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What Narrows the Stepgap? Closeness Between Parents and Adult (Step)Children in Germany
Author(s) -
Becker Oliver Arránz,
Salzburger Veronika,
Lois Nadia,
Nauck Bernhard
Publication year - 2013
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/jomf.12052
Subject(s) - closeness , stepfamily , psychology , disadvantage , german , developmental psychology , demography , social psychology , sociology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , archaeology , political science , law , history
Using data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) based on 11,746 intergenerational family relationships, the present study examined differences in parental closeness across relations with multiple, coresidential, and non‐coresidential adolescent and adult children. Replicating previous research in a multilevel analysis across families, the authors found a strong positive effect of biological descent on closeness in comparison to adoptive and steprelations; this parental favoritism toward biological offspring was partly explained by selection via parental resources and attitudes. Supplemental within‐parent fixed effect analyses suggested that the relative disadvantage of stepchildren was offset by longer duration of the stepparent–stepchild relationship, lower household income, fewer children in the household, and high parental affirmation of familism .