Do Safety Nets Work? The Role of Anticipated Help in Times of Need

DAVID J. EGGEBEEN Pennsylvania State University ADAM DAVEY University of Georgia* A sample of parents (aged 50+) drawn from the 1988 and 1992 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households was used to examine two questions: How responsive is support from adult children in times of need? Is support from children greater for those who expected their children to provide help? Parents who experience one or more transitions in the time between survey waves are likely to receive help from their adult children over and above previous exchange patterns. Responsiveness on the part of children does not appear to be linked with parental expectations, however. Neither general value orientations about what children should do to support parents, nor expectations of help from one's own children in hypothetical situations are related to children's responsiveness to parental needs. Results are consistent with a contingent exchange perspective on intergenerational relationships. Key Words: aging, filial responsibility, intergenerational relations, parent-child relationships. Popular imagery, as well as theory, holds that most older Americans can readily call on a network of kin assistance in times of need (Antonucci, 1990). Consistent with this idea, a number of studies show that most adults have regular contact with their adult children and report that their children would be important sources of assistance in a crisis (Eggebeen, 1992; Wellman Becker Cox MacDonald, 1989). In contrast to altruistic models of intergenerational support is the idea that the flow of resources is largely determined by exchange relationships between parent and child. …