ABSTRACT
Private transfers between adult generations in the family are an important part of the intergenerational link in modem societies. The sociological imagination was long truncated by the emphasis of classical moderniza tion theory on the emergence of the nuclear family. This restrictive view has first been transcended by research on the emotional and support rela tions between adult family generations. But it is only during the last decade that sociology has discovered again the full extent of the family as a kinship and especially a generational system beyond the nuclear house hold (Bengtson, 2001), which includes massive monetary relations and flows as well.
