Bangerter Lauren R, Kim Kyungmin, Zarit Steven H, Birditt Kira S, Fingerman Karen L
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin.
Gerontologist. 2015 Oct;55(5):770-9. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnt210. Epub 2014 Jan 29.
Research shows that parents benefit psychologically from generativity--giving and caring for the next generation--but older adults' perceptions on giving support to their children are rarely if ever explored in these studies. The current study examines the association between the support that aging parents give to one of their middle-aged offspring, their perception of this support as rewarding or stressful, and their levels of depressive symptoms.
The sample draws from The Family Exchanges Study and consisted of 337 older parents (mean age: 76) who were drawn from a larger study of middle-aged adults (i.e., target participants). Older parents reported tangible and nontangible forms of support given to the target middle-aged child and the extent to which they viewed providing such support as stressful and/or rewarding.
We found significant interactions between tangible support and feelings of reward and between nontangible support and feelings of stress in explaining parental depressive symptoms. Parents who found giving support to be highly rewarding had lower levels of depressive symptoms when giving high amounts of tangible support. Conversely, parents who view giving support to be highly stressful had higher levels of depressive symptoms when they gave low amounts of nontangible support.
Findings suggest older parents' perceptions of supporting their offspring may condition how generativity affects their mental health.
研究表明，父母从繁衍力（给予并照顾下一代）中获得心理益处，但在这些研究中，很少探讨老年人对给予子女支持的看法。本研究考察了年迈父母给予其中一名中年子女的支持、他们对这种支持是有回报还是有压力的认知以及他们的抑郁症状水平之间的关联。
样本取自家庭交流研究，由337名年迈父母（平均年龄：76岁）组成，他们来自一项针对中年成年人（即目标参与者）的更大规模研究。年迈父母报告了给予目标中年子女的有形和无形支持形式，以及他们认为提供这种支持有压力和/或有回报的程度。
在解释父母的抑郁症状方面，我们发现有形支持与回报感之间以及无形支持与压力感之间存在显著的相互作用。当给予大量有形支持时，那些认为给予支持非常有回报的父母抑郁症状水平较低。相反，那些认为给予支持压力很大的父母，在给予少量无形支持时，抑郁症状水平较高。
研究结果表明，年迈父母对支持子女的看法可能会影响繁衍力对他们心理健康的作用方式。
