Filial responsibility expectations among adult child-older parent pairs

The current study is an investigation of filial responsibility expectations endorsed by a randomly selected sample of 144 elderly parent-adult child pairs from the Harrisburg area of Pennsylvania. Descriptive statistics suggested that most older parents and adult children interpreted the filial role to include a great deal of emotional support and discussion of important matters and available resources. Both generations perceived living close and writing letters to parents on a weekly basis as less important. Parents were more likely to disapprove of receiving financial assistance from children, living with children, and having children adjust their work schedules to help them than were their offspring. Robinson's statistical measure of agreement, which examined the amount of consensus between generations, revealed that there was a moderate level of agreement between parents and their children on filial responsibility expectations. Multiple regression analyses indicated that amount of agreement on filial norms did not have an impact on parental well-being, however.