The Multilinks project explores how demographic changes shape intergenerational solidarity, well-being and social integration. The project examines a) multiple linkages in families (e.g. transfers up and down family lineages, interdependencies between older and younger family members); b) multiple linkages across time (measures at different points in time, at different points in the individual and family life course); c) multiple linkages between, on the one hand, national and regional contexts (e.g. policy regimes, economic circumstances, normative climate, religiosity) and, on the other hand, individual behaviour, well-being and values.

The conceptual approach builds on three key premises. First, ageing affects all age groups: the young, the middle-aged and the old. Second, there are critical interdependencies between family generations as well as between men and women. Third, we must recognize and distinguish analytical levels: the individual, the dyad (parent-child, partners), family, region, historical generation and country.

The database aims to map how the state, in form of public policies and legal norms, defines and regulates intergenerational obligations within the family. What is the contribution of public authorities to support and secure financial and care needs for the young and the elderly in the family? In what ways the state assumes that intergenerational responsibilities are a family matter? In order to answer these questions the database includes a dual intergenerational perspective: upwards generations; from children to parents; and downwards; from parents to children. It looks across a variety of social policies and also includes legal obligations to support. It entails over 70 indicators on social policy rights, legal obligations to support, and care service usage. It offers a structured access to the public support for families with children and for elderly people within 30 European countries for 2004 and 2009.

The research project MULTILINKS (How demographic changes shape intergenerational solidarity, well-being, and social integration: A Multilinks framework) existed from 2009 to 2011. It has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2011) under grant agreement n° 217523.

After the end of the project the results were made available as a web application and as individual datasets together with the documentation files by the WZB (http://multilinks-database.wzb.eu). Since 2020, this website no longer exists. The single datasets and reports are available here unchanged.

However, the web application, together with the documents, is still available through the "Gender & Generations Programme (GGP)" and the French Institute for Demographic Research (INED). There you will find further information, additional descriptive variables and full possibilities to explore and navigate through the database. For more details see: https://www.ggp-i.org/data/multilinks-database/

The Parenting Scale (PS) is brief measure of parenting behavior and dysfunctional discipline. The PS was originally developed as a rating scale to measure dysfunctional discipline practices in parents of preschool-aged children (18 to 48 months of age) and can be used to identify ‘mistakes’ that may contribute to ineffectual efforts to discipline young children. The PS has also been used with parents of older children (up to 16 years). The PS identifies three stable factors of dysfunctional discipline style as (a) Laxness, (b) Overreactivity, and (c) Verbosity. The Laxness factor (11 items) describes the ways in which parents give in, allow rules to go unenforced, or provide positive consequences for misbehavior. The Overreactivity factor (10 items) reflects mistakes such as displays of anger, meanness, and irritability. The Verbosity factor (7 items) reflects lengthy verbal responses and a reliance on talking even when talking is ineffective. In Generation R, the Overreactivity subscale from the Parenting Scale was administered to measure emotional reactivity in the context of discipline encounters (e.g., Things build up, I do things I don’t mean to, I often hold a grudge, and I give my child a long lecture). This subscale consists of 10 items reflecting mistakes such as displays of anger, meanness, and irritability.

Dataset population: Families in households/Dependent children in households

Dependent children in family

A dependent child is any person aged 0 to 15 in a household (whether or not in a family) or a person aged 16 to 18 who's in full-time education and living in a family with his or her parent(s) or grandparent(s). It does not include any people aged 16 to 18 who have a spouse, partner or child living in the household.

A family is defined as a group of people who are a:

• Married, same-sex civil partnership, or cohabiting couple, with or without child(ren)
• Lone parent with child(ren)
• Married, same-sex civil partnership, or cohabiting couple with grandchild(ren) but with no children present from the intervening generation
• Single grandparent with grandchild(ren) but no children present from the intervening generation.

Children in couple families need not belong to both members of the couple. For single or couple grandparents with grandchildren present, the children of the grandparent(s) may also be present if they are not the parents or grandparents of the youngest generation present.

A set of seven digital animations created by and for children, first introducing the project and then one for each activity during Phase One (English school holidays - July-August 2020). These combine stop-start animation, cartoons, line drawings, collage and photographs to visually communicate the project as well as illustrating the variety of creative possibilities. There are six weeks of activities, each with a theme and an associated activity sheet with creative resources which provided a digital and printable text to prompt, stimulate and encourage children’s reflections.As the UK moved into lockdown in March 2020 and schools closed for almost all children, we began developing our ‘Corona Chronicles’ research with children. The research was designed to support children to visually chronicle life during the coronavirus pandemic and what supports their wellbeing. We developed a creative approach to meet the specific challenges of carrying out research with children during a time when the pandemic measures meant face-to-face research was not possible. A set of seven digital animations were created by and for children, first introducing the project and then one for each activity during Phase One (English school holidays - July-August 2020). These combine stop-start animation, cartoons, line drawings, collage and photographs to visually communicate the project as well as illustrating the variety of creative possibilities and the encouragement to work with 'any combination of these’. There were six weeks of activity in this first phase of the project, each with a theme and an associated activity sheet with creative resources which provided a digital and printable text to prompt, stimulate and encourage children’s reflections. The six themes were developed from research by the Children’s Society Ways to wellbeing: Exploring the links between children’s activities & subjective wellbeing (2014) which have been adapted to help children to reflect on their experiences during the pandemic. The activity sheets and videos are freely available to anyone interested in supporting and/or researching with children during the pandemic. A set of seven digital animations created by and for children, first introducing the project and then one for each activity during Phase One (English school holidays - July-August 2020). These combine stop-start animation, cartoons, line drawings, collage and photographs to visually communicate the project as well as illustrating the variety of creative possibilities. There are six weeks of activities, each with a theme and an associated activity sheet with creative resources which provided a digital and printable text to prompt, stimulate and encourage children’s reflections. Sixteen children, aged 9-10 (school year 5) from four schools located in some of the most disadvantaged wards in the UK participated in the study. Children who are vulnerable and disadvantaged are included in the sample. This includes children who are disadvantaged economically, for example children who are in receipt of or are eligible for free school meals and children living in families who are in receipt of low-income benefits/Tax Credits. The sample also includes children who have been in the care of their local authority and have either lived with foster parents or are children who cannot be brought up within their birth family, and have become full, permanent, and legal members of a new family. Children who are vulnerable are included, for example those growing up with adversities that could affect their lives, wellbeing and life chances, and are likely to be more at risk under lockdown (Andrew et. al., 2020; Armitage and Nellums, 2020). Children with special educational needs, children of key-workers and digitally excluded children are included in the sample.

