Gender differences in expressed satisfaction with care from adult children among older rural Yoruba

This paper examines the role of gender in the types of assistance received and the satisfaction expressed with the assistance by 30 older males and 30 older females in two rural Yoruba communities of Nigeria. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews. Results indicate that both groups receive instrumental and non-instrumental support from adult children and that females are more frequently satisfied with the assistance. Both sexes report greater satisfaction with assistance received from daughters than from sons. Older females satisfaction with assistance from children was also associated with a positive evaluation of old age, whereas no such association was found for the males. The paper concludes, in accordance with earlier authors, the centrality of adult females in elder care and the important role of supportive adult children to older womens' feelings of generativity and ego integrity