Factors Associated With Support Provided by Middle‐Aged Children to Their Parents

• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Author: Amber J. Seidel,Karl Majeske,Mary Marshall
• Date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12413

A J. SPennsylvania State University

K MOakland University

M MCalifornia State University–Long Beach

Factors Associated With Support Provided by

Middle-Aged Children to Their Parents

Objective: Building on symbolic interaction,

this study was designed to examine perceptions

of support provided by adult children to their

parents (upstream support) as they relate to

the parents’ health, parent–child relationship

quality, and support providedby parents to their

children (downstream support).

Background: Adult children are increasingly

participating in providing care for parents.

Examining perceptions of this ow of support

may increase family members’ understanding

of each other’s perspectives regarding support,

health, and relationship quality.

Method: A modied actor–partner interde-

pendence model (APIM) was used to examine

parent–child dyadic perceptions of these three

factors on upstream support using the Family

Exchanges Study (N=273 dyads).

Results: Parents reporting lower health, higher

relationship quality, and more downstream sup-

port were associated with parents’ perception

of more upstream support. Parents reporting

higher relationship quality and less downstream

support were associated with adult children’s

perception of less upstream support. Moreover,

adult children reporting higher relationship

Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

Pennsylvania State University, 1031 Edgecomb Avenue,

York,PA 17403 (ajs49@psu.edu).

Key Words: dyadic analysis, intergenerational ties, social

support, symbolic interaction.

quality was associated with parents’ perception

of more upstream support, and adult children

reporting more downstream support was asso-

ciated with adult children’s perception of more

upstream support.

Conclusion: Findings that parents’ and chil-

dren’s perceptions differ, sometimes in different

directions, indicates the importance of con-

sidering multiple perspectives in family-based

research.

Implications: Clinicians and educators should

nd ways to help parents and their adult chil-

dren understand each other’s perspectives to

increase sharedmeanings associated with health

and support in these relationships.

By 2030, as all Baby Boomers pass 65years

of age, one in ve U.S. residents will be

retirement age (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018).

Already, approximately 34.2 million Americans

provide unpaid care to adults over 50years

of age, and almost half of these caregivers’

report caring for a parent (National Alliance for

Caregiving & American Association of Retired

Persons, 2015). As life expectancy increases,

middle-aged children (about 45 to 65years of

age; hereafter referred to as adult children) will

likely spend more years providing support to the

increasing number of aging parents (hereafter

referred to as parents) compared with previous

generations (Wiemers & Bianchi, 2014). As

part of this support, adult children often help

262Family Relations 69 (April 2020): 262–275

DOI:10.1111/fare.12413