There are two relation types: peer and ownership. The peer relation type should be used for objects that can exist independently of each other. For example a product can exist without being linked to a product category. If a product category is deleted, all products that were linked to the category lose the link but continue to exist on their own.

The ownership (or parent/child) relation type should be used if an object belongs to some other object and does not make sense without its owner object. For example, a line item always belongs to an order. If an order is deleted all line items of that order should be deleted as well. If a configurator marks a reference attribute of an object as owned by another object, aware_im will automatically delete the object when its owner object is deleted, or when the link with the owner object is broken.