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Social Support to Parents‐in‐Law: The Interplay of Gender and Kin Hierarchies
Author(s) -
Lee Eunju,
Spitze Glenna,
Logan John R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of marriage and family
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.578
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1741-3737
pISSN - 0022-2445
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2003.00396.x
Subject(s) - psychology , phone , set (abstract data type) , multivariate analysis , social psychology , sample (material) , social contact , developmental psychology , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , chemistry , chromatography , computer science , programming language
Using data from a representative sample of middle‐aged married persons, we compare men's and women's contact and assistance to older parents‐in‐law and parents. Women have more visits and phone contact with their parents than do men, and men talk on the phone more with their in‐laws than do women. There are no gender differences in assistance patterns. Multivariate analysis shows that women contact and help parents more than in‐laws, whereas for men there are no such differences. There is little direct evidence that the presence of one set of parents affects relations with the other. Our findings suggest that although women clearly give priority to relations with their own parents, men experience pulls in both directions.