Linked Lives: Adult Children's Problems and Their Parents' Psychological and Relational Well-Being

• Published in: Journal of marriage and family Vol. 68; no. 2; pp. 442 - 454
• Main Authors: Greenfield, Emily A., Marks, Nadine F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01-05-2006; National Council on Family Relations; Blackwell Publishing; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adult Children; Adults; Child psychology; Children & youth; Comparative analysis; Families & family life; Families in Middle and Later Life; Family Life; Family members; family relationship quality; family stress; Family structure; intergenerational family relations; life course perspective; Marital Status; Mental Health; Modeling; National Surveys; One Parent Family; One-parent families; Parent attitudes; Parent Child Relations; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Influence; Parents; Personal relationships; Problems; Psychological Distress; Psychological effects; Psychological stress; Psychology; Regression (Statistics); Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations; Single parents; Social psychology; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Well Being; Wellbeing; Multivariate Analysis; Adult; Family relation; Well-being
• ISSN: 0022-2445; 1741-3737
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00263.x

This study examined associations between adult children's cumulative problems and their parents' psychological and relational well-being, as well as whether such associations are similar for married and single parents. Regression models were estimated using data from 1,188 parents in the 1995 National Survey of Midlife in the United States whose youngest child was at least 19 years old. Participants reporting children with more problems indicated moderately poorer levels of well-being across all outcomes examined. Single parents reporting more problems indicated less positive affect than a comparable group of married parents, but married parents reporting more problems indicated poorer parent-child relationship quality. Findings are congruent with the family life course perspective, conceptualizing parents and children as occupying mutually influential developmental trajectories.