Perceived Instrumental Support Exchanges in Relationships between Elderly Parents and Their Adult Children: Normative and Structural Explanations

Abstract

If the norm of filial responsibility is apparent, children should give relatively more instrumental support to their parents. Structural circumstances of adult children, such as being employed or having young children, and of their parents, such as having small families, influence the amount of instrumental support the parents receive. Data are from a sample of 365 adults and 634 of their children. The higher the filial responsibility of both parent and children, the more support the parent received. Mothers, old parents, parents in need of support, and parents without a partner received relatively more support. The structural circumstances of the children do not have any effect on the support that parents receive. Reciprocity is an important determinant of the support that the parent receives. Key Words: aged, intergenerational relations, parent-child relations, reciprocity, social support networks. Previous research (e.g., Mancini & Blieszner, 1989) has proved that the alienation of people from their family may be fiction. Actually, there are a number of support exchanges between parents and their adult children (Dykstra & Knipscheer, 1995). The amount of support exchanged in this type of relationship is generally greater than the amount of support exchanged between any other kin (Hanson & Sauer, 1985). Moreover, when people become old and need support, it is generally their children who provide support, particularly if the level of support provided by the partner is insufficient (Stoller, 1994) or if there is no partner. In this study, we focus on norms and structures in parent-child relationships. We examine the influence that they exert on instrumental support exchanges. The framework of intergenerational solidarity is a way to understand relationships between parents and their children (Lee, Netzer, & Coward, 1994). We use three dimensions of intergenerational solidarity (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991): the functional dimension (exchange of instrumental support), the normative dimension (expectations of individual obligations to the family), and the structural dimension (opportunities for family interaction). As Lee et al. have noted, the framework of intergenerational solidarity has rarely been applied to support exchanges, and associations between the functional and normative dimension have not been examined. Although Bengtson and Roberts treat all dimensions equally, we examine whether the normative and structural dimensions determine the amount of instrumental support that is given. Our main question is: Are adult children's and parents' norms and the structural circumstances of adult children determinants of the instrumental support given to parents? We hypothesize that norms determine the number of instrumental support exchanges in relationships between parents and their children. According to Hanson and Sauer (1985) and Stein (1993), children and parents have expectations about filial responsibilities and share the view that children are obligated to provide support if their parents need it. This view is based, in part, on the fact that parents gave support to their children in the past and the children should now offer support in return (Dwyer, Lee, & Jankowski, 1994). Seelbach (1984) argues that young and middle-aged children are expected to help their aging parents and give priority to their parents' needs over their own. However, the results of a study conducted by Brody, Johnsen, and Fulcomer (1984) among women of three generations show that they sharply distinguish among the services they expect children to perform for their parents. There is a strong commitment on the part of children to help their parents if the parents need support. However, a situation in which various generations live together is not preferred by either generation. Nor does the older generation prefer help from their adult children with expenses. Nor do they expect that children adjust their family activities, probably because of the widespread desire not to be a burden. …