The Psychology of Intergenerational Transfers

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国，几乎没有法律或社会制裁要求成年人为其父母或成年子女提供帮助，但中年成年人经常与上一代和下一代交换援助。新兴的文献表明，大多数成年人也会经历与父母和成年子女的挫折和紧张。拟议的研究考察：目标 1）与父母和后代的交流模式（交换什么以及谁进行交换），目标 2）对这些交换的信念，以及目标 3）对这些交换和关系的感受。我们还考虑父母和子女的交流报告。该研究通过检查与交流相关的心理过程（例如信仰、感受）并考虑多个家庭成员对这些交流的看法，填补了文献中的巨大空白。参与者将包括 400 名 40 至 60 岁的欧洲裔美国人和 220 名非洲裔美国人，他们至少有一名在世父母和一名 18 岁以上的子女。分层抽样将确保按性别、年龄和种族进行分布。随机选择的目标参与者的父母和后代也将完成采访。计算机辅助电话访谈 (CATI) 将包括开放式和强制选择项目。分析策略将依赖于多层次模型（MLM）。传销将使我们能够考虑中年成年人对与多个家庭成员跨多个支持领域（例如，工具、财务、情感）的交流的看法。这些分析将包括中年成年人的特征（例如种族、个性）、家庭成员（例如年龄）和关系（例如父母与子女），以了解交流模式。我们还将利用传销来审查多个家庭成员（中年成人、子女、父母）的交流报告，以及家庭成员的同意和分歧、支持意见和感受。该研究的独特贡献包括审查： 同一家庭内不同家庭成员的支持报告（目标 1）；对与父母和子女交流的动机的信念（目标 2）；对日常交流和关系的积极和消极感受（目标 3）。先前的研究已将与他人的积极关系与中年发病率和死亡率的降低联系起来，但研究尚未确定关系影响健康的机制。这项研究的结果将有助于理解支持的提供和接受如何与中年健康的变异性相关。研究结果也将有助于政策制定者了解成年人对家庭义务和公共义务的期望和感受。此外，临床医生可以利用研究结果来帮助为成年儿童或父母提供护理的成年人。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There are few legal or social sanctions in the U.S. requiring adults to provide assistance for their parents or grown offspring, but middle-aged adults frequently exchange assistance with generations above and below them. A burgeoning literature shows that most adults also experience frustration and tensions with parents and grown offspring. The proposed study examines: Aim 1) patterns of exchanges with parents vs. offspring (what is exchanged and who does the exchanging), Aim 2) beliefs about these exchanges, and Aim 3) feelings about these exchanges and relationships. We also consider parents' and offspring's reports of the exchanges. The study fills a large gap in the literature by examining psychological processes (e.g., beliefs, feelings) associated with exchanges and considering multiple family members' perspectives on these exchanges. Participants will include 400 European American and 220 African American adults aged 40 to 60 who have at least one living parent and one child over the age of 18. Stratified sampling will assure distributions by gender, age, and ethnicity. A randomly selected parent and offspring of target participants will also complete an interview. Computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) will include open-ended and forced-choice items. The analytic strategy will rely on multilevel models (MLM). MLM will allow us to consider middle- aged adults' perceptions of exchanges across multiple support domains (e.g., instrumental, financial, emotional) with multiple family members. These analyses will include characteristics of the middle-aged adult (e.g., ethnicity, personality), family member (e.g., age), and relationship (e.g., parent vs. offspring) to understand patterns of exchanges. We will also use MLM to examine multiple family members' (middle-aged adult, offspring, parent) reports of exchanges, as well as agreements and disagreements in family members', views of supports and feelings. Unique contributions of the study include examination of: different family members' reports of support within the same family (Aim 1); beliefs about motivations underlying exchanges with parents and offspring (Aim 2); positive and negative feelings about everyday exchanges and relationships (Aim 3). Prior studies have linked positive relationships with others to decreased morbidity and mortality at midlife, but research has not identified the mechanisms through which relationships influence health. Findings from this study will have implications for understanding how provision and receipt of support are associated with variability in health at midlife. Findings also will be of use to policy makers concerning expectations and feelings adults hold regarding familial versus public obligations. Furthermore, clinicians may draw on findings to assist adults who provide care to grown children or parents.