Within-Family Differences in Mothers' Support to Adult Children in Black and White Families

Abstract

Data collected from a representative sample of 157 Black and 394 White older women is used to explore within-family differences in mother-to-child support. High rates of differentiation in both Black and White families were found. Within-family analyses revealed more similarities than differences in the effects of adult children's characteristics on mothers' likelihood of providing support. For both groups, mothers were most likely to provide support to children who had fewer resources, greater need, and who had provided the mothers with support. Children's health problems were better predictors of support among Black than White mothers, whereas children's gender played a larger role in White than Black mothers' provision of support; however, both groups of mothers favored daughters and children with poor health. In sum, these patterns provide little support for the argument that family solidarity is substantially more important in explaining intergenerational exchanges in Black than White families.