This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Jill Suitor, J. Articles by Pillemer, K. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Within-Family Differences in Mothers' Support to Adult Children in Black and White Families

Purdue University

Jori Sechrist

Purdue University

Karl Pillemer

Cornell University

Data collected from a representative sample of 157 Black and 394 White older women is used to explore within-family differences in mother-to-child support. High rates of differentiation in both Black and White families were found. Within-family analyses revealed more similarities than differences in the effects of adult children's characteristics on mothers' likelihood of providing support. For both groups, mothers were most likely to provide support to children who had fewer resources, greater need, and who had provided the mothers with support. Children's health problems were better predictors of support among Black than White mothers, whereas children's gender played a larger role in White than Black mothers' provision of support; however, both groups of mothers favored daughters and children with poor health. In sum, these patterns provide little support for the argument that family solidarity is substantially more important in explaining intergenerational exchanges in Black than White families.

Key Words: within-family differences • intergenerational support • African-American family relations • Black families • parent—adult child relations • race and family

Research on Aging, Vol. 29, No. 5, 410-435 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0164027507303636


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Davey, C. J. Tucker, K. Fingerman, and J. Savla Within-Family Variability in Representations of Past Relationships With Parents J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, January 27, 2009; (2009) gbn001v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]