Recent surveys in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam reveal that substantial proportions of persons aged 60 and older co-reside with grandchildren and commonly provide grandparental care. Usually the grandchildren's parents are also present. Situations in which the grandchildren's parents are absent are considerably less frequent. Parents are commonly the main source of the grandchildren's financial support even if absent. Most grandparents that provide care do not consider it a serious burden even when the grandchild's parents are absent. Moreover, grandparental care is not always one-directional as grandchildren can also be of help to grandparents. These features of grandchild care reflect a regional cultural context that views acceptance of reciprocal intergenerational obligations as normal and in which co-residence of older persons and adult children is still common. Differences in economic development and past fertility trends account for much of the observed differences in grandparental care among the three countries by affecting grandchildren availability and migration of adult children. In addition, economic development and demographic trends will continue to shape grandparental care in the coming decades. Despite the lack of attention to development and demographic context in previous studies, these aspects of the changing societal context deserve a prominent place within conceptual frameworks guiding comparative research on grandparenting.

The consequences of adult children's migration from rural areas for older parents who remain behind are keenly debated. While the mass media and international advocacy organisations favour an ‘alarmist’ view of desertion, the academic literature makes more sanguine assessments using the ‘household strategy’ and ‘modified extended family’ perspectives. We examine the relationship between the migration of adult children and various dimensions of older parents' wellbeing in Thailand using evidence from a survey that focused on the issues. The results provide little support for the alarmist view, but instead suggest that parents and adult children adapt to the social and economic changes associated with development in ways not necessarily detrimental to intergenerational relations. The migration of children, especially to urban areas, often benefits parents' material support while the recent spread of cell phones has radically increased their ability to maintain social contact. Nevertheless, changing living arrangements through increased migration and the smaller family sizes of the youngest age groups of older people pose serious challenges for aspects of filial support, especially at advanced ages when chronic illness and frailty require long-term personal care. Dealing with this emerging situation in a context of social, economic and technological change is among the most critical issues facing those concerned with the implications of rapid population ageing in Thailand and elsewhere.

This article aims to answer the following question: how have refugee families in the United States (US) modified attitudes and behaviours surrounding intergenerational exchanges within the context of filial piety? This research reports on one 31-member extended family in a community of Cambodian refugee families living along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The family members in this study have changed types, found new meanings in, and are often ambivalent about, intergenerational exchanges. Moreover, they have held onto those aspects of Cambodian culture that were considered essential, such as filial piety and elder reverence, while adapting and redefining types and meanings of intergenerational exchanges the better to reflect their current lives in the United States. These findings illuminate ways in which changed life circumstances and cultural transitions shaped attitudes, preferences and behavioural patterns associated with intergenerational exchanges. The findings also show how and why refugee families have negotiated and modified their beliefs and behaviours surrounding intergenerational exchanges in the context of massive social and cultural disruption.