PARENT CARING AND THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP

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This project is devoted to the multivariate analysis of a four-year longitudinal paired-data set obtained from frail, widowed mothers and their middle-aged, caregiving daughters. A control group, in which the mother was self-sufficient at wave one, is included. The task is to determine the impact of change in mother's dependence on caregiving and care-receiving outcomes. Social exchange theory is the organizing paradigm. The sample is 150 mother-daughter pairs who met the following criteria at recruitment: The mother was aged 65 or older, was unmarried, had no cognitive impairment, and lived within 45 miles of her daughter. At recruitment, most care-receiving mothers needed help with errands and transportation, laundry and housekeeping, and food preparation and cleanup; 29% received help with activities of daily living. The data set contains multiple measures of relationship quality for both mothers and daughters, including assessments of closeness, intimacy, attachment, tension, disclosure, and worry. Caregiving outcomes for daughters include caregiving satisfaction, insufficient time, frustration, and anxiety. Care-receiving outcomes for mothers include helplessness, feeling loved, and anger. There are also multiple annual measures of help given by mother to daughter, and by daughter to mother. The ultimate goal of the project is to understand ways in which elderly persons, despite declining health, are active social participants, not passive, dependent recipients of aid, and to demonstrate ways in which caregiving daughters and their care-receiving mothers remain reciprocal sources of support throughout middle- and later-life. The data analysis will explore the cross-sectional and longitudinal connections among dependence, relationship quality, reciprocity, and caregiving and care- receiving outcomes using a variety of analytical approaches including MANOVAs, MANCOVAs, Multiple Regression Analyses, General Linear Models, and Structural Equation Modeling (i.e., LISREL).