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Intergenerational Normative Solidarity in Turkish Families: A Research on the Youth
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
Intergenerational Normative Solidarity in the Families
It was determined that the average score of intergenerational normative solidarity in the
families (11.94 ± 1.91) was close to high levels. In the study, the intergenerational normative
solidarity increases as the scores obtained by participants on normative solidarity increase.
Normative solidarity is the common consensus on social rules and expectations that direct
behavior and attitudes among family members. These culturally defined attitudes and be-
haviors are expected of family members as a sense of social necessity despite differences
in the family (Rossi and Rossi 1990; Finley et al 1988, Mangen and Westbrook 1988).
The factors influencing intergenerational normative solidarity were examined in the study.
The study has important implications for understanding intergenerational normative sol-
idarity as it is the first research on the effects of intergenerational solidarity dimensions
and socio-demographic factors on normative solidarity. The model determined in this
study for the purpose and the importance was tested and the relationship between the re-
lational, functional (provide support, get support), emotional, conventional and structural
solidarity (the number of people in the family, the geographical distance from the parent/
grandparent, health status of parent/grandparent health status of participant) and the
socio-demographic factors influencing normative solidarity were determined.
The total variance determining the effect of socio-demographic factors as well as the
intergenerational solidarity dimensions on normative solidarity dimension was found to
be 17%. In the research, Intergenerational Normative Solidarity and Conventional Sol-
idarity, Age, Supporting Parent/Grandparent (Functional Solidarity), parent/grandparent
education status being undergraduate and postgraduate, number of sisters, employment
status-being not-employed, parent/grandparent education status-eing high school grad-
uate, gender being female and number of brothers were found statistically significant
(p <0.001). While the most important factor affecting Intergenerational Normative Soli-
darity is Conventional Solidarity (β=0,219), other factors were found to be, respectively,
Age (β=-0,177), Supporting Parent/Grandparent (Functional Solidarity) (β=0,140), parent/
grandparent education status-being undergraduate and postgraduate (β=-0,135), num-
ber of sisters (β=0,122), employment status-being not-employed (β=-0,117), parent/
grandparent education status-being high school graduate (β=-0,85) and gender being
female (β=0,087) and number of brothers (β=0,085) (p<0,05). In the literature, the scores
for normative solidarity families are statistically significant and influential with functional
solidarity, that is, mutual support and conventional solidarity between grandchildren/chil-
dren and parents/grandparents (Bengtson and Roberts, 1991, Netzer 1994, Lee 1994).
According to this, other intergenerational solidarity dimensions, the age of the participant,
the educational status being undergraduate and postgraduate, the parent/grandparent
education status-being high school graduate and the participant being unemployed are
statistically significant and inversely related to normative solidarity. It is expected that as
the age of the participant decreases, the dependency to norms becomes low and as the
educational level increases and the level of commitment to social norms decreases.
