A Comparison of the Resources of Parents and Childless Men and Women in Very Old Age

Reciprocal exchanges between parents and children are evident throughout the life cyc/e, but little is known about how the childless manage in old age. This research compared the personal and social resources and correlates of psychological well-being of parents and the childless based upon interviews with 103 childless persons and 438 parents, 72 years or older. Parents and nonparents reported similar resources. Children did not assure these older parents less loneliness, more positive appraisals of life, or greater acceptance of death. Accommodations the childless may have made to an atypical status did not have an adverse effect on well-being. It was concluded that the presence or absence of children did not seem to appreciably alter the lives of the very aged.