Ferring Dieter, Michels Tom, Boll Thomas, Filipp Sigrun-Heide
Research Unit INSIDE, University of Luxembourg, Campus Walferdange, BP 2, 7220 Walferdange, Luxembourg.
Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany.
Eur J Ageing. 2009 Nov 6;6(4):253. doi: 10.1007/s10433-009-0133-9. eCollection 2009 Dec.
Emotions towards a relationship partner provide relevant and specific information about relationship quality. Based on this assumption the present study was performed to identify different types of emotional relationship quality of middle-aged adult children with their ageing parents. This was done by cluster analytic procedures in a sample of 1,208 middle-aged adult children (482 men, 726 women). Using ratings of positive and negative emotions towards their mother and father as grouping variables, the same four-cluster solution emerged for both the child-mother relationship and the child-father relationship. Clusters were labelled as amicable, disharmonious, detached and ambivalent relationships. Results showed that especially amicable relationships clearly prevailed followed by ambivalent, detached and disharmonious relationships. Clusters differed significantly with respect to gender of adult child, willingness to support, expected parental support and overt conflicts. In a cross-classification of cluster membership regarding the child-mother relationship (four clusters) and the child-father relationship (four clusters), all possible 16 combinations were observed, with a considerable degree of divergence regarding the type of relationship quality within the same family. Results are discussed with respect to types of emotional relationship quality, within family differences and the intrafamilial regulation of relationship quality.
对伴侣关系的情感提供了有关关系质量的相关且具体的信息。基于这一假设，本研究旨在确定中年成年子女与年迈父母之间不同类型的情感关系质量。这是通过对1208名中年成年子女（482名男性，726名女性）的样本进行聚类分析程序来完成的。以对母亲和父亲的积极和消极情绪评分作为分组变量，在子女与母亲的关系和子女与父亲的关系中都出现了相同的四类解决方案。这些类别被标记为友好型、不和谐型、疏离型和矛盾型关系。结果表明，尤其是友好型关系明显占主导地位，其次是矛盾型、疏离型和不和谐型关系。不同类别在成年子女的性别、支持意愿、预期的父母支持和公开冲突方面存在显著差异。在关于子女与母亲关系（四类）和子女与父亲关系（四类）的聚类成员交叉分类中，观察到了所有可能的16种组合，同一家庭中关系质量类型存在相当程度的差异。本文从情感关系质量类型、家庭内部差异以及关系质量的家庭内部调节等方面对结果进行了讨论。
