This paper reports on a small subsample of childless elderly whose social support systems were compared to a larger group of older parents. All individuals had recently been discharged from the hospital. Marital status was found to be the major determinant of the quality of the support received and the patterns of adaptation to childlessness in later life. The childless marrieds were more isolated and tended to rely primarily upon each other, while the unmarrieds were more resourceful in using a long-term accumulation of social resources to meet their needs.