Married Sons Research Articles

Paternal and maternal love for married and unmarried sons and daughters

Parental love has been studied in relation to infants and younger children. The adult sons and daughters who marry and become parents constitute another category of ‘children’. As the earlier literature did not explore parental love in relation to these ‘adult married sons and daughters’ earlier, the current study was the first-ever effort in this regard. The study was conducted in two phases and involved 982 purposely selected participants. A new scale to measure love was also developed and validated during the two phases of the study. The findings revealed significant differences in paternal and maternal love between married and unmarried sons and daughters. The findings of the study would serve as a novel contribution to the existing literature on parental love. The newly developed ‘Love Scale’ would facilitate future researchers in exploring love in a general way that could be applied to all possible relationships.

Gender-based discrimination and son preference in Punjabi-Canadian families: a community-based participatory qualitative research study

ObjectivesTo conduct a qualitative study, guided by the principles of community-based participatory research, with the following objectives: (1) to provide a conceptual framework describing the drivers of son preference; (2)...

Children's Divorce and their Financial Support to Older Parents in Rural China.

This study examined how adult children's divorce affected their financial support to older parents in rural China and how that relationship was dependent on children's gender. The sample was from rural Anhui Province and the working sample included 1629 older parents who reported their interactions with 6210 children across six waves of observations in 14 years (2001-2015). Generalized Estimating Equations showed that divorced sons provided less financial support to their parents than married sons. In contrast, divorced daughters did not necessarily provide less financial support than married daughters. This gender difference was statistically significant. The findings were discussed in the context of changing rural Chinese families, where the norm of filial piety is still strong but patrilineal tradition and gender ideology have experienced desynchronized changes.

Intergenerational Transmission of Spousal Inequality

This paper studies whether sons and daughters reproduce in their relationships the same intra-household inequalities observed for their parents in terms of some economic statuses (wages, income, work hours, and education). Additionally, we emphasize the relevance of transmission of preference and gender-role attitude in investigating household issues. Utilizing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ data we find that married sons imitate their parents’ household disparities more than married daughters. For parents and their daughter’s family, the similarity in household inequalities is insignificant. The paper also examines the differential patterns of the statuses and the dynamics of educational gap patterns across generations.

On the semantic evolution of Albanian motër 'sister' and vajzë 'girl' in the context of the Albanian extended family

The Albanian extended family includes more generations, elder people, parental couples, all unmarried children and married sons with their wives and children living in the same household. The organization and the function of the extended family take a central place in the Albanian Customary Law (often referred to as Kanun). Its origins reach far back in antiquity. In Northern Albania it has survived in its classical form until the first half of the 20th century. Alb. moter (older motere) 'sister' has been deemed as a reflex of the Pre-Indo-European word for MOTHER in nearly all other Indo-European languages. The semantic change MOTHER → SISTER has been long discussed, reaching no convincing conclusions. Recently M. Majer (2019) has put forward a keen and well argued proposal, reconstructing a PIE derivative *meh2t(e)reh2 'of the mother' as the preform of moter(e). Such a reconstruction fits well in a hypothesis that takes into account the structural frame of the Albanian extended family as described above, as well as the disputed origin of vajze 'girl' from PIE *swesor- 'sister'.

Intergenerational Coresidence and Depressive Symptoms of Rural and Urban Older Adults in China

Objectives:This study aimed to examine whether gender and marital status of coresiding adult children are associated with depressive symptoms of Chinese older adults.Methods:Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, linear regression analysis was conducted to identify longitudinal associations of intergenerational coresidence with depressive symptoms in rural and urban older Chinese.Results:Both rural and urban older adults living with unmarried sons had significantly higher depressive symptoms at four-year follow-up than those who did not live with children. Living with married sons was significantly associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms at four-year follow-up among rural elders only.Discussion:This study sheds light on the heterogeneity in the relationship between intergenerational coresidence and Chinese older adults’ psychological well-being by the gender and marital status of coresiding children. Further research is needed to understand the complex and dynamic household structures and health outcomes in later life.

