Drawing on three rounds of survey and qualitativ
e data collected by the Young Lives study in
Ethiopia among children born in 1994–95 and thei
r caregivers, this paper investigates
intergenerational relationships
by means of the life-course
perspective. The life-course
perspective establishes the importance of under
standing intergenerational
relationships within
changing contexts of time and place.
The study shows that parent–child relations are
taken for granted when children are young; but as
they grow older, parental expectations and filial obli
gations become explicit. In
the context of rapid
social change, which sometimes carries risks fo
r children, parents assume that they have an
obligation to guide their children.
With the expansion of modern education and childr
en’s exposure to differ
ent experiences outside
the family, many of them contest parental
values, norms and expectations. Schooling and other
competing agents of ‘socialisation’ have contri
buted to increased inter
generational conflicts and
negotiations. One important outcome of such changes
is the transformation of relationships based
on traditional processes of soci
alisation where norms and practi
ces have been simply transmitted
across generations, into ‘negotiat
ed’ relationships where child
ren’s agency become increasingly
visible.
On the other hand, in the contex
t of poverty and social change, children’s key transitions have
become more unpredictable. For ex
ample, at one and the same age,
children could be in school,
or in paid work, or married, or hav
ing their own child. Such multiple
pathways make it difficult for
parents to transfer traditional age
-based societal norms. The unpr
edictability and multiplicity of
transitions are also major challenges for the life-
course perspective as app
lied to intergenerational
relationships. A life-course perspective needs to
adapt to such changing ci
rcumstances, using the
type of longitudinal
evidence on which this paper is based.