Children of divorce care for parents less

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A divorce -- even one 30 years ago -- means a child may be less involved in care-giving for elderly parents, a U.S. researcher says.

In a study, published in the Advances in Life Course Research, divorce predicted an adult child would be less of involved with day-to-day assistance later in life for the aging parent. These activities included the child helping the parent maintain chores in the home.

"It’s not the divorce itself that affects the quality of the parent-child relationship, but it’s what happens afterwards such as geographical separation," study leader Adam Davey, of Temple University, said in a statement.

Davey analyzed data from 2,087 parents, age 50 and older, who reported on their 7,019 adult children in the National Survey of Family and Households from 1987 to 1994 and found marital disruptions earlier in a child’s life can be less detrimental to the relationship than those occurring in adulthood.

One surprising finding was that both mothers and fathers are only half as likely to get support from a non-biological child.

"Society does not yet have a clear set of expectations for step-children’s responsibility," Davey added.