Lin I-Fen, Wu Hsueh-Sheng
Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, 217 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403-0222, USA,
Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University 5D Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403-0222, USA,
Ou Mei Yan Jiu. 2019 Mar;49(1):45-73.
Researchers have extensively examined why some particular adult children provide care to their aged parents, but rarely considered sibling similarities and influences in their examinations. Guided by social learning theory and diffusion of responsibility theory, we investigate whether sibling similarities are associated with adult children's care hours, net of the parent's and child's characteristics. Based on social comparison theory, we further examine whether such associations differ across adult children, depending on whether adult children share the same characteristics as their siblings. Using Round 5 data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, we find that adult children provide more care hours when siblings are close in age, supporting social learning theory. In contrast, adult children provide fewer care hours in the presence of a greater share of siblings who are unpartnered or close to the parents, supporting diffusion of responsibility theory. Consistent with social comparison theory, social learning is stronger for younger adult children, and diffusion of responsibility is weaker when adult children are unpartnered or close to the parents. Findings from this study highlight the importance for future research of going beyond parent-child dyads and incorporate sibling influences when studying the caregiving behavior of adult children.
研究人员广泛探讨了为何某些成年子女会照顾年迈的父母，但在研究过程中很少考虑兄弟姐妹之间的相似性和影响。以社会学习理论和责任分散理论为指导，我们研究了在排除父母和子女自身特征的影响后，兄弟姐妹之间的相似性是否与成年子女的照顾时长相关。基于社会比较理论，我们进一步考察这种关联在不同成年子女之间是否存在差异，具体取决于成年子女与他们的兄弟姐妹是否具有相同的特征。利用来自《国家健康与老龄化趋势研究》的第五轮数据，我们发现当兄弟姐妹年龄相近时，成年子女会提供更多的照顾时长，这支持了社会学习理论。相反，当有更大比例的兄弟姐妹未婚或与父母关系亲近时，成年子女提供的照顾时长会减少，这支持了责任分散理论。与社会比较理论一致，社会学习对较年轻的成年子女影响更强，而当成年子女未婚或与父母关系亲近时，责任分散的影响则较弱。本研究的结果凸显了未来研究超越亲子二元组、在研究成年子女的照顾行为时纳入兄弟姐妹影响的重要性。
