Pudrovska Tetyana
Department of Sociology, Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2009;68(2):127-47. doi: 10.2190/AG.68.2.b.
Using 2 waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, I examine psychological consequences of potentially stressful, non-normative, or "off-time" aspects of the parental role in late midlife and early old age, including coresidence with adult children, stepparenthood, and parental bereavement. Additionally, I analyze gender differences in psychological implications of these characteristics of parenthood. Findings from random-effects pooled time-series models indicate that having stepchildren is unrelated to older parents' mental health. Moreover, the psychological consequences of step-parenthood do not depend on parental gender or the quality of parent-child relationships. Conversely, having at least 1 coresidential adult child of post-college age decreases psychological well-being among mothers but not among fathers. Death of a child has a detrimental effect on parents' mental health; yet, fathers are affected more adversely than mothers. The findings are interpreted with respect to family stress, parental role, and gendered role perspectives. Distinct experiences of this cohort of mothers and fathers are discussed.
利用威斯康星纵向研究的两波数据，我研究了中年晚期和老年早期父母角色中潜在压力大、非规范性或“不合时宜”方面的心理后果，包括与成年子女同住、继父母身份以及父母丧亲之痛。此外，我分析了这些为人父母特征在心理影响方面的性别差异。随机效应合并时间序列模型的结果表明，有继子女与老年父母的心理健康无关。此外，继父母身份的心理后果并不取决于父母的性别或亲子关系的质量。相反，有至少一个大学毕业后年龄的成年子女同住会降低母亲的心理健康水平，但对父亲则没有影响。孩子的死亡会对父母的心理健康产生不利影响；然而，父亲受到的负面影响比母亲更大。这些发现从家庭压力、父母角色和性别角色视角进行了解读。讨论了这一队列中母亲和父亲的不同经历。
