This article reports on an American study which explored the effects of parental divorce and remarriage on the extent to which young adults believed they could ask for assistance, the amount of assistance parents provided, and whether offspring helped parents. To examine these questions the author drew on a twelve year longitudinal study titles Study of Marital Instability Over the Lifecourse that included interviews with an American sample of parents and their young adult offspring. The authors of the study were Sandra Rezac, Paul Amato and Alan Booth. The study found that offspring from both intact and divorced families appear to be getting the same amount of parental assistance. Offspring of single mothers, however, gave more and received less than offspring of mothers in first marriages and remarriages.