Do Older Parents’ Relationships With Their Adult Children Affect Cognitive Limitations, and Does This Differ for Mothers and Fathers?

Patricia A Thomas and Debra Umberson

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2018, vol. 73, issue 6, 1133-1142

Abstract: Objectives Increasing risk for cognitive limitations in later life, along with an aging population, presents critical challenges for caregiving families and health care systems. These challenges urgently call for research examining factors that may protect against or exacerbate cognitive limitations among older adults. We examine the quality of relationships with adult children, a feature of the social environment known to affect physical and mental health and that may also influence the cognitive health of aging parents.MethodsUsing nationally representative panel data from the Americans’ Changing Lives survey, we analyze the impact of both emotional support and strain in relationships with adult children on trajectories of cognitive limitations of aging parents.ResultsHigher levels of strain with adult children were linked to higher initial levels of cognitive limitations among mothers but appeared to be protective against increasing cognitive limitations for fathers as they aged.DiscussionThe gender gap in cognitive limitations may be exacerbated among aging parents experiencing high levels of strain with their adult children. These findings point to the importance of taking gender into account and studying whether positive and negative aspects of close social relationships affect older adults.

Keywords: Adult child–parent relationships; Cognitive health; Gender; Relationship quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx009 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:6:p:1133-1142.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().