Abstract
The present study compares motives for caregiving, actual caregiving provision, care expectation from children in old age, and the connections between caregiving and inheritance distribution patterns as perceived by caregiving daughters/daughters-in-law and their care-receiving mothers/mothers-in-law between Korea and the United States. The results indicated that there was no difference in caregiving motives between Korean and American children while American mothers/mothers-in-law perceived significantly lower obligatory caregiving motives than their Korean counterparts. Also, both Korean children and their mothers/mothers-in-law reported higher level of care provision than their counterparts. The level of caregiving expectation from their children in old age among Korean elders was significantly different from those of American elders while no differences were found between Korean and American children. Finally, both Korean children and their mothers/mothers-in-law were more likely to endorse distributing larger shares of inheritance to the child who cared for his/her mothers/mothers-in-law than American counterparts. On the other hand, American subjects were more likely to accept the notion of equal distribution of inheritance. Overall, this cross-cultural study showed the cultural differences in caregiving and inheritance patterns between Korean and American subjects exhibiting salient difference among the older generation.