Attitudes Toward Inheritance Following Divorce and Remarriage

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 19 - Trang 289-314 - 1998
Marilyn Coleman1, Lawrence H. Ganong1
1University of Missouri

Tóm tắt

The purpose of this study is to examine attitudes regarding who should be included in wills following divorce and remarriage. Respondents were 268 men and 439 women. In mailed vignettes, they indicated whom they thought should be included in an elder's will. Three variables were examined: (a) family closeness, (b) contact after divorce, and (c) remarriage. Three factors were associated with inheritance obligations: (a) genetic ties, (b) patriarchal lineage, and (c) family ties, which were defined more broadly than genetic relationships. Few respondents mentioned factors such as family closeness and reciprocity. There was little agreement regarding who is and who is not in the family, but inheritance clearly was limited to family. Obligation to include the next of kin in the will supersedes obligations based upon closeness and frequency of contact.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Bulcroft, K., & Johnson, P. (1996). A cross-national study of the laws of succession and inheritance: Implications for family dynamics. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Council on Family Relations, Kansas City, MO.

Cates, J., & Sussman, M. (1982). Family systems and inheritance. Marriage and Family Review, 5, 1–24.

Coleman, M., & Ganong, L. (1998). Attitudes toward men's intergenerational financial obligations to older and younger male family members following divorce. Personal Relationships, 5, 293–309.

Coleman, M., Ganong, L., & Cable, S. (1997). Beliefs about women's intergenerational family obligations to provide support prior to and following divorce and remarriage. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 165–176.

Dillman, D. A. (1978). Mail and telephone surveys:The total design method. New York: Wiley.

Duran-Aydintug, C. (1993). Relationships with former in-laws: Normative guidelines and actual behavior. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 19, 69–81.

Finch, J. (1987). Family obligations and the life course. In A. Bryman, P. Allatt, & T. Keil (Eds.), Rethinking the life cycle (pp. 155–169). London: Macmillan.

Finch, J. (1989). Family obligations and social change. Oxford, UK: Polity Press.

Finch, J., & Mason, J. (1990). Filial obligations and kin support for elderly people. Ageing and Society, 10, 151–175.

Finch, J., Hayes, L., Mason, J., Masson, J., & Wallis, L. (1996). Wills, inheritance, and families. London: Clarendon.

Ganong, L., & Coleman, M. (1994). Remarried family relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ganong, L., & Coleman, M. (1998). Attitudes regarding filial responsibilities to help elderly divorced parents and stepparents. Journal of Aging Studies, 12, 271–290.

Ganong, L., Coleman, M., & Mistina, D. (1995). Normative beliefs about parents' and stepparents' financial obligations to children following divorce and remarriage. Family Relations, 44, 306–315.

Glick, C. (1990). The spousal share in intestate succession: Stepparents are getting shortchanged. Minnesota Law Review, 74, 631–659.

Mahoney, M. (1994). Stepfamilies and the law. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.

Rossi, A., & Rossi, P. (1990). Of human bonding: Parent-child relations across the life course. New York: deGruyter.

Scanzoni, J., Polonko, K., Teachman, J., & Thompson, L. (1989). The sexual bond: Rethinking families and close relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Schneider, D. (1968). American kinship: A cultural account. New York: Prentice-Hall.

Schwartz, T. P. (1996). Durkheim's prediction about the declining importance of the family and inhertance: Evidence from the wills of Providence, 1775–1985. The Sociological Quarterly, 37(3), 503–519.

Sussman, M., Cates, J., & Smith, D. (1970). The family and inheritance. New York: Russell Sage.

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics (3rd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

Titus, S., Rosenblatt, P., & Anderson, R. (1979). Family conflict over inheritance of property. The Family Coordinator, 28, 337–346.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1995). Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1995 (115th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.