NONTRADITIONAL VIEWS? HOW SIBLINGS MATTER FOR PERCEIVED PARENTAL CARE RESPONSIBILITY IN JAPAN

Our aim in this study was to explore whether and how siblings’ marital and work status influence Japanese adult children’s perceived responsibility for parental care. Within traditional familial institutions in Japan, married sons were expected to assume parental care responsibility. At the same time, such care arrangements built on gendered division of labor; sons served as family breadwinners, and their wives cared for their parents-in-law while out of the paid labor force. Yet, because of sociodemographic shifts such as a greater percentage of unmarried persons and a growing number of women who seek to maintain their job, it has been increasingly unclear which adult children can and should assume the role of parental caregiver. Using online survey data from 989 Japanese adult children who were all employees with no parental care experiences ever, we sought to clarify the influences of siblings’ circumstances on whether these children anticipated assuming responsibility for conducting different care tasks for their parents. In doing so, we focused on how siblings’ gender and work and marital status might combine to affect adult children’s anticipation of parental care responsibility. A series of logistic regression analyses revealed that having a married brother made it less likely for adult daughters to anticipate assuming responsibility for conducting typical care tasks (e.g., ADL assistance) whereas for adult sons, having a single sister declined such anticipation. We discuss our findings in terms of how traditional familial institutions still impinge on Japanese adult children’s views of parental care responsibility.

Family support or social support? The role of clan culture

This paper examines the impact of cultural norms on arrangements made for old-age support. Using data from a recent national household survey in China, I show that clan culture is significantly associated with a set of individual values about the purpose of childbearing. I then find that, among older people in rural China, clan culture is positively related to birth rates and the likelihood of having a son, coresidence with adult or married sons, and receiving financial transfers from non-coresident children. Finally, I find a significantly negative relationship between clan culture and enrollment in social pension programs. The overall results indicate that cultural norms have a significant influence on arrangements for old-age support.

Family Support or Social Support? The Role of Culture

This paper examines the impact of cultural norms on arrangements made for old-age support. Using data from a recent national household survey in China, I show that clan culture is significantly associated with a set of individual values about the purpose of childbearing. I then find that, among older people in rural China, clan culture is positively related to birth rates and the likelihood of having a son, coresidence with adult or married sons and receiving financial transfers from non-coresident children. Finally, I find a significantly negative relationship between clan culture and enrollment in social pension programs. The overall results indicate that cultural norms have a significant influence on arrangements for old-age support.

Gender differences in the long-term care of older parents: evidence from India

ABSTRACTThis paper examines gender differences in the long-term care of older parents in India by studying the expected provision of care by married sons and daughters. Gender differences in long-term care are important, as the sociocultural environment of India shapes the role of married children. While married sons are expected to provide long-term care for their biological parents, married daughters have limited scope to do so, a tendency that was revealed through our data from Osaka University’s ‘Preference Parameters in India, 2011.’ Other family members are also expected to play a significant role in parental care, while neither gender expects their parents to rely on professional long-term care. This paper contributes to the scarce empirical evidence on long-term care for older parents by married children, as opposed to previous research that has focused on the division of caregiving activities between sons and daughters in general.

비혼자녀와 부모의 접촉: 자녀의 성별에 따른 차이

This study examined frequency of contact between parents and their non-coresident, never-married daughters and sons compared to children in other marital statuses. Despite an increasing number of never married adults, little is known about the extent to which they may be willing to remain connected to and exchange support with their parents. The data were drawn from first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA, 2006). For analyses, respondents who had at least one non-coresident child aged 40 or older were selected, resulting in the analytic sample of 2,755 parents with 7,741 children. Both sibling fixed effects regression models and regression models with robust standard errors were estimated using the xtreg and reg procedures in STATA. Findings revealed significant marital status by gender interaction effects on face-to-face contact. Never-married daughters were more likely to see their parents compared to their married, divorced, or widowed counterparts. Never-marred sons, on the other hand, reported slightly lower levels of in-person contact with their parents in comparison to married sons and lower levels of contact compared to divorced or widowed sons. More frequent contact via phone, mail, or email was reported in daughter-parent relationship compared to son-parent relationship, but no significant marital status by gender interactions were observed.

Unemployment, Welfare, and Masculine Citizenship: “So Much Honest Poverty” in Britain, 1870–1930 by Marjorie Levine-Clark

