Cohen Liora, Shiovitz-Ezra Sharon, Erlich Bracha
Israel Gerontological Data Center (IGDC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Innov Aging. 2023 Apr 17;7(4):igad032. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igad032. eCollection 2023.
Adult children form the backbone of informal care for older parents. To date, limited attention has been paid to the complex mechanism of providing support to older parents. The present study investigated mezzo- and micro-level correlates of provision of support to older parents. The focus was on the child-parent relationship in childhood and in the present.
Data were derived from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The analytic sample comprised respondents who participated in SHARE Waves 6-8 and reported having an unhealthy mother ( = 1,554) or father ( = 478). We used hierarchical logistic regression to address 3 models including individual resources, child-parent characteristics, and social resources. We conducted separate analyses for mothers and fathers.
Providing support to a parent depended primarily on personal resources followed by the quality of the relationship with the parent. A larger social network of the care provider was also related to increased likelihood of providing support. Support to a mother was associated with positive evaluations of the relationship with her in the present and in childhood. At the same time, negative evaluations of the relationship with the father in childhood were negatively related to providing support to him.
The findings point to a multidimensional mechanism, in which adult children's resources are a prominent factor in shaping caregiving behaviors toward their parents. Clinical efforts should focus on adult children's social resources and the quality of the child-parent relationship.
成年子女是为老年父母提供非正式照料的中坚力量。迄今为止，对于向老年父母提供支持的复杂机制关注有限。本研究调查了向老年父母提供支持的中观和微观层面的相关因素。重点关注童年时期及当前的亲子关系。
数据来源于欧洲健康、老龄化与退休调查（SHARE）。分析样本包括参与SHARE第6 - 8轮调查且报告其母亲（n = 1554）或父亲（n = 478）不健康的受访者。我们使用分层逻辑回归来分析3个模型，包括个人资源、亲子特征和社会资源。我们分别对母亲和父亲进行了分析。
为父母提供支持主要取决于个人资源，其次是与父母关系的质量。照料者更大的社交网络也与提供支持的可能性增加有关。对母亲的支持与当前及童年时期对与她关系的积极评价相关。与此同时，童年时期对与父亲关系的负面评价与为他提供支持呈负相关。
研究结果指向一个多维度机制，其中成年子女的资源是塑造其对父母照料行为的一个突出因素。临床工作应关注成年子女的社会资源以及亲子关系的质量。
