ABSTRACT
The focus of this symposium is parent-child interaction. Our language is relatively unambiguous when it comes to defining a parent: one who has living offspring. Most of us would agree that this is a role which endures as long as there is at least one living child. There is no mandatory retirement from parenthood, and most likely not a voluntary one, either. However, the term child is considerably more ambiguous, because it is used to denote two different concepts. First, it may refer to a chronological category or age group. In that case, its upper age boundaries are likely to fall somewhere in the teens. Second, it refers to a role, one which is reciprocal to that of parent. In this instance, it has no age boundaries, but is contingent on having at least one living parent. If we start with this role definition of child, we may study parent-child interaction between a 90-year-old mother and her 70-year-old daughter, both of whom are retirees, widows, and great-grandmothers.