Unemployment, Welfare, and Masculine Citizenship: So Much Honest Poverty in Britain, 1870-1930, by Marjorie Levine-Clark. Houndmills & New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. xix, 304 pp. $90.00 US (cloth). This is not simply another book about the problem of unemployment in Modern Britain. Rather, this is book about how unemployment and provision were intimately connected to shifting definitions of gendered working-class citizenship in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. It tracks how (and sometimes dishonest) poor men, their families, employers, poor law authorities, and policy-makers framed their place in society when they were jobless. A fitting progression from Marjorie Levine-Clark's work on gender, poverty, and family, this is highly original contribution to the vast corpus of research on unemployment in British history and is key reading for British social and political historians and students. Levine-Clark adopts the phrase honest poverty from local newspaper in the Black Country, region in the West Midlands of England and the focus of much of her book. She uses honest poverty to describe a model of working-class masculine status built on the pillars of the male breadwinner ideal: the work imperative, which required men to demonstrate that they were willing to work, and family liability, which required men to support their families responsibly (2). Together, she argues poverty, the work imperative, and family liability demonstrated men's respectability and deservedness. This trifecta of respectable working-class identities was forged alongside what Levine-Clark aptly terms welfare heteronormativity (10), system in which married men, particularly fathers, were privileged over women and single men in the dispensation of poor relief. In chapter six, we see how the 1918 Out-of-Work Donation program pitted unmarried ex-servicemen against married ex-servicemen with children and in chapter eight how single sons were expected to provide for elderly parents in ways married sons were not before, and even after, the introduction of the Old-Age Pensions Act in 1908. The marital preference was compromised when fathers went on strike or neglected their family responsibilities, as illustrated in chapters seven and nine. Mostly, though, married fathers embodied the definition of honest poverty for the entirety of this period. One of the book's greatest merits is Levine-Clark's attention to the enduring strength of honest poverty as the constant ideological thread that persisted through significant policy shifts in British provision. Honest poor married fathers, whose wives and children were seen as innocent sufferers, posed problem to poor law authorities bound by the deterrent aims of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act designed to punish the poor for their unemployment. …

Struktura i wielkość gospodarstw rodzinnych staroobrzędowców w powiecie żytomierskim (w Guberni Wołyńskiej), w końcu XVIII w.

On the Old Believers in Ukraine in the eighteenth century (Summary)The article offers the analysis of the structure and size of the households of the Old Believers living in the vicinity of Żytomierz in Ukraine in the eighteenth century. The Old Believers form a denomination that carved itself off from the Russian Orthodox Church in the latter half of the seventeenth century. The population census of 1795 serves as the basis of the analysis carried out in the paper. The households of the Old Believers were usually made up of 7.3 persons, with 6.5 persons forming the host’s own family. The majority of the families of the Old Believers were nuclear in their structure. Worthy of note is also a patriarchal character of the presence of adult relatives in these households. Among the host’s adult relatives who stayed in his household were, in the main, either his married brothers or his married sons. The vast majority of the farms owned by the Old Believers were thus inherited by male successors.

Wizerunek teściowej we współczesnej prasie kobiecej

The present-day media and women's magazines in particular, offer articles on different aspects of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship. They present the relationship problems that arise between the mother, her married son and her daughter-in-law as well as the mother-in-law's unacceptable behaviour, her taking part in running the household and participation in bringing up the grandchildren. The magazines also include advice, both for the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law, which focuses on the positive aspects of their mutual relations. Analysing the articles on contemporary mothers-in-law, it can be seen that the mother-in-law's image they produce remains in keeping with commonplace stereotypes. The older woman's faults are often exaggerated; her values, beliefs and her chosen style of living are disregarded. A responsibility for the problems young married couples experience isattributed to her. The editors of women's magazines, in an effort to bring about a modification of the stereotype, show how to change and improve daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationships.

Intergenerational Mobility and Gender in Mexico

This article studies intergenerational socioeconomic mobility in Mexico comparing men and women. In contrast to most sociological work that uses individual-level measures to proxy family socioeconomic status, we use a direct measure of family living standards for both generations, based on an index of economic well-being. Strong intergenerational persistence is found in Mexico compared to other countries. Persistence is stronger for men than women, particularly among advantaged families. The role of education in the mobility process is examined. Findings indicate that “excess immobility” of men is not mediated by education. Wider gender differences among married/cohabiting than single respondents suggests parents are more likely to transfer socioeconomic resources to their married sons than married daughters. We argue for the advantages of measuring socioeconomic status directly at the household level, and of evaluating gender differences to gain insight about mobility mechanisms.

How do living arrangements and intergenerational support matter for psychological health of elderly parents? Evidence from Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand

Living arrangements and family support for older persons have become an increasingly important policy concern in developing and rapidly aging Asia. Formulating a sound elderly care policy for the region will benefit from empirically examining how living arrangements, particularly coresidence, and intergenerational exchanges of financial, instrumental, and emotional support are associated with old-age psychological health. This study analyzes data from nationally representative aging surveys in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand for 2011–2012 to offer a comparative perspective from Southeast Asia where various kinship systems coexist. Results suggest that coresidence with a child of culturally preferred gender significantly improves the emotional health of Vietnamese and Thai elders but with different implications. In Vietnam, living with a married son is more beneficial to parents' psychological wellbeing than living with other children. In Thailand, coresidence regardless of the child's gender improves old-age psychological wellbeing but living with a daughter brings greater benefits than living only with son. Evidence points to the importance of understanding the dominant kinship system that may shape normative filial expectations and gender role expectations within the family. In Vietnam and Thailand, the positive association holds even after intergenerational support is controlled, suggesting that the value of culturally preferred coresidence goes beyond practical functions. In Myanmar, there are almost no significant differences in psychological wellbeing among elderly across various living arrangements, except between coresidence and network living arrangements. For all settings, we do not find evidence in support of network family arrangements as a complete substitute for coresidence in terms of promoting old-age psychological wellbeing after filial support is controlled. Our study highlights important cultural nuances for theorizing the nature of the relationship between living arrangements and old-age psychological health, and presents the important need for more rigorous investigation of the causal links between these two phenomena in future research.

