Mother and Daughter Reports About Upward Transfers

Using 619 mother-daughter dyads interviewed in the 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Mature Women and Young Women, this study examines the assistance that adult daughters provide to their mothers and its covariates. Mothers and daughters have low levels of agreement on transfers. Using mothers' reports identifies different covariates of transfers than using daughters' reports. After discrepancies between mother and daughter reports are controlled for, only 3 out of 17 covariates examined are related to transfers, including mothers' widowhood status, the number of mothers' difficulties with activities of daily living, and the distance between mother and daughter residences. These findings suggest that without controlling for discrepancies between mother and daughter reports, the covariates of upward transfers may be inaccurately identified. Key Words: dyadic data, intergenerational transfers, measurement. Adult children are an important source of support for their parents in old age (Hogan & Eggebeen, 1995). The role of adult children is likely to become increasingly important because baby boomers will start reaching the age of 65 in 2011, and current Social Security and Medicare systems may not be able to adequately accommodate their retirement needs. Over the past decade, researchers have attempted to understand why some adult children provide support to their older parents (i.e., upward transfers) whereas others do not (e.g., Checkovich & Stern, 2002; Henretta, Hill, Li, Soldo, & Wolf, 1997; Lin, 2008; Wolf, Freedman, & Soldo, 1997). Nevertheless, researchers typically have obtained information about upward transfers from either parents or their children (Bianchi, Evans, Hotz, McGarry, & Seltzer, 2007). In the handful of studies that have collected information from both parents and children (Roan, Hermalin, & Ofstedal, 1996; Rossi & Rossi, 1990; Zweibel & Lydens, 1990), discrepancies have been found between parent and child reports about intergenerational transfers, suggesting that parents, children, or both provide biased accounts of the transfers. Additionally, although some studies have documented factors contributing to discrepant reports between parents and their children (Mandemakers & Dykstra, 2008; Shapiro, 2004), few have gone a step further to identify the covariates of intergenerational transfers while simultaneously controlling for the discrepancies among different family members' reports. To fill the research gap, this study uses dyadic data, classical test theory, and a modified multiple-indicators-and-multiple-causes (MIMIC) model to address three research questions. First, how much agreement is there between mother and daughter reports? Second, does using only mothers' reports or only daughters' reports generate different conclusions about the covariates of upward transfers? Last, what covariates are associated with upward transfers once the discrepancies between mother and daughter reports are controlled for? Dyadic data make it possible to compare mother and daughter reports of the same transfers. Classical test theory is used to separate true transfers from the biases embedded in mother and daughter reports. Adopting a modified MIMIC model, researchers can distinguish the relative relationships of the covariates to true transfers and biases. In other words, covariates that are predictive of true transfers can be identified, net of their associations with reporting biases. Covariates Associated With Upward Transfers Prior research has suggested that parents' needs for support and children's ability to help determine transfers from adult children to their parents. As parents age, they are likely to have fewer resources and experience poorer health and thus need more support. These increasing needs propel children to provide their parents with more help (Silverstein, Parrott, & Bengtson, 1995; Spitze & Logan, 1990; Stoller, 1983). …