Attitudes regarding filial responsibilities to help elderly divorced parents and stepparents

The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes regarding the obligations of family members to help elderly parents and stepparents. Two hundred and ninety-one adults responded to vignettes portraying possible obligations of a woman to assist a divorced parent who had not resided with her for much of her childhood and a stepparent with whom she had spent part of her childhood years. Several conclusions were drawn: (a) there is general agreement that adult children have some responsibility to help elderly divorced parents, but there is no consensus on what type of help should be given; (b) maintaining contact over the years is an important factor in judgments regarding obligations to help elderly parents and stepparents; (c) gender of the elderly family member is not related to attributing obligations to help; (d) the needs of adult children and their offspring rank higher than the responsibility to lend assistance to an elderly divorced parent or stepparent; (e) kinship alone is not enough justification to assign obligations to adult children, nor is the absence of legal and genetic ties enough to exclude stepparents from being considered as deserving recipients of help.