regard to patterns of intergenerational relations: the steadily increase in single-person households and decrease of households shared by adults and their parents. Both phenomena show fairly dramatic cross-national variability and variations within countries. Georgia is a country with traditional social values where sharing of household by parents and children is a usual pattern of family’s residential arrangement.Transformation of political, economic and social systems in Georgia has followed by the remarkable modification of social norms, attitudes and behaviours toward parents. In new economic realities with completely depredated old social system and unformed yet a new one the younger generational partners have found themselves in the position of main breadwinners in the household. As a result they have formed different expectations and orientation in their social and private life. .In this regard it is not quite clear whether co-habitation of generational couples in modern Georgia is matter of choice or compulsory situation in Georgian families, whether distinctive generational couples, if financial resources permit, would like to live apart and what experience those living alone. Our paper, that will be based on the results of the Generations and Gender Survey conducted in Georgia in 2006 gains to provide a clearer understanding of dynamics of generational relations and ways how different generations in modern Georgian society build solidarity and understanding.