Android :: Inherit Parent Style And Set Background For Non- Focused Enabled Child Item?

I'm using ExpandableListView in my app and one of the complains is that when expanded it's hard to visually distinguish where the child item ends and next group item begins. So I would like to change background of the child list item to the different shade. Brutal attempts that I've made so far were based on directly changing background color and text of the elements inside the child view item but that leads to loss of hovers and highlights. So my question is - what is a good strategy to achieve the above? I tried styles and selectors but what really bums me out - that if I change one thing then I need to add selectors for all combinations of focus/enabled etc. when all I'm trying to do it to overwrite a single thing. Is there a way to inherit parent style and set just a background for non- focused, enabled child item?