Jiang Da, Huang Zewen, Lee Chi-Kin John
Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
Innov Aging. 2024 Aug 23;8(10):igae075. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igae075. eCollection 2024.
Previous studies examining the relationship between being under-benefited and stress among aging parents and their adult children have yielded mixed findings. Few studies have examined whether this positive association can be alleviated by state-level or trait-level factors. Given the positive effects of empathy on interpersonal exchanges, we tested the moderating role of empathy on the relationship between being under-benefited and perceived stress among aging parents and adult children in this 14-day diary study.
A sample of 99 pairs of parents ( = 50.01 years, = 4.53 years; 79.8% female) and children ( = 22.38, = 3.49; 85.9% female) were recruited reported their level of being under-benefited in the exchange with their parent/child, perceived stress, and empathy as an affective state on a daily basis for 14 consecutive days, after completing a pretest which measured their trait empathy and demographic information.
For both parents and children, the positive under-benefited-stress association was only significant when they reported lower affective empathy on a daily basis. The association between the level of being under-benefited and stress was negative when children reported greater affective empathy on a daily basis. Children reported more perceived stress on the days their parents reported a greater level of being under-benefited. Such association was only significant in children with lower trait empathy. The negative association between children's being under-benefited and parents' perceived stress was only significant in parents with higher trait empathy.
These findings highlight the importance of empathy as a daily affect and a trait in the relationship between daily exchanges and mental health in the intergenerational contexts between aging parents and adult children.
以往关于老年父母及其成年子女中受益不足与压力之间关系的研究结果不一。很少有研究探讨这种正向关联是否能被州级或特质水平的因素所缓解。鉴于同理心对人际交流有积极影响，在这项为期14天的日记研究中，我们测试了同理心在老年父母和成年子女受益不足与感知压力之间关系中的调节作用。
招募了99对父母（平均年龄=50.01岁，标准差=4.53岁；79.8%为女性）和子女（平均年龄=22.38岁，标准差=3.49岁；85.9%为女性），他们在完成一项测量其特质同理心和人口统计学信息的预测试后，连续14天每天报告他们与父母/子女交流中的受益不足程度、感知压力以及作为一种情感状态的同理心。
对于父母和子女来说，只有当他们每天报告较低的情感同理心时，受益不足与压力之间的正向关联才显著。当子女每天报告更高的情感同理心时，受益不足程度与压力之间的关联为负。当父母报告更高的受益不足程度时，子女报告更多的感知压力。这种关联仅在特质同理心较低的子女中显著。子女受益不足与父母感知压力之间的负向关联仅在特质同理心较高的父母中显著。
这些发现凸显了同理心作为一种日常情感和特质在老年父母与成年子女代际背景下的日常交流与心理健康关系中的重要性。
