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This chapter examines the impact of transnational family migration on the relationships between Lithuanian migrant adolescents living in Ireland and their non-migrant grandmothers residing in Lithuania. Drawing on cross-generational perspectives obtained through multi-sited, in-depth interviews, this chapter focuses on three major themes, namely: 1) the changing nature of grandmother-grandchild relationship as perceived by both parties involved; 2) practices endorsed in maintaining intergenerational ties transnationally; and 3) the key factors contributing to the grandmother-grandchild relationship in transnationally dispersed families. Findings discussed in this chapter contribute to the study of intergenerational relationships by providing a more nuanced understanding of how significant physical distance and long-time separation affect relationships, contact practices, and perceived emotional ties between grandparents and grandchildren.

Chinese people have a long tradition of multigenerational co-residence. This chapter refers to Hong Kong, the most developed westernised economy in China and yet with traditional cultural norm on intergenerational co-residence. It discusses the findings of an exploratory study which examined how grandparents perceive their intergenerational relationship in multigenerational co-residence. Framed by the theoretical perspectives on intergenerational solidarity, conflict and ambivalence, the chapter finds that multigenerational co-residence, in itself, may not lead to the fulfilment or enactment of all types of solidarity. Over-emphasising solidarity may lead to underestimating the possible negative consequences of the normative bases and practical drivers of multigenerational co-residence. Furthermore, although living together enhances functional support from grandparents to the middle and third generations, the support may not be primarily based on reciprocal support exchange across generations but strong normative altruism on the part of grandparents. Grandparents encounter ambivalences generated by conflicts between norms, as well as conflicts between norms and realities when striving to fulfil the normative familial obligations in intergenerational relationships. The chapter also suggests that future studies should re-examine multigenerational co-residence as being an act of filial piety the relationships of grandparents with their children-in-law in Chinese families, and relationships between structural solidarity, functional solidarity and normative solidarity.

Intergenerational relationships between grandparents and grandchildren can offer tremendous benefits to family members of each generation. The demography of grandparenthood – the timing, length and population characteristics – shape the extent to which young children have grandparents available, how many grandparents are alive, and the duration of overlap with grandparents. In this chapter, we examine how the demography of grandparenthood varies across 16 countries in Europe and two countries in North America, and why it is changing. Next, we examine variation in two key determinants of intergenerational relationships – the labour force participation and health of grandparents. Last, we comment on some important changes in the demography of grandparenthood that may come in the future.

This chapter draws on a close reading of Nadja Halilbegovich’s My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary (2006) in order to argue that its original entries and subsequent annotations demonstrate Marah Gubar’s kinship model of childhood studies, which privileges the relatedness, rather than the difference, between children and adults. It addresses first the content of Halilbegovich’s diary, which is concerned with charting the creative collaboration of children and adults under siege, and second, its form, which promises a rich negotiation between the author’s earlier childhood voice and the annotations she offers as an adult reader of her original diary.

This chapter details how Thai attitudes to homosexuality and transgenderism vary according to social context. Ethnographic accounts of the supposed “loose structuring” of Thai culture and of the variable and contextual nature of cultural norms are summarised. The importance of patron-client relations in Thailand, and the influence of this phenomenon upon gay relationships, is described. Intergenerational relationships and paedophilia reflected in the letters to Uncle Go are also discussed.

The intensity and style of care for grandchildren, as well as the precipitating conditions of grandparental involvement vary substantially across countries and regions of the world. Grandparents in rural China tend to experience relatively more favourable family circumstances and have greater access to resources upon assuming the custodial grandparenting role when compared to their American counterparts, factors that appear to contribute to enhanced psychological well-being among Chinese grandparents in skipped-generation households. This finding highlights how family systems adapt to the societal demands imposed on them, with US grandparents more likely to intervene in reaction to a crisis in the middle generation such as neglect or abuse (‘child savers’), and rural Chinese grandparents more likely to be involved in pursuit of a larger economic goal such as the increased economic productivity of a migrant son (‘family maximizers’). Without Chinese grandparents being full-time carers for their grandchildren, migration certainly would be more difficult and perhaps impossible for many parents of young children in search of better employment opportunities, leading us to the conclusion that grandparents are the ‘unsung heroes’ of China's rapid economic expansion.