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The parent-child-relationship consists of a combination of behaviours, feelings, and expectations that are unique to a particular parent and an individual child (“Parent-child relationship,” 2015). Indeed, the relationship between parent and child is a subjective issue in a family. The traditional structure of family in most of the western societies has been altered by demographic changes such as increasing longevity and decreasing the birth rate (“Parent-child relationship,” 2015). However, also because of social developments such as growing individualism and emancipation of women. As a result, the number of living generations has increased, but the size of generations has become smaller (Ferring, Michels, Boll, & Filipp, 2009). Having living parents until late adulthood has become familiar and at the same time this brings about new roles, expectations, potential sources or supports but also sources of conflicts and strain (Askham, Ferring, & Lamura, 2007). Moreover, an intergenerational relationship in families (also in society) have increasingly gained importance (Arber & Attias-Donfut, 2000; Kohli & Künemund, 2005; Lang & Perrig-Chiello, 2005). Indeed, there is a growing elderly population in the world (“Life Expectancy,” n. d.), so in research, social scientists pay still more attention to care and social support at old age. social scientists have already established that the extent and the type of support children offer their ageing parents depends not only on the physical distance but also upon the quality of relationship with their parents (Merrill, 1997; “Life Expectancy,” n. d.; Rossi & Rossi, 1990). The quality of parent-child-relations is still a valuable discussion, even now a day. An interesting question is how the increasing physical distance in people’s social network and the quality of relationships influence the extent and type of support between parents and children?
The Grounded Theory is a particular research methodology often used in social science and qualitative research. It is the combination of inductivism and deductivism. In simpler form, inductivism is a personal observation of a researcher and collection of raw data in the field with maximum open and flexible style of data collection. Deductivism is, on the other hand, a systematic verification of the raw data and structure them according to the information gathered and formed a hypothesis or theory (Lindenberg, 2015;” What is Grounded Theory?” 2014). Moreover, qualitative analysis is a process of interpreting raw data to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge. Therefore, simply put, Grounded Theory is collections of raw data followed by qualitative analysis of the data and defining hypothesis based on the data received. Indeed, it does not follow the conventional research methods where the assumption is made before collection of data, and the primary research is done to prove or disprove the theory. The Grounded Theory finds qualitative information that provides intricate details of a topic with minimal influence or guidance to the informer. Therefore, working with the Grounded Theory provides freedom for gathering raw data and for analysis in qualitative research.