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Assisting Parents and In‐Laws: Gender, Type of Assistance, and Couples’ Employment
Author(s) -
Chesley Noelle,
Poppie Kyle
Publication year - 2009
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.1741-3737.2009.00597.x
Subject(s) - task (project management) , unpaid work , psychology , dual (grammatical number) , emotional support , work (physics) , social psychology , economics , social support , management , mechanical engineering , art , literature , engineering
We use 1995 MIDUS data ( n = 2,085) to assess whether the gender gap in help persists across different types of help (unpaid task assistance, emotional support, financial assistance) to parents and in‐laws. We also examine whether joint employment patterns influence levels of help. Persistent gender differences are identified in levels of emotional support to parents and in‐laws: Women spend more time than men giving this help. There are no gender differences in levels of unpaid task assistance or financial assistance to parents or in‐laws. Individuals in single‐earner couples, however, provide greater levels of unpaid task assistance to in‐laws and financial assistance to parents than individuals in dual‐earner couples. Furthermore, financial assistance to parents is positively linked to work hours.