HELPING BETWEEN PARENTS AND YOUNG-ADULT OFFSPRING - THE ROLE OF PARENTAL MARITAL QUALITY, DIVORCE, AND REMARRIAGE

Using longitudinal data from a national sample of 471 parents and their adult children, we examined the impact of parental martial quality, divorce, and remarriage on the exchange of assistance between parents and offspring. Low marital quality was not associated with the exchange of help, although it did appear to lower children's tendency to name parents as someone they could go to for aid. Divorce lowered helping between fathers and offspring, but not between mothers and offspring. Single mothers received more and gave less assistance to their children than did mothers in first or later marriages. Remarried mothers gave as much assistance as first-married mothers, but received less assistance. With the exception of parental support for college, when one takes into account that children of divorce have two parental households with which to exchange, they were as likely to receive and give support as children with continuously married parents.