Children, Youth, Elders. Re-linking the Generations

Since the Australian Institute of Family Studies was established in 1980, we have kept in mind two slogans about family links and supports: ‘Every individual has a family’; and ‘The family does not stop at the front door’. What we meant was that family policy cannot be based solely on a static image of parents and children living together under the one roof.

Most families start off as a couple, then go through a stage of parents and children living in one household. But once the children have grown and gone, does the couple no longer have a family? If the parents separate or divorce, do the children not have any family? When a partner dies or the children are grown, the family still exists, though the patterns of interaction have changed. Thus family policy has to address the nature of these interactions, across households and across time.