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Introduction
The expected 'decline of the family' in modern societies with developed welfare systems has found little evidence: parents and adult children still maintain a high frequency of contact as they age, express commitments to support each other, and are involved in intergenerational transfers within the family. This is reassuring if we consider that close family ties are known to positively affect health, most obviously through the provision of solidarity (Antonucci 2001; Davey and Eggebeen 1998; Krause 2001; Ross, Mirowsky and Goldsteen 1990). Yet, 'too much' intergenerational solidarity may result in feelings of powerlessness (as the literature has shown since Wheaton 1985), especially when parents grow old. On the one side, the peculiar role taken on by adult children in the mid- and late-life of parents provides forms of support that friends and partner - usually similar in age and lifestyle - might fail to provide. On the other side, the parent-child role reversal may be an especially painful experience for the parents. Increasing feelings of incompetence and lack of autonomy (Krause 1987; Seeman, Bruce and McAvay 1996; Silverstein, Chen and Heller 1996) in turn reinforce the network tendency towards treating the ageing person as dependent. Avoiding this cycle should be a priority to couple solidarity and wellbeing in old age, while preventing loss of control over one's life. This argument broadens the view of intervention in social networks to improve wellbeing.
Two strands have mainly driven the research in this field, one focusing on the intensity of solidarity and the other looking more at qualitative aspects of social relations. Combining these two aspects, the association between changes in family solidarity and a specific personal characteristic, the Locus of Control (LOC), are tested. This psychological construct derived by Rotter's social learning theory (1954, 1966) refers to individuals' belief regarding the extent to which they can influence outcomes.
Especially in old age, LOC serves as a psychological pathway bolstered by family ties, through which they influence cognitive and emotional states (e.g. Krause 1987; Thoits 2010 also provides a great review of these mechanisms). The study of the sense of control has received attention in ageing contexts only recently, but the utility of the construct has already been...