Centre for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Front Public Health. 2024 Oct 21;12:1418472. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1418472. eCollection 2024.
Intergenerational support is an important determinant of mental health. Due to limited access to formal care, the role of the family as provider of support became more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, it remains unclear how intergenerational support from adult children to older parents was affected during the pandemic and whether this had consequences for the mental health of the parent generation.
Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Corona Surveys, we explore whether changes in support going from non-coresident adult children to their parents are associated with parents' increase in depressive feelings. Additionally, we test whether the pandemic context and public health measures affected this relationship.
During the pandemic, families are found to provide more support. These changes in intergenerational support, however, were related to increased depressive feelings for the older parents. Furthermore, both the strictness of public health measures and the concurrent epidemiological situation affected this relationship.
We conclude that the family is an essential source of late-life well-being, but stressful life events, such as public health crises, put pressure on these intergenerational relations with potential adverse mental health outcomes. Future policies should take into account the ambivalent nature of intergenerational relationships.
代际支持是心理健康的一个重要决定因素。由于获得正规护理的机会有限，家庭在新冠疫情期间作为支持提供者的角色变得更加突出。迄今为止，尚不清楚成年子女向年老父母提供的代际支持在疫情期间受到了怎样的影响，以及这对父母一代的心理健康是否产生了影响。
我们利用欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查（SHARE）新冠调查的数据，探讨从非同住成年子女向其父母提供的支持变化是否与父母抑郁感的增加有关。此外，我们还测试了大流行背景和公共卫生措施是否影响了这种关系。
在疫情期间，家庭提供了更多的支持。然而，代际支持的这些变化与老年父母抑郁感的增加有关。此外，公共卫生措施的严格程度和同期的流行病学情况都影响了这种关系。
我们的结论是，家庭是晚年幸福的重要源泉，但公共卫生危机等压力事件给这些代际关系带来了压力，可能带来不利的心理健康后果。未来的政策应该考虑到代际关系的矛盾性质。
