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There is considerable debate about the effects of today's family structures on support arrangements for older people. Using representative data from The Netherlands, the study reported in this paper investigates which sociodemographic characteristics of adult children and their elderly parents, and which motivations of the adult children, correlate with children giving practical and social support to their parents. The findings indicate that the strongest sociodemographic correlates of a higher likelihood of giving support were: having few siblings, having a widowed parent without a new partner and, for practical support, a short geographical distance between the parent's and child's homes. Single mothers were more likely to receive support than mothers with partners, irrespective of whether their situation followed divorce or widowhood. Widowed fathers also received more support, but only with housework. A good parent-child relationship was the most important motivator for giving support, whereas subscribing to filial obligation norms was a much weaker motivator, especially for social support. Insofar as demographic and cultural changes in family structures predict a lower likelihood of support from children to elderly parents, this applies to practical support, and derives mainly from increased geographical separation distances and from the growing trend for parents to take new partners. Social support is unlikely to be affected by these changes if parents and children maintain good relationships. KEY WORDS--support giving, family, adult children, ageing parents, filial obligations, The Netherlands.

The impacts of son preference on labor supply of native and immigrant parents in the US are examined. Findings reveal that Asian men work less compared to white men if they have a son instead of a daughter. The significance of parents' desire to spend time with sons or the sons' need for their father's time in labor supply is also analyzed.

Research presented concerns the potential negative impact of welfare reform laws on family structure. Research focuses on whether or not welfare incentives encourage parents and teenagers to co-reside and therefore create a more stable family.

A study on the effect of welfare on family dissolutions, or children living apart from their parents, is discussed. Topics include the study design, exclusion of variables related to reasons for family dissolution, state proactivity in caring for children, time variation in welfare benefits, and the effect of differences in housing costs.

Research by Peter Brandon and Gene Fisher on the effect of welfare benefits on family dissolution is discussed. Family dissolution is increasing, but the reason cannot be determined with the available data.

Higher welfare benefits appear to decrease the risk of children residing apart from their parents. When economically deprived, single-parent families will reduce the number of children living with them.

Research by Peter Brandon and Gene Fisher on the effect of welfare on dissolution of child-parent living arrangements is discussed. Topics include the dissolution decision, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data, future research directions, other factors affecting dissolution, policy issues, and the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

The argument of D. Friedman, M. Hechter and S. Kanazawa that reduction in uncertainty in marriage is the only reason for people in developed societies to continue to have children lacks proper reasoning. The more valid reasons are that married status is more favorable for child bearing and strong unions between partners help in higher fertility. The hypotheses of the faulty theory of fertility are discussed.

Economic factors influence financial and residential independence of children. Parental income and the child's capability to earn affect the child's independence. The influence of the parents' financial status changes with the age of the child. In younger children, better financial status of the parents reduces the chances of the child to become independent. However, the tendency to become independent after 18-19 is higher in children of high income group parents.

The amount of economic pressure has been rising for the last ten years due to socioeconomic trends which made a dent in the middle class. A study of the effect of economic pressure on inner-city families shows that both low income and inadequate work/income factors lead to increased emotional distress and perceived parental inefficiency. African American parents have a positive outlook towards parental efficacy that increases developmental scope for children and reduces behavioral risks. The effect of single-parent households and conflicted marriages are discussed.

Although racial variations in endorsement of social welfare have been studied, the more specific linkage to governmental involvement in higher education has not been established. Using data from High School and Beyond and the National Educational Longitudinal Study-1988, the authors compare the responses of minority versus White parents to questions regarding where parents locate the responsibility for funding college (parent, student, or government), whether they favor specific governmental funding strategies, and whether they have saved for their children's education. Although racial variations are modest, minority parents not only are more receptive to governmental involvement than are White parents, but are more likely to place the financial burden on themselves. These findings suggest that support for governmental aid for higher education transcends pure self-interest and corresponds more closely with a minority-status argument. Once background characteristics are held constant, minority parents make at least as much if not more of an effort to save as do their White counterparts. Most important, these results debunk the myths that minority parents lack responsibility for their offspring, at least with respect to educational investment, and that a group's endorsement of collective welfare is incompatible with its assumption of individual responsibility.

