Intergenerational Relations, Caregiving and Social Mobility

How do family relationships and intergenerational exchanges shape subjective and financial well-being in later life? What role does children’s upward educational mobility play in influencing the life satisfaction and health of their parents? This line of research connects family sociology with questions of inequality and life-course trajectories.

Selected Publications:

Alonso-Perez, E., O’Sullivan, J. L., Schnitzer, S., Schmitz, A., Brandt, M., & Gellert, P. (2026). When to care? A MAIHDA analysis of intersectional inequalities in the age of caregiving onset using European longitudinal data. Ageing and Society, 46, e34. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X26100592

Jessee, L., Kim-Knauss, Y., Schmitz, A., Nashef-Hamuda, R., Köttl, H., Cohn-Schwartz, E., & De Paula Couto, M. C. P. (2025). When Parents Grieve: Adult Child Support and Depressive Symptoms Among Men and Women After Widowhood. Research on Aging, 01640275251404880. https://doi.org/10.1177/01640275251404880

Schmitz, Alina & Hoffmann, Rasmus (2025): Children’s upward educational mobility as a booster for parents’ subjective well-being in later life. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-025-01021-0

Micheel, F.; Schmitz, A. & Brandt, M. (2025): Facilitators and barriers to volunteering in the second half of life: The role of gender and informal caregiving in Germany. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/089976402513742

Schmitz, Alina (2025): Parental education and income in later life: A comparison of social-democratic and conservative regimes. Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 58, 458-465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00391-025-02475-9

Schmitz, Alina; Quashie, Nekehia, T.; Kaschowitz, Judith & Wagner, Melanie (2024): Inequalities in caregiving strain during the COVID-19 pandemic: Conceptual framework and review of the empirical evidence. International Journal of Care and Caring, 8 (2), 351-364. https://doi.org/10.1332/239788221X16592761870899