Physical Distance and Social Contact between Elders and their Adult Children

Several demographic trends threaten supportive ties between adult children and elderly parents, including fertility reduction, rising divorce rates, and increasing geographical mobility among young adults. This article focuses on the extent to which proximity of adult children influences several types of social contact between elders and their offspring. Initial analysis uncovered nonlinear patterns in the data. The results of the polynomial regression analyses indicate that physical distance is a potent determinant of several types of social contact. The importance of distance is not affected when statistically controlling for adult children's income, sex, and marital status and elderly respondents' age, sex, education, and ethnicity. The analysis also suggests that substitution occurs between contact types at certain points on the distance continuum.