[Family relationships as context of the course of life]

The kinship-system, and especially the three generation family, is an important social context of the life-course. Two time perspectives are distinguished as to the development of the family system, the one concerns the 'historical' development of each unique family and the other represents a generalised pattern as constructed in the family life cycle theory. In understanding life span development within the kinship-system, both perspectives are needed. We stressed the changing structure of the kinship-system, during the last century and presented an overview of the research on intergenerational relationships within the kinship-system as background for studying 'normative' and 'non-normative' transitions during the second half of the life-course. A new research direction in this field--the co-biographical approach--is promoted.