In this introductory article for the special issue on Childlessness and Intergenerational Transfers, we first discuss the prior research literature and then overview the presented contributions. Up to now, childless older adults have been treated for the most part as both homogeneous and a problematic group. This does not do justice to the different pathways to childlessness: there are those who actively forgo having children, those who defer births so long that they involuntarily become childless, and those who are not fecund or lack a partner. It also neglects the changing social profile of the childless, e.g. the shift from less educated to more highly-educated women. Most importantly, it fails to recognise what childless older people give to others. The studies presented here aim to redress these two deficits in previous research. They examine how the consequences of childlessness are mediated by the pathways to and motivations for being childless and by factors such as gender, education and marital history, and they also examine what childless older adults provide to their families and to society at large. Such adults establish strong linkages with next-of-kin relatives, invest in non-family networks, and participate in voluntary and charitable activities, and broadly do so to a greater extent than older people with surviving children.

In recent years, increasing public attention has been paid to voluntary action, civic engagement and philanthropy. It is in this framework that the growing numbers of childless older people are regarded as a valuable source of charitable giving. In fact, by giving to philanthropic foundations – instead of consuming their wealth or leaving inheritances – childless donors may develop into pioneers in the field of post-familial civic engagement. The article explores the circumstances under which childless older people adopt this behaviour in both Germany and the United States of America. It is found that making large donations or setting up philanthropic foundations is still an elite phenomenon, but on the other hand that establishing a foundation is attractive for childless people, both as a means of ensuring that one's name lives on, and as a way of organising bequests. Educational level, ill-health, social capital and religiosity all positively reinforce the inclination of childless people to transfer resources to charities. It is also shown that the institutional framework or organised fundraising has a large role in fostering charitable giving among the childless. The framework of charity organisations and fund raising in the country of residence plays an important role in determining the expansion and democratisation of charitable giving.

Inter-vivos financial transfers from older parents to their adult children are widespread in the United States. Childless people may simply make fewer transfers. On the other hand, because their giving is away from children, their decisions are more complex in that there are multiple potential targets of approximately equal attractiveness. Using data for 1996 to 2004 from the United States Health and Retirement Study, this article examines the differences between parents and childless older people in financial transfers to people other than their children. The results show that, overall, parents tend to give less than the childless to other people. However, some variation is found depending on the nature and target of the gift. Having children does not affect giving to charities but does reduce the prevalence of giving to parents, but not nearly as much as the reduction in giving to family and friends. It can therefore be concluded, first that there is little substitution between personal and impersonal transfers; secondly, that the sense of obligation to parents is not reduced by giving to charities or to children; and thirdly, that having children reduces the need to satisfy the desire for family and social ties by means of links to family and friends.

Using data from the first wave of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study conducted in 2002–03, this paper examines the economic, psychological and social wellbeing among 1,467 men aged 40–59 years with different parenthood histories and circumstances: the childless, fathers who live with their children, non-co-resident fathers, and ‘empty-nest fathers’. The gerontological interest is whether there are variations in wellbeing by parenting, and whether they persist in old age. The results showed that fathers have higher incomes than childless men, regardless of their partner history. As regards psychological wellbeing, men's partner history counts, not their parenthood status. Being single contributes to low levels of psychological wellbeing. The findings provide evidence of the socially integrating effects of parenthood and for men's ‘good-provider’ role. Childless men and non-co-resident fathers report poorer quality family relationships. In addition, childless men were least likely to report helping others in the community. Overall, more support is found for the notion that fatherhood is a transforming event than that the wellbeing benefits derive from fathering activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for inequalities in wellbeing and informal support among the male members of the cohort born during 1943–63 when they reach old age.

After the spouse, children are the most likely source of informal support for an older person when the frailties of advanced old age create the need for help. Childlessness may thus be seen as particularly a problem for older people. In general, to compensate for the lack of children, childless people develop closer relationships with available next-of-kin and non-kin. Despite this, in times of need they are likely to find themselves with inadequate informal support. Using data from the Bangor Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this article explores the consequences of childlessness among persons aged 85 years or more living in rural Wales. The results indicate that by the time they reach old age, childless people have adapted to their situation and developed expectations consistent with being childfree. They have closer relationships with collateral kin, friendships are important and a high value is placed on independence. Nevertheless, unless they die suddenly or after a short acute illness, almost all of them enter residential care or a long-stay hospital at the end of their lives. It is also shown that the situation of childless people varies greatly and depends on several factors, particularly marital status, gender, social and financial capital, and on the person's earlier investment in the strengthening of next-of-kin and non-kin networks.

With the increase of childlessness in European societies, its consequences have become a matter of concern. Studies in this field, however, have concentrated on what childless people lack and need in terms of social, financial and moral support. In contrast, this article focuses on what childless people give to their families, friends, unrelated others and to society at large. Using 2004 data on social support and financial transfers given and received by people aged 50 or more years in ten European countries from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the analyses show that the support networks of childless older people tend to be somewhat weaker than those of parents and that links with members of the younger generations in the family are stronger for parents than for those without children. The results also indicate, however, that the differences in transfer behaviour between parents and childless adults are small, and that the support networks of the childless are more diverse than those of parents, and characterised by stronger links with ascendants and lateral relatives and with non-relatives. Moreover, people without children tend to be more intensely involved in charities and comparable organisations.

Inactivity has been identified as a major contributor to the burden of disease among older Australians, particularly those in culturally-diverse communities. This study assessed the facilitators and barriers to physical activity in older people from culturally-diverse communities, and investigated the predictors of physical activity participation by recruiting 333 older people from seven different communities in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. A survey questionnaire that recorded physical activity and the barriers to and facilitators of activity was interviewer-administered in the participants' preferred language. The data were analysed using bivariate and multivariate inferential statistical methods. Personal barriers to physical activity, such as poor health, lacking the energy to exercise, being too tired and low motivation, were highly prevalent in all groups. Specific factors, such as ‘being self-conscious about my looks’, were more prevalent among the Vietnamese, as were concerns about the weather among Macedonians and Croatians. Across all groups, perceptions of health and safety strongly influenced physical activity behaviour, more so than the external environment. Some of the barriers can be addressed with a common approach, but others in some communities will require particular strategies.

There is increasing emphasis in the media, public and policy discourses about the implications of the ageing population on promoting independence and self-reliance in old age, which is linked to the importance of social connection and the dangers of social exclusion. This paper examines how the potentially contradictory moral imperatives of independence and connectedness are managed by older people through reciprocity. Thirty-six interviews were conducted with people aged 55–70 years in New Zealand, and the data have been analysed discursively. Older people drew upon social conventions of independence as well as describing firm ties to family and community. One way in which the contradictions between the discourses of independence and connectedness were managed was through the notion of reciprocity. This allowed the participants to describe their lives as linked to others through acts that benefited both parties, constructing both a sense of connection and a rejection of the position of dependency on others. Using this linguistic resource has both possibilities and limitations for older people's attempts to manage a moral identity as they age. Although many approaches can be used to construct an equal relationship between people, a commitment to reciprocity in social exchanges may restrict older people from accepting help if they do not see the interactions as contributions to others.