Filial Responsibility Expectations and Patterns of Intergenerational Assistance

Since its introduction some years ago (Bengtson, Olander, Morgan, Schuster, latter indexes actual exchange of assistance. The theory clearly implies a positive relation between filial responsibility expectations and functional solidarity. However, research on intergenerational exchange (functional solidarity) has paid virtually no attention to norms or expectations. And studies focusing specifically on filial responsibility expectations (e.g., Blieszner Hamon Rossi Sauer, Seelbach, Seelbach, 1977, 1978, 1984) have also ignored possible connections between these expectations and actual exchange of assistance between generations. At this point, we know virtually nothing about relationship between parents' expectations for assistance from children and extent to which children actually provide assistance to their parents. …