Work

Continuity and Change in Mothers' Favoritism Toward Offspring in Adulthood

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: The importance of parental favoritism in childhood and adulthood has been well documented; little is known, however, about changes over time in such within-family differentiation. Drawing on theories of life course processes and developmental psychology, the authors used 7-year panel data collected from 406 older mothers about their relationships with 1,514 adult children to explore patterns of favoritism regarding caregiving and emotional closeness. The findings demonstrated continuity in patterns of mothers' favoritism. Mothers tended to prefer the same children across time, particularly regarding preferred caregivers. It was anticipated that children's social-structural characteristics, similarity to their mothers, structural position in the family, and support provision to mothers would predict favored child status across time; however, only similarity and support processes were strong and consistent predictors of change and continuity in patterns of mothers' favoritism.

Source: Journal of Marriage and the Family

DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12067

Authors: J. Jill Suitor, Megan Gilligan, Karl Pillemer

Institutions: Purdue University West Lafayette, Iowa State University, Cornell University

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Aging

Award: Parent Adult-Child Relations: Within Family Differences