This data collection comprises interview transcripts from Tokyo (34), Shanghai(36) and Hong Kong(27). Rising home ownership rates, volatile property markets and deregulated financial systems are increasingly important ingredients in the shaping of advantage and opportunity in contemporary societies. This cross-national, comparative research examines how the role of housing assets influences relationships within the family and across generations in East Asian societies. The different pattern and pace of economic and social change mean that the distribution of housing wealth may vary substantially across societies in the region. In some countries, it is an older generation of home owners which has benefited from extraordinary levels of house price inflation. In other countries, it is a younger, emergent middle class which is accumulating housing wealth on a scale far removed from the experiences of their parents and grandparents. The fieldwork was conducted in three dynamic cities in East Asia. The research will involve interviews with three generations (grandparents, parents and adult children) in 12 families in each city; and will highlight how work, entry to home ownership, and asset accumulation play out over the life course. In-depth interviews with family households (three generations) in three East Asian cities (Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong). Interviewees are three generations of families (the pivot/middle generation is in their 50s; and one of their children as well as parents).

In this project, we aimed to increase what is known about the negative effects of maternal depression and anxiety disorders (MDAD) on the mental health outcomes of children. Mental health is a topical area of research that is receiving increasing attention in the media and is one of five ESRC strategic priorities for investment. The main aim of the project was to help develop an understanding of how mental depression and anxiety disorders are transmitted from one generation to the next and ultimately help to design interventions better able to reduce the consequences of maternal mental health for children. We have used data from QResearch, a large consolidated database derived from anonymized health records from general practices in England matched with hospital administrative data, the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). Further information is available under Related Resources.Problems relating to Maternal Depression and Anxiety Disorders (MDAD) are common and are known to affect child health and development. In the UK, the cost of perinatal mental health problems has been estimated at £8.1 billion for each birth cohort of children, and 72 percent of this cost is related to the direct impact on the children. The overarching aim of our proposed research is to examine the effect of MDAD on child health outcomes, with a special focus on the role that MDAD plays in the development of child depression and anxiety disorders (CDAD) in adolescence. In particular, this research will provide robust empirical evidence to understand how depression and anxiety disorders are transmitted from one generation to the next and to help design interventions aimed at reducing the negative consequences of poor maternal mental health for children. To achieve this aim, we will address the following research questions: 1) Are the negative effects of MDAD on children exclusively explained by genetic transmission and family background characteristics? Or are these negative effects also explained by changes in the child's home environment? If the transmission of mental and anxiety disorders is explained exclusively by genetic traits and family background characteristics, then interventions targeted at reducing the negative effect of MDAD on maternal behaviour, e.g. through cognitive behavioural therapy, would be ineffective. On the contrary, evidence on significant effects of MDAD after controlling for genetic and family background characteristics would suggest that MDAD can lead to changes in the child home environment, e.g. changes in maternal behaviour, harsher parenting style and lower time investments in the child, with negative consequences on children. 2) Do school policies and health practices have a role in attenuating the negative effect of maternal depression on children? We will answer this research question by focusing on whether starting school earlier harms or protects children who are exposed to MDAD, and on whether an early diagnosis of maternal depression can attenuate the negative effects suffered by children. We will develop and use state-of-the-art estimation methods in combination with a novel administrative dataset covering general practices and hospitals created by merging two population-based health databases from England - namely QResearch and Hospital Episode Statistics. Using this merged database, we will create a longitudinal household dataset that will allow us to study the mental health of mothers and their children at different stages of the children's lives up to adolescence. We are a multi-disciplinary team from the Universities of Oxford and York, consisting of experts in applied econometric methods, child and maternal mental health, psychology, general practice, and on the data that we plan to utilise. We will translate our research findings into advice for policy-makers to help them design new interventions aimed at achieving better outcomes for patients suffering from maternal mental health issues and their children. Our research will also have an impact on health practitioners, psychologists, academics and charities working with mothers and children. We will produce papers aimed at academics as well as non-technical outputs to engage with policy-makers and a non-academic audience. Furthermore, by sharing and explaining our data and estimation methods to academics, we will build capacity for further research based on large health datasets. The final central element of the project will be to build the capacity of early career researchers to undertake and lead large interdisciplinary projects. QResearch is a large, anonymised database of GP records from over 35 million patients with longitudinal data tracking back over 30 years & is linked to mortality, cancer registration & hospital data. In our analysis, we use individual-level information on general practice diagnostics, drug prescriptions, and maternity records from HES, which allows us to link children with their respective mothers. The QResearch linked database has high-quality data to support world-leading research to improve our understanding of disease and improve patient care. Our data includes all singletons born between 2002 and 2010.The mother-baby linkage in QResearch is done via maternal identifiers and year of birth.