Ambivalence Among Intergenerational Relationships In Old Age

Abstract Objective This study aims to analyze the perspectives of intergenerational relationships between older adults and adult children. For this purpose, a qualitative research was carried out, which analyzes these relations at a cross-national level. Methods Four hundred and twenty four older participants aged 65-97 years, were interviewed. Participants were of three different nationalities and lived in the community. All the interviews went through the process of verbatim transcription and subsequent content analysis. Results Two dimensions of generational ambivalence were revealed from the study; support and the conflict dimensions. Findings of content analysis produced six themes, which represent intergenerational relations between older adults and adult children: older adults-adult children interaction quality; family integration; care and support; definition of limits; distance and alienation; and communication difficulties. Conclusions This study highlighted the diversity of experiences in old age, in relation to intergenerational relationships and underlined the conflicting expectations from older adults in relation to their adult children. Keywords: Adult children, ambivalence; conflict; intergenerational relationships; older adults; support.

Monitoring aging parents' daily life is an essential task for adult children to ensure their parents' health and safety. The current study examined domains of parents' lives that adult children monitored as caregivers. Based on social domain theory (Smetana, 1999), we hypothesized that adult children would monitor parents' health and safety issues as respecting parents' autonomy in other issues. The study also examined how adult children's belief in need for monitoring and their perception of having actual knowledge of their parents' behaviors and thoughts would relate to the intensity of their intergenerational ambivalence. Adults who had at least one living parent (N=398, Mage=60, SD=7.7, range 45-77) participated in online surveys. Issues of parents' lives that adult children monitored were categorized into four domains by factor analysis: parents' financial safety, health and physical safety, substance use, and plans with other adult children. A series of regression analyses revealed that adult children's sense of need to know about parents' financial safety was associated with lower ambivalence, B=-.60, SE=.18, β=-.23, p=.001, whereas parents' physical safety was associated with greater ambivalence, B=.42, SE=.19, β =.17, p=.03. Adult children's perception of their knowledge about parents' financial safety was positively associated with their ambivalence, B=.58, SE=.20, β=.22, p=.004, whereas adult children's perception of parents' physical safety was negatively associated with their ambivalence, B=-.42, SE=.21, β=-.14, p=.05. Different meanings of different types of parents' safety issues for adult children as their caregivers and suggestions for future research will be discussed. Family Systems Theory states that values are transmitted between generations within families and, while many of these values are similar between immediate generations, there may be more differentiation in values between generation gaps. Ideological differences between generations may potentially cause subsequent tension and fluctuations in well-being. The current study sought to examine the moderating effect of generation on the relation between ideological values (political and religious) and depressive symptoms. Participants included 419 grandparents (age: M = 76, SD = 5.18) and 638 adult grandchildren (age: M = 29, SD = 5.57) from the 8th wave of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG) data set, collected in 2005. While violations in assumptions for the testing of religious ideology prevented additional analyses with that variable, significant mean differences were found between grandparents and grandchildren in political ideology scores, with grandparents expressing more conservative views. Generation also moderated the relation between political ideation levels and depressive symptoms. These relations trended in opposite directions for each generation (with non-significant conditional effects), such that when grandparents endorsed more conservative values, depressive symptoms decreased. Conversely, when grandchildren endorsed more conservative values, depressive symptoms increased. These findings indicate that while the older generation found a conservative viewpoint to be a protective factor for mental health, this was not true of younger generations, and indicates a need for age-specific cultural factors to be included in clinical intervention plans. Further implications for these findings will be discussed.

AMBIVALENCE AMONG INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS IN OLD AGE
Sofia von Humboldt, Andrea Costa, Sara Silva, and Isabel Leal, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA), Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal Objective: This study aims to analyze the perspectives of intergenerational relationships between older adults and adult children. For this purpose, a qualitative research was carried out, which analyzes these relations at a cross-national level.
Methods: Four hundred and twenty four older participants aged 65-97 years, were interviewed. Participants were of three different nationalities and lived in the community. All the interviews went through the process of verbatim transcription and subsequent content analysis.
Results: Two dimensions of generational ambivalence were revealed from the study; support and the conflict dimensions. Findings of content analysis produced six themes, which represent intergenerational relations between older adults and adult children: older adults-adult children interaction quality; family integration; care and support; definition of limits; distance and alienation; and communication difficulties.
Conclusions: This study highlighted the diversity of experiences in old age, in relation to intergenerational relationships and underlined the conflicting expectations from older adults in relation to their adult children.
Keywords: Adult children, ambivalence; conflict; intergenerational relationships; older adults; support. Christopher Burant, Carol Musil, Jaclene Zauszniewski, and Alexandra Jeanblanc, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States Grandmothers caring for grandchildren have elevated levels of depressive symptoms compared to grandmothers who do not provide care. While the CES-D measures the somatic, positive and negative affect, and interpersonal strain symptoms experienced with depression, the Depressive CognitionScale © captures the change in cognitive thinking that often precedes depression. Depressive symptoms, on the other hand, are state like in nature and describe depressive symptoms that have happened recently. While depressive cognitions, according to Beck's theory of depression, are the first negative thought processes to appear, these typically lead to other, more serious symptoms of depression. Specifically, depressive cognitions reflect negative thinking patterns and not depression. Data were collected on 343 participants in a longitudinal nationwide online research study of caregiving grandmothers. A latent growth curve model was used to track the trajectory of depressive symptoms at 792 Innovation in Aging, 2021, Vol. 5, No. S1 GSA 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting