Marriage and Adult Children's Relationship to Their Parents.

ABSTRACTSome theorists suggest that modern marriage competes with, even undermines, relations with extended kin, including aging parents. This paper utilizes NSFH II data to assess that proposition. Supporting the argument that marriage is a "greedy institution," we find that the married, both women and men, have less intense intergenerational ties than the never married and the divorced: The married are less likely to live with their parents, stay in touch, and give or receive emotional, financial, and practical help. Contrary to our expectations, most of these effects of marriage cannot be explained by structural factors: The greediness of marriage holds even when we control for time demands, needs and resources, and demographic and extended family characteristics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]