Master's Theses

Department

Advanced Education Programs

Degree Name

Education Specialist (Ed.S)

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how martial quality affects children’s willingness to provide support to their divorced, separated, or married parents. It was hypothesized that children would be more willing to provide support to parents with higher levels of marital quality prior to divorce or separation. One focus of the current study was to investigate the amount of support given to parents from a younger sample of adult children than typically studied. Data were collected from both the virtual and on-campus student population. One hundred and twenty-four students participated in the study (45 males and 79 females) and ranged in age from 18 to 44. When specifically comparing male and female participants and the amount of support provided, it was hypothesized that women would be more likely than men to provide physical and emotional support and that men and women would be similar in the amount of financial support provided. No significant differences were found between male and female participants and the amount of support provided. Ethnicity and support was also tested in the current study, no significant differences were found. Based on previous research and the hypotheses formulated for the current study using the younger sample population, results did support some hypotheses while others were not. It can be concluded from the results found that marital quality does in fact affect the amount of support provided and the amount of support provided by participants does vary depending on the gender of the parent.

Keywords

marital quality, support to parents, divorced parents, separated parents, children's support

Advisor

Dr. Carol Patrick

Date of Award

Spring 2012

Document Type

Thesis

Rights

© The Author(s)

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