Intensive Mothers, Cautionary Tale Fathers: Adult Children's Perceptions of Parental Influence on Health

How Gender Shapes Sibling Tension in Adulthood Following Parental Death

Objective

This study investigates gender differences in the effect of parents' deaths on sibling tension among bereaved adult children.

Background

Previous scholarship on adult sibling relations following the deaths of parents presents inconsistent results. These disparate findings may stem from past studies not taking into consideration the gender of both the deceased parent and the bereaved child.

Method

Analyses are based on three harmonized waves of quantitative and qualitative data collected from 654 adult children nested within 303 families as part of the Within-Family Differences Study.

Results

Multilevel models revealed that for daughters, but not sons, mothers' deaths in the past five years were associated with increases in sibling tension, whereas fathers' deaths did not predict changes in either sons' or daughters' sibling tension, regardless of timing. Qualitative analyses showed marked differences by child's gender in perceptions of patterns of shared work and support surrounding parents' deaths. Typically, sons expressed solidarity with siblings when mothers died and felt that the division of caregiving prior to mothers' deaths and arrangements following their deaths were fair. In contrast, daughters expressed increased solidarity with sisters surrounding mothers' deaths and disdain toward brothers who failed to contribute caregiving, support, or instrumental tasks.

Conclusion

These findings underscore how gender of both parents and adult children differentially shape changes in adult children's relationships with their siblings in the face parental deaths, much as they do in other contexts across the life course.

Prodigal Children: Why Older Mothers Favor Their Once-Deviant Adult Children

OBJECTIVES

Past research suggests that adult children who reform their deviant behaviors (i.e., problems with drugs/alcohol or the law) are more likely to become favored by their mothers, yet the reasons underlying this phenomenon are unclear. This study employs a longitudinal, qualitative approach to explore why adult children's behavioral reforms shape changes in maternal favoritism.

METHOD

Analyses are based on qualitative interview data collected at 2 points 7 years apart from older mothers regarding their adult children in 20 families. Each of these families had a "prodigal child"-a child for whom desistance from deviant behaviors between the 2 waves was accompanied by newfound maternal favoritism.

RESULTS

Findings revealed 2 conditions under which mothers came to favor reformed deviants over their siblings. First, this occurred when adult children's behavioral reformations were accompanied by mothers' perceptions of these children as having grown more family-oriented. Second, this occurred when mothers came to see reformed deviants as exhibiting a stronger need and appreciation for maternal support, relative to their siblings.

DISCUSSION

Mothers' perceptions of children's behavioral reformations as being accompanied by greater dedication to family or reflecting a need for their mothers' support offer 2 explanations for why previously deviant adult children may become mothers' favored offspring. These findings contribute to a growing body of scholarship on the complexity of intergenerational relations by shedding new light on changing patterns of favoritism in families with a history of parental disappointment, conflict, and strain.