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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Inter-generational role investments of great-grandparents
— consequences for psychological well-being | | Author(s) | Linda M Drew, Merril Silverstein |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 24, part 1, January 2004 |
| Pages | pp 95-112 |
| Source | http://journals.cambridge.org/ |
| Keywords | Grandparents ; Parents ; Family relationships ; Social roles ; Well being ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Identity theory suggests that individuals who perceive their family roles as salient and feel competent in their performance have greater psychological well-being than others. This paper assesses the ways in which aspects of parent, grandparent and great-grandparent role investment affects self-esteem, levels of depression and affect-balance. The 188 respondents (mean age 73) were participants in the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Generations, and occupied all three roles at the time of measurement. They self-assessed quality of performance, importance to one's identity and satisfaction to their family roles. Overall, levels of role investment declined consistently with greater lineage distance from parent to great-grandparent. Latent correlations showed that parent role investment was more highly associated with well-being, followed by investment in grandparent and great-grandparent roles. Structural equation modelling, however, revealed no unique effects on well-being for the three roles as a result of high inter-correlations. All three role structures formed a single mega-construct that was positively related to psychological well-being. Thus, the strength and consequences of intergenerational role investments were hierarchically structured by relational proximity, but also manifested in a single integrated family identity, which suggests that there are two competing and complementary views of family role structures in later life. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040205206 A |
| Classmark | SW: SR: DS:SJ: TM5: D:F:5HH: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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