Date of Award

Fall 1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology & Criminal Justice

Program/Concentration

Applied Sociology

Committee Director

Garland White

Committee Member

Barbara Newsome

Committee Member

Katarina Wegar

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.S62 T56

Abstract

This study explores the effects of children's marital status on the frequency of contact they have with their mothers. As American society ages and marital disruption remains high, it is important to determine if there are differences in the relationships adult children have with their aging parents. A secondary analysis was conducted on data collected in 1986 for the General Social Survey. Two hypotheses were created from theory:

(1) From dependency and obligation theories, it was predicted that maritally disrupted adult children would report having greater contact with their mothers than married adult children.

(2) From status and resource adjustment theories, it was predicted that married adult children would report having greater contact with their mothers than maritally disrupted adult children.

Cross-tabular analysis revealed that marital disruption did not significantly affect the frequency of contact adult children report having with their mothers except when geographic proximity to parent's home was "near." Then, married respondents had significantly more frequent contact with mothers than did maritally disrupted respondents (p

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DOI

10.25777/5bcx-z276

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