Inter- and Intragenerational Exchanges and Subjective Quality of Life of Middle-Aged Adults in Poland

Anita Abramowska-Kmon , SGH Warsaw School of Economics
Wiktoria Bachorek, SGH Warsaw School of Economics
Milena Chelchowska, SGH Warsaw School of Economics

Inter- and intragenerational relationships, receiving and giving different kinds of support to other people, can be both beneficial and detrimental to the subjective well-being (SWB) of individuals involved in these exchanges, especially middle-aged people who are the main source of support to other people. The aim of our paper is twofold: (1) To identify and compare the inter- and intragenerational exchange of support among middle-aged people in Poland, taking into account the type of relationship (with children, parents, siblings, etc.). (2) To analyse the relationship between the provision/receipt of care and emotional support and the subjective quality of life of middle-aged people. We analyse data from the second wave of the Generation and Gender Survey (GGS), conducted in Poland in 2014-2015. Subjective quality of life was approximated by two variables: subjective well-being and loneliness. In the estimated linear and ordered logistic models, we controlled for personal characteristics: age, gender, education level, marital status, living arrangements, having children, employment status, disability status, subjective financial situation. The main explanatory variables are based on information about the provision and receipt of different types of support (personal care and emotional support) and the nature of the relationship with a person involved in a given exchange. Preliminary results show that those aged 45-69 who regularly provided care to others had lower SWB and felt more lonely than those who did not engage in this type of activity. Receiving emotional support was beneficial for subjective quality of life, especially for women.

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 Presented in Session 12. Well-being, Living Arrangements and Satisfaction among Older People