The Psychology of Intergenerational Transfers

描述(申请人提供)：在美国，很少有法律或社会制裁要求成年人为父母或成年子女提供援助，但中年人经常与他们上下级的几代人交换援助。一项蓬勃发展的文献表明，大多数成年人也会经历与父母和成年子女的挫折和紧张关系。这项拟议的研究调查了：目标1)与父母和子女的交流模式(交换了什么以及谁进行了交换)，目标2)关于这些交流的信念，以及目标3)对这些交流和关系的感受。我们也会考虑父母和子女关于交流的报告。这项研究通过考察与交流相关的心理过程(例如，信念、感觉)，并考虑多个家庭成员对这些交流的观点，填补了文献中的一个很大空白。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到60岁之间，他们至少有一位在世的父母和一个18岁以上的孩子。分层抽样将确保按性别、年龄和种族进行分配。随机选择的目标参与者的父母和子女也将完成面试。计算机辅助电话面试(CATI)将包括开放式和强制选择题。分析战略将依赖于多水平模型(MLM)。传销将使我们能够考虑中年人对跨多个支持领域(例如，工具、经济、情感)与多个家庭成员进行交流的看法。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)，以了解交流的模式。我们还将使用传销来检查多个家庭成员(中年成年人、子女、父母)关于交流的报告，以及家庭成员之间的一致和分歧、对支持的看法和感受。这项研究的独特贡献包括：审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的动机的信念(目标2)；对日常交流和关系的积极和消极情绪(目标3)。以前的研究已经将与他人的积极关系与中年发病率和死亡率的降低联系在一起，但研究尚未确定关系影响健康的机制。这项研究的发现将有助于理解支持的提供和接受如何与中年健康的可变性相关。关于成年人对家庭义务和公共义务的期望和感受，研究结果也将对政策制定者有用。此外，临床医生可能会利用研究结果来帮助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.