Elderly abuse: Suffering in silence - who is listening? Some concern for social work practices

Paper highlights basic concepts of elder abuses and raises relevant issues concerning problems of elderly, which must be listened with utmost care. None of us claim convincingly that what is an extent of older person’s problems and what is the appropriate solution. It is only possible through a caring unit of society, the family, if restructured on the values and reframing the sensitivity among kins n kieth. Then elderly people may get a meaningful relationship among the family of genitor and extended family of procreator – younger children and their families. Otherwise their suffering, though how difficult or simple may, would continue as such, despite best economical resources, plans and programmes existing for them. Legal provisions to do exist to safeguard elderly people in family situations, but they are neither aware nor their progeny for caring them in extended families. Do we hear them or spend quality time as married sons or daughters, daughter in laws? Do our children spend time with grandfather? Or do we not leave them to alone with their suffering in silence? Overall in last, we do not have enough time to listen their problems-being alone, emotional disturbances, etc., and they remain to suffer in silences.

Marriage Squeeze and Intergenerational Support in Contemporary Rural China: Evidence from X County of Anhui Province.

With China's gender imbalance and increasingly severe male marriage squeeze, patterns of intergenerational support in rural areas are likely to undergo significant change. Using data from a survey of four towns from X county in Anhui province carried out in 2008, this article analyzes the effects of sons' marital status on intergenerational support. Random-effect regression analysis shows that son's marital status has strong effects on financial support to and coresidence with parents. Compared with married sons, older unmarried sons (so-called forced bachelors) tend to provide less financial support to their parents and are more likely to live with their parents. Parents' support of sons, as well as the parents' own needs and sons' capabilities all affect the support provided by sons. These results show that both theories of exchange and altruism are simultaneously relevant in the context of the marriage squeeze of contemporary rural China.

Widowed Mothers' Coresidence With Adult Children

Coresidence is one way that middle-aged offspring assist vulnerable, aging parents. This study investigated which characteristics of widowed mothers and adult children predict coresidence. When coresidence occurred, the analysis explored how individual children's characteristics were associated with their coresidence with the mother. Survey data from adults 53-54 years old in 1993 (N = 2,324) and a random sibling reported about their living situation, other siblings, and their mother, median age 80. Logistic regressions revealed that mothers in poor health, who were older, and who had a daughter were more likely to live with a child. Among coresiding families, results from discrete choice conditional logit models showed that widowed mothers were more likely to live with an unmarried son than an unmarried daughter. Married children were less likely to coreside than unmarried children, but married daughters were more likely than married sons to coreside. Past receipt of financial help from parents was not associated with coresidence. Coresidence was more likely for those with a close relationship with the mother. The discussion considers coresidence as an intergenerational transfer and its importance for the contemporary aging society. Data are needed on characteristics of all offspring to test theories about parent-child relationships.

Sex differences in trajectories of depressive symptoms among older Taiwanese: the contribution of selected stressors and social factors

Objectives: We assessed female–male differences in depressive symptoms among older Taiwanese and quantified the contribution of sex differences in exposure and response to selected covariates in explaining the gap. Methods: Using data from six survey waves over 18 years for a nationally representative cohort of 4049 Taiwanese aged 60+, we employed growth curve analysis to model individual-level trajectories of depressive symptoms across age. Results: Among older Taiwanese, women's disadvantage with respect to social position and employment accounted for about 40% of the sex difference in depressive symptoms. Sex differences in decision control and exposure to widowhood and financial decline played surprisingly little role. Although we found no evidence that the effects of marriage, recent widowhood or recent child death varied by sex, living apart from one's children appeared to be more detrimental for women than for men in this society. Moreover, the effect of living with children depended on the arrangement: living with an unmarried son was more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than living with a married son and daughter-in-law. Conclusion: Sex differentials in social position and employment are major contributors to the sex difference in depressive symptoms among older Taiwanese, yet sex differences in exposure or response to selected stressors appear to play little role. Differential vulnerabilities to particular living arrangements may also contribute to women's excess psychological distress, although more research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms by which living arrangements influence depressive symptoms in Taiwan.