The effect of respondent's kinship position on reported levels of integrational contact: USA and Japan

Intergenerational relationships are a topic of general concern to social sc ientists because of the importance of the family for individual's well-bein g, especially in times of crisis. Hence, a considerable amount of research on relationships between parents and their adult children has been publishe d in a broad array of social science journals. Most of this research examin es intergenerational relationships from the perspective of only one generat ion and implicitly assumes that we would get the same results if we were to examine the relationships from the point of view of other family members. In societies where there are strong norms regarding kin contact, this assum ption is likely to be invalid. This research examines reported levels of fa ce-to-face contact among kin in the USA and Japan, and tests whether these reports are systematically different far respondents in some kinship positi ons than in others. The results show that norms favoring patrilineal contac t in Japan can produce reporting bias. In Japan, married daughters tend to underreport levels of contact with their parents. In the USA, children-in-l aw report lower levels of visiting.