ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2025
Social exchange in intergenerational relationships over the family life course: reciprocity dynamics in support to older mothers.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Intergenerational family support and older adult frailty: findings from four prospective cohort studies.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Intergenerational support and older adults mental health in rural China: evidence and policy implications.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Unlocking intergenerational support: The impact of long-term care insurance on elderly family dynamics.PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesParent-child relationships are characterized by exchanges of support across the family life course. This investigation examined whether earlier financial and service support provided by parents incentivized adult children to provide support to older mothers. Direct, indirect, anticipatory, and contingent reciprocity are employed to test four types of intergenerational exchange.
methodsData derived from 470 baby-boom children and their parents participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG). Parental provisions (financial and childcare support, bequest intentions, and assistance provided to grandparents) served as lagged predictors of instrumental and socioemotional support provided to older mothers in five waves between 1997 and 2021/2022. Multilevel models were estimated for 1,324 child-mother observations and tested the direct effects of parental provisions and their interaction with mothers' vulnerability.
resultsFinancial support received by children predicted greater frequency of both types of support to mothers, demonstrating direct reciprocity. Adult children provided more socioemotional support to mothers who assisted their own parents, supporting indirect reciprocity. Financial support produced higher marginal returns of instrumental support to mothers with greater vulnerability, consistent with contingent reciprocity. Little evidence was found for anticipatory reciprocity inherent in a bequest motive. DISCUSSION: Results were consistent with reciprocity as an underlying mechanism in intergenerational exchanges and revealed long-term consequences of parents' resource distribution to children. Reciprocity as insurance against unmet needs was mostly limited to financial assistance, a key resource helping children manage the economic challenges of adulthood. We suggest future research continue to refine the theory and empirical identification of motivations behind intergenerational exchanges.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.