Compared helping interactions of partners in close relationships and of strangers. Participants (N=92) from 46 couples completed semistructured helping tasks with their partner and with an opposite-sex stranger. Partners were less empathic and used fewer acknowledgements and more behavioral advisements, interpretations, and self-disclosures than…

Fifty pairs of sisters with at least one parent over age 75 years were interviewed about parents' situation and how they and their siblings divided filial responsibilities. Results showed that, once parents were perceived to have needs, sibling groups organized to meet them. Found five styles of participation and three factors affecting styles and…

Interviewed 53 noninstitutionalized elderly to examine patterns of exchange of assistance within their informal helping networks. Results suggest inability to reciprocate rather than need for assistance had a greater negative effect on morale. There was a negative relationship between formal service use and reliance on the informal network.…

Presents a causal explanation predicting kinship ties involving division of labor and the usefulness of kin. Data on white households in the Public Use Sample of the 1900 U.S. Census confirmed that wife's parents would be more common in nonfarm households, while husband's parents would predominate in farm households. (JAC)

Examined the association of aid exchange with attachment in student women and their mothers (139 pairs) and these same middle-aged mothers and their mothers (110 pairs). Different results for the two sets of intergenerational relationships are discussed in terms of individual and relationship development. (JAC)

Used data from three generations to examine the association of intimacy to aid and contact in mother-daughter relationships. Results showed aid and contact were not predictive of intimacy. In the younger pairs, the connection between intimacy and contact between visiting and telephoning was conditional on geographical distance. (JAC)

A sample of family sociologists is analyzed to uncover the theoretical frameworks used in their training, teaching, research and counseling. The ranking of the 20 most frequently named theorists and the frequency and weighted index of their ranking are reported. (Author)

Compared aid given by adult daughters to self-sufficient elderly mothers (n=43) with that given by adult daughters to elderly mothers who were dependent for aid (n=139). Results suggest caregiving is intensification of preexisting patterns of aid-giving that is evident in female intergenerational relationships. (Author/ABL)

Discusses the nature of family resource redistribution through the life cycle. Proposes an underlying linear redistribution principle and the availability of transaction capacities as a modifying principle. Capacities of different kinds are presumed to decline at different rates in the later stages of the life cycle. (JAC)

Constructed a path model to examine the factors that elicit and sustain helping behavior in 148 adult children with elderly mothers. Field survey data indicated that present helping behaviors, attachment behaviors, and feelings of attachment had the strongest influence on commitment to provide future help. (JAC)

Explored the impact of employment and familial responsibilities on the assistance provided to elderly parents (N=153) by adult children (N=502). Results showed hours of assistance varied with the level of parental impairment, the presence of the older parents' spouse, and competing demands on the helpers' time. (JAC)

Examined use by Black adults (N=1,322) of informal helpers during serious personal problems. Found network size predicted by age, gender, income, familial contact, and problem type. Discussed significance of informal network in providing assistance during personal crisis. (Author/CM)

Using a cross-sectional analysis of 250 white individuals, 70-103 years of age, this article questions whether a vertical family structure is found with increasing age. Findings indicate, among other things, that at least until age 90 the proportion of individuals with a vertical family structure with four generations never exceeds the numbers of…

Examines the role of confidant support in moderating depressive symptoms among low-income, Mexican immigrant women in discrete marital statuses. Confidant support doubled the explained variance when added to an equation containing a best set of known demographic predictors of depression. (Author/ABB)

Investigated kin networks, kin network support, and consequences of this support for women's work using data from a national survey of young mothers, both Black and White (n=1,787). Results indicated most young mothers had access to nearby kin, and it was these kin who most often provided child care and income support. (Author/ABL)