Differential Costs of Raising Grandchildren on Older Mother-Adult Child Relations in Black and White Families.

Drawing from theories of affect, role strain and stress processes, we studied the impact of raising grandchildren on older mothers' relationships with the adult offspring whose children they raised, with particular attention to how these patterns differ by race and ethnicity. We used mixed-methods data collected from 531 older mothers regarding their relationships with 1935 of their adult children as part of the Within-Family Differences Study. Multilevel regression analyses showed that raising grandchildren was associated with greater mother-adult child closeness in Black families; however, in White families, raising grandchildren was associated with greater mother-adult child conflict. Qualitative analyses revealed that these differences could be explained by the tendency of Black grandmothers to emphasize positive aspects of raising grandchildren, compared to White grandmothers, who viewed raising grandchildren as demanding and who described their exchanges with their adult children as unequal. Overall, our findings reflect racial and ethnic differences in intergenerational solidarity.

Adult Children's Education and Mothers' Psychological Well-Being: Do Adult Children's Problems Mediate This Relationship?

OBJECTIVES: A growing body of literature documents a positive association between adult children's education and older parents' health, and existing studies have identified social support, social influence, and material transfers as factors linking adult children's education and various dimensions of older parents' health. The present study joins this literature by assessing adult children's problems as mechanisms that may underlie disparities in psychological well-being between mothers whose adult children have completed higher and lower levels of education. METHODS: Using 2 waves of longitudinal data collected in 2001-2003 and 2008-2011 from 400 mothers aged 73-85 years at the second wave as part of the Within-Family Differences Study, we examine the role of adult children's problems in mediating the association between adult children's education and mothers' depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Mothers with children who completed post-high school education reported fewer depressive symptoms than mothers whose children all completed high school or less. We found evidence that this relationship was mediated by the proportion of adult children who have experienced physical and emotional problems in the last 5 years. DISCUSSION: This study underscores the importance of considering how resources and risks that affect well-being accumulate both across the life course and across generations. Providing education opportunities to younger generations and enhancing programs that address challenges that low-attaining children may face have the potential to help minimize socioeconomic disparities in psychological well-being among older adults.

Maternal Differential Treatment and Psychological Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Marital Tension and Sibling Tension?

OBJECTIVES: Past research used equity theory and social comparison theory to explain the direct effect of maternal differential treatment (MDT) on psychological well-being. However, this focus on psychological pathways ignores possible social pathways, such as indirect effects of MDT on well-being through disrupting other family relationships. This study uses stress proliferation theory to argue that MDT, as a primary stressor in mother-child relationships, can produce secondary stressors in other family relationships (e.g., sibling tension and marital tension), which in turn leads to lower psychological well-being. METHODS: To investigate this mechanism, we conducted multilevel mediation analysis using data collected from 720 adult children nested within 308 families, as part of the Within-Family Differences Study. RESULTS: We found that sibling tension mediates the association between adult children's perceptions of maternal disfavoritism and their psychological well-being-a process we call the stress proliferation of maternal disfavoritism. In contrast, adult children's perceptions of maternal favoritism cannot trigger this stress proliferation process of producing marital tension nor sibling tension. DISCUSSION: The evaluation of the stress proliferation process of maternal favoritism and disfavoritism can help us to understand the difference in effects across various dimensions of MDT. This study contributes to the literature on social relationships as social determinants of health by investigating how intergenerational relationships are connected to other family relationships to affect family members' health.

Older mother's health and adult children's education: Conceptualization of adult children's education and mother-child relationships.

This study joins and extends an emerging body of work examining the association between adult children's education and their parents' health by (1) providing a conceptual treatment of adult children's education, (2) examining the link between adult children's education and older mothers' physical and mental health, and (3) investigating whether mother-child relationships moderate the association between children's education and mothers' health. Data on 541 older mothers in the U.S. who reported on all of their adult children collected as part of the Within-Family Differences Study. Results indicate the best performing measure of adult children's education, the proportion with a college degree or higher, reflects a cumulative, credential-based approach. In addition, the proportion of adult children with a college degree or higher maintains a negative association with mother's depressive symptoms and activity limitations net of mother's own education as well as a number of sociodemographic factors and adult children's measures. There was no evidence that various aspects of mother-child relationships (geographic proximity, frequency of contact, and quality of relationships) moderated these negative associations.

Linked Lives and Cumulative Inequality: A Multigenerational Family Life Course Framework.

Growing social and economic inequalities in the United States have been accompanied by shifts in family structure. Social and demographic changes may make multigenerational family ties (e.g., between grandparents, parents, and children) an even more important contributor than ever in perpetuating inequality. The family life course framework, which considers how dimensions of individual (age), sociohistorical (period, cohort), and processual (generation) time intersect, provides a useful structure for thinking about how multigenerational families matter for inequality today. We integrate these dimensions of time with the ideas of linked lives and cumulative inequality to propose ways in which advantage and disadvantage are transmitted and grow across multiple generations. In particular, we propose an integrative model of linked lives and cumulative inequality that extends the family life course framework into a multigenerational perspective. We conclude by identifying data sources and methodologies useful for family scholars interested in pursuing a multigenerational family approach to inequality.

