Does Child Gender Predict Older Parents’ Well-Being?

Inconsistencies in comparisons of older parents’ well-being with that of older, childless adults may be resolved by considering the separate effects of sons and daughters on parents. The hypothesis was that older parents of only daughters have greater life satisfaction, more satisfying relations wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social indicators research 2014-08, Vol.118 (1), p.285-303
Main Authors: Pushkar, Dolores, Bye, Dorothea, Conway, Michael, Wrosch, Carsten, Chaikelson, June, Etezadi, Jamshid, Giannopoulos, Constantina, Li, Karen, Tabri, Nassim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult children
Adults
Aging (Individuals)
Aging problems. Death
Child Rearing
Children
Daughters
Departments
Elderly
Friendship
Human Geography
Individual Development
Information Management
Life Satisfaction
Longitudinal studies
Marital Status
Microeconomics
Mothers
Older adults
Older parents
Older people
Parents
Parents & parenting
Public Health
Quality of Life Research
Resistance (Psychology)
Satisfaction
Self Actualization
Self esteem
Sex
Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations
Social Sciences
Social Support
Socialization
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic Status
Sociology
Sociology of the family. Age groups
Sons
Well Being
Wellbeing
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Summary:Inconsistencies in comparisons of older parents’ well-being with that of older, childless adults may be resolved by considering the separate effects of sons and daughters on parents. The hypothesis was that older parents of only daughters have greater life satisfaction, more satisfying relations with their children, more intimate family relations, and greater social support satisfaction compared to older childless adults and parents of only sons. Childless older adults were predicted to have more intimate friends. The effect of having both sons and daughters was also explored. Longitudinal results indicated parents had greater life satisfaction than childless adults, and parents of daughters were more satisfied with relations with their children than parents of only sons. Childless adults had more relations with friends and fewer family intimate relations. Neither social support satisfaction or affect varied across groups. The findings are related to gender socialization, social support, and normative expectations.
ISSN:0303-8300
1573-0921
DOI:10.1007/s11205-013-0403-y