Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Parents' health and children's help
1Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
The paper uses 'within-parent' variation to study how changes in British parents' health, marital status and financial resources affect receipt of help from their children. The analysis considers two measures of children's help (one enumerating specific activities and another reporting assistance with particular difficulties) and two measures of parents' health: self-reported assessments of overall health and enumeration of difficulties with activities of daily living. It uses three longitudinal data sets from Britain: the British Household Panel Study, Understanding Society and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The primary finding is that children's help is highly responsive to problems arising from a parent's health that limit a parent's mobility or their ability to live independently in a community. But it is not responsive to severe difficulties requiring daily care. The estimates of responsiveness that are based fully or partially on between-individual variation overstate the impact of parent's health on help.
Related Concept Videos
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth....
Relationship with Other Adult Family Members and Siblings
Parental Care
Nature and Nurture
Relationship with Parents: Attachment
Dimensions of Health and Illness
