To assess the impact of gender and filial relationship on adult children's sense of filial obligation, two studies were conducted. The first determined how typical caregiver tasks are classified. Middle-aged men (N=95) and women (N=95) rated seven representative tasks. There was considerable consensus on the designation of five tasks as being either provider behaviors or personal care. To test the impact of gender and filial relationship on filial obligation middle-aged men (N=80) and women (N=80) in northern Indiana responded to a questionnaire which asked them to indicate to what extent they believed they should undertake each of seven caregiving tasks to assist their mothers/mothers-in-law. Despite high levels of filial obligation respondents discriminated between personal care and those tasks that are provider or ambiguous in nature. In general respondents felt less obligated to perform personal care than other forms of caregiving. Second, main effects for gender emerged with respect to four of the seven tasks. As expected, men felt less obligated to engage in each of the personal tasks as well as less obligated to drive their elders to appointments than did women. Third, main effects for filial relationship emerged for every task but driving an elder to appointments. In each case the obligation to mother-in-law was rated as lower than was the obligation to a mother. (ABL)