1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[T]his study examines if daughters and sons have differential effects on the well being of older parents.» (p. 286)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«Based upon gender socialization theory and research, the present study hypothesizes that daughters have a greater positive effect than do sons on older parents’ well being.» (p. 286)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Participants were part of a larger longitudinal study in Montreal investigating psychological well-being in retirement.» (p. 291) L’échantillon compte 351 participants.

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«This study indicates that older parents had higher scores on an overall mean index of life satisfaction compared to childless adults. Counter to expectation, the three parent groups did not differ among themselves on overall life satisfaction. These results are in line with recent studies which also found that parents had higher satisfaction compared to childless adults […], but do not support the hypothesis that daughters have a greater positive impact on general life satisfaction than do sons. The finding that having only daughters increases parental satisfaction with children beyond that provided by only sons indicates the greater importance of daughters on parent-child relations. […] In this study, parents reported having more intimate family ties than non-parents. A consequence of having adult children is that they generally accrue additional family members, by adding daughters-in-law and sons-in-law to families. Although adult children generally retain stronger emotional ties to their birth families, they do expand the social network of their families by marriage. As a result these additions could mitigate the effects on social support of having children of only one gender within families.» (p. 297-298)