Filial Responsibility Expectations and Patterns of Intergenerational Assistance

Abstract

Since its introduction some years ago (Bengtson, Olander, & Haddad, 1976), theory of intergenerational solidarity has captured considerable attention as a means of characterizing and explaining relations between nuclear kin in adult years and in old age (e.g., Lawrence, Bennett, & Markides, 1992). Intergenerational solidarity has six components (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991): (a) associational, (b) affectual, (c) consensual, (d) functional, (e) normative, and (f) structural. The meanings of first three dimensions are clear from their labels. Functional solidarity refers to exchange of assistance between generations, normative solidarity refers to norms emphasizing primacy of family relations, and structural solidarity to opportunities for association and exchange afforded by constraints such as number of family members and geographic proximity. Several studies have examined interrelations among subsets of these components. Atkinson, Kivett, and Campbell (1986) found relatively minimal correlations between association, affection, and consensus, and concluded that these are largely independent dimensions. Roberts and Bengtson (1990), however, found moderately strong positive relations between familial norms and affection for adjacent generation, and between affection and association. In research spawned by theory of intergenerational solidarity, relatively little attention has been paid to component of functional solidarity. There is, of course, a vast literature on intergenerational exchange (Mancini & Blieszner, 1989; Morgan, Schuster, & Butler, 1991), but theory of intergenerational solidarity has rarely been applied to question of mutual aid between generations. This is due, in part, to fact that Bengtson and colleagues have lacked an adequate measure of functional solidarity in their data and therefore have not assessed its relations to other components of theory (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991). In particular, relations between functional and normative solidarity have not been examined. Normative solidarity has been defined variously as the degree of intergenerational consensus regarding filial (Mangen & Westbrook, 1988, p. 188) and as strength of commitment to performance of familial roles and to meeting familial obligations (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991, p. 857). The definition involving intergenerational consensus has not been productive empirically, as it has not appeared as a coherent dimension in measurement analyses (Mangen, 1988, p. 53). However, in all conceptualizations of normative solidarity, filial responsibility expectations play a role as a central component, independent of consensus on these expectations. This concept refers to extent to which young and middle-aged family members are expected to provide assistance to their aging parents, and to give priority to their parents' needs over their own (Seelbach, 1977, 1984). Our investigation involves filial responsibility expectations held by aging parents. There is a clear conceptual connection between concepts of filial responsibility expectations and functional solidarity. The former involves norms pertaining to intergenerational exchange of assistance; latter indexes actual exchange of assistance. The theory clearly implies a positive relation between filial responsibility expectations and functional solidarity. However, research on intergenerational exchange (functional solidarity) has paid virtually no attention to norms or expectations. And studies focusing specifically on filial responsibility expectations (e.g., Blieszner & Mancini, 1987; Hamon & Blieszner, 1990; Rossi & Rossi, 1990; Sauer, Seelbach, & Hanson, 1981; Seelbach, 1977, 1978, 1984) have also ignored possible connections between these expectations and actual exchange of assistance between generations. At this point, we know virtually nothing about relationship between parents' expectations for assistance from children and extent to which children actually provide assistance to their parents. …