Intergenerational Exchanges of Middle-Aged Adults With Their Parents and Parents-In-Law in Korea.
The authors investigated patterns of support exchanges between Korean adult children and their parents and parents-in-law, gender differences in these patterns, and implications of children's marital quality for exchange patterns. Data were from a nationally representative sample of married adults (N= 920, age 30-59 years) with at least 1 living parent and 1 living parent-in-law. Latent class analysis was applied to 12 indicators of exchanges (financial, instrumental, emotional support given to and received from parents and parents-in-law). Five classes of exchanges were identified, 3 showing balanced patterns of exchanges with parents and parents-in-law across three types of support and 2 classes with unbalanced patterns (e.g., giving instrumental and financial, but not emotional support). The findings revealed variability in intergenerational exchange patterns, with a mix of patrilineal traditional and balanced patterns. Significant associations of exchange patterns with adult children's marital quality suggest the importance of balanced exchanges with parents for marriage.
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E. Dean Keeton St., Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712-1248 ( kkim@utexas.edu ).
Kyungmin
K
Kim
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 305 Health and Human Development East, University Park, PA 16802.
Steven H
SH
Zarit
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E. Dean Keeton St., Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712-1248.
Karen L
KL
Fingerman
Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University, Building 222, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 152-742, Republic of Korea.
Gyounghae
G
Han
Asian families; in-laws; intergenerational relations; latent class analysis; marital quality; social support