Table 3.
Descriptive Information for Midlife Adults’ Reports of Their Involvement with Grown Children.
| Midlife Mothers (Participants) | Midlife Fathers (Participants) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daughter | Son | Daughter | Son | ANOVA | ||
| (n = 356) | (n = 384) | (n = 308) | (n = 336) | F score | ||
| Contact | ||||||
| In person contacta | M | 5.80 | 5.62 | 5.25 | 5.58 | 3.72 |
| SD | 2.01 | 2.23 | 2.11 | 2.23 | ||
| Telephone contacta | M | 6.79 | 6.21 | 5.88 | 5.72 | 19.89*** |
| SD | 1.75 | 1.81 | 1.91 | 2.07 | ||
| Relationship Qualities | ||||||
| Positive relationship qualitiesb | M | 4.09 | 4.05 | 3.95 | 3.98 | 1.56 |
| SD | 0.96 | 0.91 | 0.90 | 0.83 | ||
| Negative relationship qualitiesb | M | 2.18 | 1.97 | 2.17 | 1.90 | 8.19*** |
| SD | 0.87 | 0.87 | 0.90 | 0.83 | ||
| Support to Grown Children from Participants a | ||||||
| Emotional support | M | 6.09 | 5.44 | 5.21 | 4.95 | 18.23*** |
| SD | 2.05 | 2.17 | 2.13 | 2.16 | ||
| Listening | M | 6.50 | 5.69 | 5.28 | 5.32 | 27.53*** |
| SD | 1.82 | 1.93 | 2.12 | 2.15 | ||
| Advice | M | 5.54 | 4.88 | 4.81 | 4.77 | 12.27*** |
| SD | 1.90 | 1.91 | 1.85 | 2.03 | ||
| Practical support | M | 4.08 | 3.77 | 3.71 | 3.59 | 3.16 |
| SD | 2.20 | 2.28 | 2.11 | 2.16 | ||
| Financial support | M | 3.95 | 3.76 | 3.75 | 3.64 | 1.18 |
| SD | 2.23 | 2.29 | 2.12 | 2.10 | ||
Note.
a
Contact and support were rated 1 = less than once a year or never; 2 = yearly; 3 = a few times a year; 4 = monthly; 5 = a few times a month; 6 = weekly; 7 = a few times a week; 8 = daily.
b
Average scores of 2 items rated 1 = not at all; 2 = a little bit; 3 = somewhat; 4 = quite a bit; 5 = a great deal.
**
p < .01,
***
p < .001.