CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 124Intergenerational Family Dynamics and CaregivingAging, Elder Care, and Social IssuesAging and Gerontology Research

Beyond solidarity, reciprocity and altruism: moral capital as a unifying concept in intergenerational support for older people.

Open access
SILVERSTEIN, MERRIL, CONROY, STEPHEN J., GANS, DAPHNA·2012·Ageing and Society
DOI 10.1017/s0144686x1200058xPMC PMC6294455
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review, contrast and synthesise several major intellectual streams that have guided theoretical development and empirical research in the area of intergenerational family support to older people: (a) normative-integrative approaches that focus on cohesion between family members based on bonds of solidarity and norms of filial obligation, and (b) transactional approaches that are primarily concerned with identifying motives for resource transfers across generational lines. We propose the concept of moral capital – defined as the stock of internalised social norms that obligate children to care for and support their older parents – the transmission of which lies at the intersection of self-interest (for parents) and altruism (for children). Using data from a multigenerational family study, we present an empirical analysis showing that a strong positive correspondence in the filial obligations of adult children and their older mothers – arguably the result of intergenerational transmission – elevated the supportive behaviour of children. We suggest that moral capital may be a useful unifying concept that bridges disciplinary and theoretical divides in the study of intergenerational transfers to elderly people by helping resolve the paradox of how self-interest and selflessness can co-exist within families.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0144686x1200058x

Cites

71 of 71 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Moral capital, an aspect of AFP, guarantees children's support of aging parents even with a weak parent-child relationship.

    “They argued that moral capital (an aspect of AFP) guarantees children’s support of aging parents even with a weak parent-child relationship.”

    From Evolution of the Conceptualization of Filial Piety in the Global Context: From Skin to Skeleton (2021) · cites this paper as Silverstein et al., 2012

    In 'The transmission of moral capital' (page unavailable), the paper says the moral-capital perspective implies that children may care even when the parent–child relationship has been strained. It does not say support is guaranteed: the same section says that even children who embrace filial responsibility may not actually provide support. The cited passages also do not identify moral capital as an aspect of AFP. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Altonji J Hayashi F Kotlikoff L 1992 Is the extended family altruistically linked? Direct tests using micro data American Economic Review 82 5 1177 98
  2. Burgess EW 1960 Ageing in Western Societies University of Chicago Press Chicago
  3. Caputo RK 2002 Rational actors versus rational agents Journal of Family and Economic Issues 23 1 27 50
  4. Cox D Stark O 1992 Intergenerational transfers and the demonstration effect Working paper Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts
  5. Wirth L 1938 Urbanism as away of life American Journal of Sociology 44 1 1 24

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
SILVERSTEIN, M., CONROY, S. J., & GANS, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • University of San Diego (US)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
SILVERSTEIN, MERRIL
ORCID
Venue
Ageing and Society
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2012-07-25
Volume
32
Issue
7
Pages
1246-1262
ISSN
  • 0144-686X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-1779
DOI
10.1017/s0144686x1200058x
PMC
PMC6294455
OpenAlex
W2169013500
Cited by
124
References
71
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 3
FWCI
17.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified)
Locations
  • Ageing and Society (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Aging (T32AG000037)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
Keywords
moral capital, intergenerational support, filial duty, intergenerational transmission, altruism, reciprocity, family cohesion, adult children, older mothers, intergenerational resource transfer, multigenerational families

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review