ABSTRACT
The family often acts as a container for emotional and caring issues in public discussion, which not only includes solidarity and support within families but also elder abuse, conflict, intergenerational competition and transmitting inequality. The degree to which the private worlds of families become the concern of public issues is both a driver for new policy initiatives and for the classification and evaluation of family forms. Families are among the most enduring and widespread of systems and exist in nuclear or extended forms in all societies, as a means of regulating reproduction and support across generations. While midlifers had low expectations of intergenerational support, women were the most in favour of state intervention. There was again little evidence of generational conflict. While the politics of generational rivalry recognises generational difference, it has become stuck in antagonism without rising to discover an encompassing intergenerational solution.