An economic model of parental decision-making concerning investment in children's human capital is presented. An optimal investment is most efficient if some level of retirement support from the children is certain. If the children's altruism is in doubt, the optimal investment will be lower than the efficient quantity. Expectations of social security payments may reduce the investment.

Children's altruism toward parents is allowed in a two-overlapping-generations model with endogenous fertility. Parents raise children because, when retired, they expect gifts from their children who are essentially a capital good. Individuals' behavior between generations is examined by analyzing a Nash equilibrium, which is then compared with a social planner's optimal allocation. The pay-as-you-go public pension program is viewed as the optimal gifts from the optimal allocation when the latter is implemented. The effect on fertility of the introduction of a capital market is also analyzed. The validity of the old-age security hypothesis is shown to depend on the parameters of utility and cost functions.

Six resourcemanagement factors which influence planning for a financially secure retirementfor the sandwich generation are examined. The sandwich generation refers to individuals between the ages of 40 and 65 who are expected to provide financialassistance to parent(s) while currently supporting one or more children. The influence of parent care responsibilities on use of retirement income and the degree of task assistance to parents are found to be the two most distinctive characteristics of the sandwich generation.

Three strategies on how to talk with aging parents about finances are described. Barriers which may impede conversations with parents orother aging family members about money are identified. Alternatives to considerif a parent is healthy, but needs limited help with finances as well as legal options available if one or both parents are incapacitated are also discussed. The role of home economics professionals in this situation is likewise explored.

Upper-income parents often do a poor job of teaching their children the value of money. Children need to know the difference between needs and wants and should not get used to a lifestyle that is unsustainable when they leave the household. Tips for teaching the financial facts of life include talking about income, expenses and budgets; issuing allowances; explaining and encouraging saving; and helping teenagers find part-time jobs., It shouldn't be a taboo. They need to know how to save money, make it grow, and spend it wisely. The scene: A checkout counter at a Florida supermarket. The [...]

Children in developing countries are expected to support their aged parents. This is one reason why developing countries continue to have high birth rates. Familial relations among aged parents and their children in western Kenya were analyzed. It was concluded that children provide security to aged parents by giving food, money and domestic assistance. Parents with many children have more assurance of support than those with fewer children. Parents motivate their children to provide support by promising properties through inheritance.

Within a context of increasing economic pressure in rural America, this study assesses family responses to this change and their consequences from the perspective of the household economy in middle-class families. It draws on the findings of largely separate fields of inquiry, including those on income level and loss, unemployment, and economic adjustments. Using survey and observational data on two-parent families in a midwestern rural county, the analysis shows that (a) adverse income change increases economic pressures and hardship adaptations in ways that match the effect of income level and exceed the influence of unstable work, (b) economic pressures and adaptations mediate the negative effects of economic adversity on emotional health and family relationships, (c) father's negativity in the family represents a stronger link between economic conditions and child behavior than does mother's negativity, and (d) economic pressure and father's negativity increase the risk of aggressive behavior and depressed feelings among boys and girls, especially in the absence of maternal support.

This article examines the question of why more young adults are living with their parents. The expectation of the 1960s and 1970s that grown children establish separate residence, even before marriage, began to erode in the 1980s. We asked a small, convenience sample of parents and coresident adult children to respond to two possible interpretations of the trend: (1) that children return home due to economic hardship, or (2) that children return home because they feel entitled to a particular standard of living. Parents and children concluded that economic factors drive adult children home again, but few of the adult children in this study had come home because of genuine economic hardship.

This study examines how income and family structure affect black-white differences in intergenerational financial flows, focusing on the two-way flow between parents and children in the years immediately after high school and how these flows in turn influence educational expectations. Based on data from the High School and Beyond survey, the findings indicate that black young adults receive less and contribute more income to their families at this critical juncture of the life course. These differences reflect not only differential resources but also differences in family structure, particularly in the proportion with only one parent or with a very young parent. Parental financial contributions to their children's educational expenses had a very strong effect on the children's educational expectations, eliminating the direct effects of income on the amount of schooling young people expect. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the study of parent-child relationships and the effects of these relationships on more general stratification processes.