Conflict with Mothers and Siblings During Caregiving: Differential Costs for Black and White Adult Children.

Objectives: Family conflict has been found to play a role in caregivers' psychological well-being; however, few studies have considered race differences in the prevalence and consequences of caregiving conflict. In this paper, we use mixed-methods to examine differences in the experiences of conflict among Black and White adult children caring for mothers. Methods: Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 279 adult-child caregivers (213 White; 66 Black). Results: Multilevel modeling revealed that conflict with mothers predicted depressive symptoms among Black, but not White caregivers, whereas there were not statistically significant race differences in the effects of conflict with siblings. However within-model tests showed stronger effects of conflict with mothers than siblings for Black caregivers, and stronger effects of conflict with siblings than mothers for White caregivers. Qualitative data revealed that Black caregivers' conflict with mothers resulted from their inability to meet their mothers' needs, inducing concern and sadness. White children's conflict stemmed from mothers' resistance to unwanted assistance and requests for support that children considered excessive, evoking irritation and frustration. Discussion: This study highlights ways in which the experiences of caregivers reflect broader patterns of differences between Black and White families in both intergenerational cohesion and health disparities in midlife.

The Long Arm of Maternal Differential Treatment: Effects of Recalled and Current Favoritism on Adult Children's Psychological Well-Being.

Objectives: In this article, we draw from classic theories of social psychology and the life course to compare the effects of current and recalled perceived maternal differential treatment (MDT) on the depressive symptoms of adult children in midlife. Method: To address this question, we used data collected from 746 adult children nested within 293 later-life families as part of the Within-Family Differences Study. Results: Multilevel regression revealed that both recollections of maternal differentiation from childhood and perceptions of mothers' current disfavoritism regarding conflict predicted depressive symptoms, whereas perceptions of current favoritism regarding emotional closeness did not. Discussion: Taken together, the findings from this investigation reflect principles of theories of social comparison and the life course in that both perceptions of current MDT and MDT recalled from childhood affect children's well-being in midlife. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature highlighting the role of within-family differences in parent-child relationships on well-being across the life course.

Role of Perceived Maternal Favoritism and Disfavoritism in Adult Children's Psychological Well-Being.

OBJECTIVES: The detrimental consequences of parents' differential treatment on children's well-being have been documented in earlier stages of the life course; however, little is known about this pattern in midlife. Drawing from theories of equity and social comparison, we tested whether psychological well-being was affected only by adult children's perceptions that their mothers treated some offspring in the family differently or by their perceptions that they were favored or disfavored. Further, we explored the extent to which these patterns differed by race. METHOD: Multilevel regression modeling was conducted using data collected from 725 adult children nested within 309 later-life families as part of the Within-Family Differences Study-II. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were higher when offspring perceived that they had the most emotional closeness to mothers or the greatest conflict with mothers. Depressive symptoms were also higher when respondents identified themselves as being the children in whom the mothers were most disappointed. DISCUSSION: The findings shed new light on the role of intergenerational relations in adult children's well-being in midlife by taking into consideration the respondents' direct reports of their perceptions of their mothers' favoritism and disfavoritism. Further, the findings provide evidence that the association between maternal differentiation and psychological well-being in adulthood is stronger in Black than in White families. These patterns suggest that the association between psychological well-being and both favoritism and disfavoritism can be accounted for by processes involving social comparison rather than equity for both Black and White adult children in midlife.

Conceptualizing and measuring intergenerational ambivalence in later life.

OBJECTIVES: In this paper, we explored the association between direct and indirect measures of intergenerational ambivalence, making comparisons by generational position and child's gender; furthermore, we examined whether these measures were similarly strong predictors of depressive symptoms and positive affect. METHODS: Data for the analysis were collected from 254 mothers aged 72-82 years and a randomly selected adult child as part of a larger study of within-family differences in parent-adult child relations. RESULTS: The findings provided evidence that direct and indirect measures were strongly associated among mothers but only weakly associated among adult children, particularly sons. The two measures were similarly strong predictors of mothers', but not children's, depressive symptoms and positive affect. The most pronounced differences in congruence between direct and indirect measures were found when comparing mothers and sons. DISCUSSION: The analyses presented here suggest that direct and indirect measures of intergenerational ambivalence may not be tapping the same underlying construct, particularly in the case of adult children and especially sons. Furthermore, direct measures may have an advantage over indirect measures when including sons in the study design. We conclude that direct and indirect measures cannot be used interchangeably across the combination of generation and gender.