Time help from adult children in response to parental need: Differences among biological and stepchildren in non-stepfamilies and stepfamilies

Principal Investigator

Emily Wiemers

Associate Professor, Public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University

Co-Investigators

 

  • I-Fen Lin, Professor, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University (presenting author)
  • Judith A. Seltzer, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • V. Joseph Hotz, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Chicago
  • Janecca A. Chin, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University
  • Anna Wiersma Strauss, PhD Candidate, Department of Public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University

Funded By

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

The problem:

Adult children are an important source of support for their parents. While prior research has examined how adult children help their parents during ordinary times, less is known about how adult children responded to parental needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic put strain on both older adults and their adult children. For older adults, the pandemic caused logistical obstacles to procuring food and care. For adult children with their own offspring at home, the pandemic increased time demands—reducing their ability to provide help to their parents. The fear of spreading infection may have also prevented adult children from providing hands-on care to their parents.

Because divorce and remarriage increased in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of middle-age and older adults with children from previous relationships is larger today. In fact, about 40 percent of older couples with children are in stepfamilies. The literature suggests that stepchildren help their parents less than biological children. Wiemers and team aim to understand if the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped family structural differences in adult children’s help to parents when need arose and how this differed between stepchildren and biological children in different familial structures.

The approach:

Using data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people in America, the researchers focused on respondents over age 55 who were not living in a nursing home and who had children over the age of 18. They compared adult children’s responses to parental need prior to and during the pandemic using the 2018 and 2020 core surveys and the 2020 COVID-19 module. About 67 percent of parent-child dyads were biological children in non-stepfamilies, 16 percent were biological children in stepfamilies, and 17 percent were stepchildren in stepfamilies. The study controlled for parent sociodemographic characteristics, economic resources, health conditions and behaviors, family characteristics, and social programs.

The findings:

Stepchildren were less likely than biological children to provide time help to parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biological children in stepfamilies were less likely than biological children in non-stepfamilies to provide time help when parents had no needs. But when parents had needs, such as trouble with instrumental activities of daily living or trouble buying food, biological children in stepfamilies were as likely as biological children in non-stepfamilies to help parents. These findings challenge the view that the presence of a stepchild weakens ties between biological children and their parents.

Two bar graphs titled “Predicted probabilities of help provided by a child (COVID-19 Module) by need.” One is subtitled “No trouble buying food” and another is subtitled “Had trouble buying food.” Both bar graphs display three bars: biological child in non-stepfamily, biological child in stepfamily, and stepchild in stepfamily. The y-axis presents the predicted probabilities of children providing help to parents and stepparents from 0.00 to 0.15 in 0.05 increments. The first graph shows that when parents had no trouble buying food, biological children in stepfamilies were significantly less likely to provide help than biological children in non-stepfamilies, and stepchildren were less likely to provide help than biological children in any family. The second graph shows that when parents had trouble buying food, all children were more likely to provide help than when parents had no trouble buying food, and stepchildren in stepfamilies were significantly less likely than other children to provide help.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Lin, I., Wiemers, E. E., Chin, J. A., Strauss, A. W., Seltzer, J. A., & Hotz, V. J. (2024). Adult children’s responsiveness to parental needs during the pandemic. Journal of Marriage and Family, jomf.13043. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.13043

Wiemers, E. E., Lin, I.-F., Wiersma Strauss, A., Chin, J. A., Hotz, V. J., & Seltzer, J. A. (2024a). Racial–Ethnic Gaps in Pandemic-Related Economic Hardship: Age Differences Among Older Adults. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 79(8), gbae099. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae099

Wiemers, E. E., Lin, I.-F., Wiersma Strauss, A., Chin, J., Hotz, V. J., & Seltzer, J. A. (2024b). Age Differences in Experiences of Pandemic-Related Health and Economic Challenges Among Adults Aged 55 and Older. The Gerontologist, 64(6), gnae023. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnae023