The Health of Aging Parents of Adult Children with Serious Conditions

摘要 平均而言，患有严重疾病(如精神疾病、残疾、发育迟缓)的儿童的母亲 疾病、慢性病)由于照看负担、压力和其他因素而面临健康风险 反驳他们养育子女的许多有益方面。这些对健康的影响似乎在以下情况下放大 孩子到成年，母亲到中年后期，甚至更久。现代医学与治疗 进步增加了处于这一弱势地位的母亲的数量，她们需要支持。这 该项目将通过采用 创新的生命过程方法和混合方法战略，以解决这一重大的公共卫生问题。 具体地说，该项目扩展和丰富了关于儿童母亲身心健康的文献。 通过向病情严重的儿童提出三个问题。第一个问题(“为什么？”)担心这个建筑群 如何将养育患有严重疾病的儿童的社会和心理奖励和压力转化为 成年期汇聚在一起，塑造了母亲在中年后期的健康。第二个问题(“什么时候？”)令人担忧的 多年来照顾患有癌症的儿童的累积风险和恢复力敏感期的可能性 从出生到成年都有严重的病症。第三个问题(“在哪里？”)关注到的程度 非正式生态中的家庭支持和正式生态中的社区卫生和人类服务 适度交换奖励和压力，以缓解年轻中年母亲的健康风险 病情严重的儿童。这些问题将以顺序的解释混合的方式来解决 通过定性见解和定性见解对定量结果进行拆解的方法策略 指导后续的定量分析。这一策略整合了对现有人口的统计分析 对新收集的定性数据进行文本/扎根理论分析的数据库，两者都侧重于母亲 在生命的第六个十年。第一个涉及大约3100名年轻成年子女的母亲(其中420人 在1979年地理编码的多层次全国青年纵向调查中)。第二 涉及80名患有和不患有严重疾病的年轻成年子女的母亲。此混合方法序列 已经经过审查，并得到了对发表在High-Impact上的量化数据的初步分析的支持 期刊和由国家臭氧机构试点机制资助的较小规模的定性数据收集。由一个 由高级和初级学者组成的跨学科团队，在家庭和家庭研究方面具有互补的专长 健康，这一项目将在以下背景下提出和完善健康和福祉的生命历程框架 密集育儿的无限责任可以指导这一领域的未来研究并帮助定制 旨在为这一日益增长的老龄化人口提供服务的政策和计划。最终的目标是，这 然后，基础知识将支持设计一项关于这一问题的未来人口研究，供公众使用。

Abstract On average, the mothers of children with serious conditions (e.g., mental illnesses, disabilities, developmental disorders, chronic conditions) face health risks due to caregiving burdens, stress, and other factors that often counter the many rewarding aspects of their parenting. These health implications appear to be magnified when children reach adulthood and mothers reach late midlife and beyond. Modern medical and therapeutic advances have increased the number of mothers in this vulnerable position, and they need support. This project will further build the theoretically grounded empirical foundation for that support by employing an innovative life course approach and mixed methods strategy to address this significant public health issue. Specifically, this project extends and enriches the literature on the physical and mental health of mothers of children with serious conditions by asking three questions. The first question (“why?”) concerns the complex ways that the social and psychological rewards and strains of parenting children with serious conditions into adulthood converge to shape mothers’ health in late midlife. The second question (“when?”) concerns the potential for cumulative vs. sensitive periods of risk and resilience across years of caring for children with serious conditions from their births into their adulthoods. The third question (“where?”) concerns the degree to which family supports in the informal ecology and community health and human services in the formal ecology moderate the exchange of rewards and strains to buffer health risks among late-midlife mothers of young adult children with serious conditions. These questions will be addressed with a sequential explanatory mixed methods strategy in which quantitative results are unpacked by qualitative insights and qualitative insights guide subsequent quantitative analyses. This strategy integrates statistical analyses of an extant population database with textual/grounded theory analyses of newly collected qualitative data, both focusing on mothers in the sixth decade of life. The first involves approximately 3,100 mothers of young adult children (420 of whom had serious conditions) in the geocoded, multilevel National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. The second involves 80 mothers of young adult children with and without serious conditions. This mixed methods sequence is already vetted and supported by preliminary analyses of the quantitative data published in a high-impact journal and a smaller-scale qualitative data collection funded by an NIA pilot mechanism. Conducted by an interdisciplinary team of senior and junior scholars with complementary expertise in the study of families and health, this project will put forward and refine a life course framework of health and wellbeing in the context of the indefinite responsibilities of intensive parenting that can guide future research in this area and help to tailor policies and programs aiming to serve this growing slice of the aging population. The ultimate goal is that this foundational knowledge will then support the design of a future population study of this issue for public use.