Family Networks and Psychological Well-Being in Midlife

Megan Gilligan, J. Jill Suitor, Sangbo Nam, Brianna Routh, Marissa Rurka and Gulcin Con
Additional contact information
Megan Gilligan: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
J. Jill Suitor: Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Sangbo Nam: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Brianna Routh: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Marissa Rurka: Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Gulcin Con: Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Social Sciences, 2017, vol. 6, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Scholarship has highlighted the importance of kin relations for well-being in adulthood. Much focus has been on relationships between spouses and between parents and children. However, limited research has explored the role of adult sibling relationships in well-being, and no studies have made direct comparisons among the effects of tension with these multiple family members. Using data collected from 495 adult children nested within 254 families, we examined the differential impact of tension with mothers, siblings, and spouses on depressive symptoms in midlife. Separate multi-level regression analyses showed that tension with spouses, mothers, and siblings each predicted depressive symptoms. Combined analyses revealed that greater tension with spouses was associated with higher depressive symptoms, but tension with mothers and siblings was not. However, Wald tests comparing the strength of these associations between tension and depressive symptoms indicated that these associations did not significantly vary across family members. Interactions with gender indicated that tension with mothers was more strongly associated with higher depressive symptoms for women than men. These findings highlight the importance of the quality of relationships with family members on individuals’ psychological well-being, and call for researchers to consider multiple ties and gender when examining family relationships and well-being.

Keywords: parent-adult child relations; intergenerational relationships; adult siblings; spousal relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/3/94/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/3/94/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:6:y:2017:i:3:p:94-:d:108927

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().