This is a request for one year of additional funding to complete a study of aging parents, young adult children, and mental health. The study will test the proposition that the mental health of middle aged and aging parents will be influenced by the ways their young adult children are making transitions into adulthood. Relatedly, the research will test predictions about ways parents influence their children's movement into adult roles (and thus, their own mental health) through their relationship with the young adult child. Other links to be assessed include a) the effect of the parents' satisfactions or distress in dealing with social roles on the parent/young adult relationship; and b) the effect of the childrens' commitments to and accomplishments of young adult roles on their mental health. In depth interviews will have been completed on approximately 150 young adult men and women (23 to 30), and their middle aged mothers and fathers (45 to 75). In addition, questionnaire data assessing mental health, psychopathology, drug and alcohol use, and the yound adults' timing in accomplishing major life events will be available to test the specific research hypotheses.
One aim during the funding year is to develop coding schemes for interviews exploring a) dimensions of autonomy and relatedness in the parent/young adult relationship; and b) involvements, satisfactions, and strains in various domains of the parents' lives (health, work, leisure, marriage, parenting, and filial relationships).
A second aim i s to code the data from these interviews, as well as data from previously standardized interviewes exploring the young adults' styles of commitment to occupation, religion, ideology, and intimate relationships. Finally, the third aim is to carry out data analysis procedures to test the hypotheses. Cluster analyses will be used to identify a) Parent Life Styles; b) Family Relationship Styles; and c) Young Adult Transition Styples. Subsequent analyses will link these styles to mental health and illness; among members of each generation. The findings will have important implications for identifying aging parents and their young adult children who are at risk for psychological distress, and will articulate life style and family relationship patterns associated with continued mental health.
| Huyck, M H (1991) Predicates of personal control among middle-aged and young-old men and women in middle America. Int J Aging Hum Dev 32:261-75 |
| Frank, S J; Jacobson, S; Tuer, M (1990) Psychological predictors of young adults' drinking behaviors. J Pers Soc Psychol 59:770-80 |
