PARENT-ADULT CHILD RELATIONS: WITHIN FAMILY DIFFERENCES

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DESCRIPTION (adapted from Investigator's abstract): The proposed study will investigate within-family differences in parent-child relations in later life. Interviews will be conducted with a representative sample of 600 mothers between the ages of 65 and 75 living in the Boston area, their husbands, if available, and all the adult children in the family. African Americans will be over sampled. The study will examine the degree to which adult children in the same family differ in their relationships with elderly parents, as well as the factors explaining these differences. The major research questions are: 1) what is the extent of within-family differences in parent-adult child relations in later-life families? 2) What are the determinants of within-family differences in parent-child relations? Three sets of predictors will be examined as determinants of relationship quality: status similarity of parent and child; developmental history; and exchange and equity characteristics. The study will focus on the effects of within-family differences rather than individual structural and developmental characteristics of each child.