The Psychology of Intergenerational Transfers

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国，很少有法律或社会制裁要求成年人为他们的父母或成年子女提供帮助，但中年人经常与他们的上、下几代人交换帮助。越来越多的文献表明，大多数成年人也经历过与父母和成年子女之间的挫折和紧张关系。这项拟议的研究考察了：目标1)与父母和子女的交流模式（交换什么和谁交换）；目标2)对这些交流的信念；目标3)对这些交流和关系的感受。我们也考虑父母和子女对交流的报告。该研究通过考察与交流相关的心理过程（如信念、感觉），并考虑多个家庭成员对这些交流的看法，填补了文献中的一个巨大空白。参与者将包括400名欧洲裔美国人和220名非洲裔美国人，年龄在40至60岁之间，至少有一位在世的父母和一位18岁以上的孩子。分层抽样将确保按性别、年龄和种族进行分布。随机选择目标参与者的父母和后代也将完成访谈。计算机辅助电话面试（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）。传销将允许我们考虑中年人在多个支持领域（例如，工具，财务，情感）与多个家庭成员交换的看法。这些分析将包括中年人的特征（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。我们还将使用传销来检验多个家庭成员（中年人、子女、父母）的交流报告，以及家庭成员在支持和感受方面的认同和分歧。该研究的独特贡献包括：检查不同家庭成员对同一家庭内支持的报告（目标1）；关于与父母和子女交流动机的信念（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，但研究尚未确定人际关系影响健康的机制。这项研究的结果将对理解提供和接受支持与中年健康变异性之间的关系产生影响。研究结果还将有助于决策者了解成年人对家庭义务和公共义务的期望和感受。此外，临床医生可以利用这些发现来帮助那些为成年子女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.