AGING MOTHERS OF RETARDED ADULTS--IMPACTS OF CAREGIVING

本申请寻求对继续我们的课程（6-10年级）的支持 对461个有成年子女的老年家庭的纵向研究 患有精神发育迟滞在第一阶段（1-5年），与我们的 假设，我们发现出乎意料的有利水平的个人良好- 在母亲身上，没有高水平的家庭痛苦， 以及有效适应和适应 终身残疾的家庭成员。然而，从 从母亲到非母亲的护理对于母亲来说充满了复杂性， 尤其是与失去父母的核心角色有关。 对这些数据的初步分析是基于少数病例， 到目前为止，已经提出，这表明，推动因素， 安置和保护因素，防止它继续 纵向调查。 在第一阶段收集了四波数据。补充我们的 目前的奖项，以支持第五波数据收集在决赛期间， 本项目期间的一年已获得全额供资。这个新 应用程序将支持Waves 6、7和8，从而生成完整的数据集 在10年的时间里发生了8次浪潮。为第二阶段提出的方法是 与第一阶段成功使用的一致。我们将进行- 每隔18个月与母亲和父亲进行一次访谈， 对智力迟钝者的成年兄弟姐妹进行邮寄调查。的 项目将产生一个异常丰富和复杂的数据集，关于 反复的数据收集，参与家庭的数量， 每个家庭有多个答复者， 有必要观察成年人的短期和长期变化， 弱智和他们的家人 到第二阶段结束时，我们估计461个家庭中至少有200个家庭 将经历从产妇护理向非产妇护理的过渡， 足够大的数字来模拟伴随着 成年智障者家庭中的老年人。为此，建议 研究审查（l）过渡到 （2）终身抚养对儿童的影响， 家庭作为一个单位和对每个人的影响，（3）的影响， 规范性生活压力因素对家庭内的生存能力的影响。

This application seeks support for the continuation (Years 6-10) of our longitudinal study of 461 aging families who have an adult son or daughter with mental retardation. In Phase l (Years 1-5), contrary to our hypotheses, we discovered unexpectedly favorable levels of personal well- being in the mothers, an absence of elevated levels of family distress, and a pattern of effective adaptation and accommodation to the needs of a family member with lifelong disabilities. However, the transition from maternal to non-maternal care is fraught with complexity for the mothers, particularly related to the loss of the central parenting role. Preliminary analyses of these data, based on the small number of cases who have placed thus far, suggest that the catalytic factors which propel placement and the protective factors which forestall it warrant continued longitudinal investigation. Four waves of data have been collected during Phase l. A supplement to our current award to support a fifth wave of data collection during the final year of the current project period has received full funding. This new application will support Waves 6, 7, and 8, resulting in a full data set of 8 waves over a 10-year period. The methodology proposed for Phase ll is consistent with that used successfully during Phase I. We will conduct in- person interviews with mothers and fathers at 18 month intervals, and a mailed survey of adult siblings of the person with retardation. The project will yield an unusually rich and complex data set, with respect to repeated waves of data collection, the number of participating families, the availability of multiple respondents in each family, and of a duration necessary to observe short-term and long-term changes in adults with retardation and their families. By the end of Phase ll, we estimate that at least 200 of the 461 families will have experienced the transition from maternal to non-maternal care, a sufficiently large number to model the dynamics of changes that accompany old age in families of adults with retardation. To this end, the proposed study examines (l) the antecedents and consequences of the transition to non-parental caregiving, (2) the effects of lifelong caregiving on the family as a unit and on each individual, and (3) the influence of normative life stressors on caregiving capacities within the family.