Filial expectations, association, and helping as a function of number of children among older rural-transitional parents.

Older adults with an only child (n = 57) were compared with parents with two or three children (n = 139) and parents with four or more children (n = 83) with regard to filial expectations and frequency of parent-child association and assistance. The results showed no differences between groups with regard to filial expectations. Parents of only children, however, were less likely to receive assistance and to have seen a child in the last day or two. Only a minimal amount of variance could be explained in parent-child association and helping except for parents of only children. Factors influencing association and helping patterns were observed to vary according to number of children. Whereas income, geographical proximity, and health of older parents were central to the assistance received by parents of only children, sex-linked factors, health of parents, and geographical proximity were found to contribute to the amount of help received by parents with more than one child. The research suggests the importance of controlling for number of children in future studies of intergenerational relationships and raises important questions regarding the adequacy of limited family networks as certain subgroups of the current "young-old" cohort move further into the dependencies of old age.