This important book offers valuable insights into the way in which social policies and welfare state arrangements interact with family and gender models. It presents the most up-to-date research in the field, based on a variety of national and comparative sources and using different theoretical and methodological approaches. The authors address different forms of support (care, financial, emotional) and employ a bi-directional perspective, exploring both giving and receiving across generations. They illustrate that understanding how generations interact in families helps to reformulate the way issues of intergenerational equity are discussed when addressing the redistributive impact of the welfare state through pensions and health services.Encompassing a wide number of European countries as well as migrant groups, this book will greatly appeal to graduate students interested in sociology, social policy and social psychology. Researchers and policy makers in the fields of demography and sociology will also find the book an invaluable resource.