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http://dx.doi.org/10.7466/JKHMA.2016.34.5.151

Contact between Never Married Children and Their Parents: Moderating Effects of Children's Gender  

Choi, Heejeong (Department of Consumer and Family Sciences, Sungkyunkwan University)
Publication Information
Journal of Families and Better Life / v.34, no.5, 2016 , pp. 151-166 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study examined frequency of contact between parents and their non-coresident, never-married daughters and sons compared to children in other marital statuses. Despite an increasing number of never married adults, little is known about the extent to which they may be willing to remain connected to and exchange support with their parents. The data were drawn from first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA, 2006). For analyses, respondents who had at least one non-coresident child aged 40 or older were selected, resulting in the analytic sample of 2,755 parents with 7,741 children. Both sibling fixed effects regression models and regression models with robust standard errors were estimated using the xtreg and reg procedures in STATA. Findings revealed significant marital status by gender interaction effects on face-to-face contact. Never-married daughters were more likely to see their parents compared to their married, divorced, or widowed counterparts. Never-marred sons, on the other hand, reported slightly lower levels of in-person contact with their parents in comparison to married sons and lower levels of contact compared to divorced or widowed sons. More frequent contact via phone, mail, or email was reported in daughter-parent relationship compared to son-parent relationship, but no significant marital status by gender interactions were observed.
Keywords
never married children; intergenerational contact; face-to-face contact; Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing;
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