Reciprocity in Intergenerational Mutual Aid: Students' Opinion

The article examines family social assistance relations. Researchers give ambiguous assessments of the nature of intergenerational relationships of mutual assistance between parents and their adult children who are students. Therefore, the research aim is to determine the nature of the relationship of family-related assistance in families with student children and the impact on family assistance of the type of (joint or separate) residence of children with parents. The methodological basis of the research was the developments of the theory of reciprocity by B. Malinovsky and K. Polanyi, the concept of social assistance by N. Luhmann, as well as works of leading foreign and Russian scholars. The research was conducted on the basis of a set of general scientific methods of systems analysis, generalization and systematization, comparison, and a questionnaire. The empirical basis of the research is a survey of 300 students and 12 individual semi-structured interviews of students of the Ural State University of Economics, held in 2020. The survey and interview data were analyzed to identify the nature and motivations of family assistance in families with student children, as well as the influence of the factor of joint or separate residence of children with parents. The study shows that the relationship of family assistance in families with student children is interdependent, symmetrical, and nonequivalent, that is, based on the principle of reciprocity. A person's motivation for family assistance forms under the influence of a situation objectively perceived as requiring the support of a family member and the potential helper's readiness to assist and the person helped to be assisted. Students' support for their parents is based on non-economic motives that reflect family solidarity, feelings of reciprocity and commitment. The factor of separate or joint residence of parents and student children affects the relationship of family assistance. Thus, in families where student children live together with their parents, a higher level of intergenerational mutual assistance is established. In these families, parents and student children are much more likely to help each other on a regular, permanent basis; children are more likely to provide parents with financial assistance, emotional and psychological support, assistance in caring for parents and in household management. Material, emotional and psychological support from parents is at a high level, regardless of the type of residence.

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