Intergenerational transfers occur within a family context, yet most research on the topic is atomistic, focusing on the attributes and behaviors of individuals in the family matrix and not on the family itself. Social norms and behaviors related to familial obligation and responsibility differ across families, distinguishing the transfer behaviors of one family from another and defining the intergenerational culture within which family members act. This research focuses on shared family traits, in addition to more conventional measures of individual kin, to develop a sociological analysis that: a) examines why similarly-configured families differ in their kin exchange behaviors and why individual characteristics have variable effects across families; b) locates research on transfers to older and younger generations within the same conceptual framework; and, c) examines race and ethnic transfer differences across families. Four central questions guide the proposed research: a) Do families differ in their collective orientation to intrafamily transfers, and what characteristics distinguish among families' transfer behavior? b) How similar to each other are the family transfer cultures of the families of orientation of marriage partners? c) How does family change over time affect transfers and is that relationship conditioned by family transfer culture? and d) Are there meaningful cohort differences in family transfers, distinct from differences in family structure? The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is the major data source. Over the course of the proposed project, seven biennial waves of data (1992-2006) will become available. These data provide dynamic measures of transfer behaviors across as many as four generations of a family and a changing pool of donors and recipients as well as direct and indirect measures of family transfer culture. HRS oversamples of African Americans and Hispanics are adequate for the analyses of ethnic differences. Because the new Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is modeled on the HRS, comparable data are available to examine intrafamily transfers in a transnational perspective. Multilevel modeling is the primary analytic strategy. Each of the goals listed above requires parallel analyses of parent-to-child and child-to-parent transfers, incorporating a broad range of transfer and family measures, including indicators specific to each spouse/partner.
| Henretta, John C; Van Voorhis, Matthew F; Soldo, Beth J (2018) Cohort Differences in Parental Financial Help to Adult Children. Demography 55:1567-1582 |
| Henretta, John C; Van Voorhis, Matthew F; Soldo, Beth J (2014) Parental Money Help to Children and Stepchildren. J Fam Issues 35:1131-1151 |
| Henretta, John C; Wolf, Douglas A; Van Voorhis, Matthew F et al. (2012) Family structure and the reproduction of inequality: Parents' contribution to children's college costs. Soc Sci Res 41:876-87 |
| Henretta, John C; Soldo, Beth J; Van Voorhis, Matthew F (2011) Why Do Families Differ? Children's Care for an Unmarried Mother. J Marriage Fam 73:383-395 |
