Adult children’s goals as predictors of communication satisfaction with their parent: The moderating roles of inferences of the parent’s goals and future time perspective of the parent

Abstract

Adult children (N = 245, M_Age = 50.55 years, 62.0% women, 80.0% European American) reported on their own prosocial goals during typical interactions with their parent, inferences of their parent’s prosocial goals, assessment of their parent’s future, and general communication satisfaction in their relationship with their parent. Prosocial goals were considered as social support goals and relationship protection goals. The study examined how children’s own prosocial goals predicted children’s general communication satisfaction, as well as how children’s inferences of their parent’s goals and future time perspective of their parent moderated these associations. The associations between children’s own goals and children’s communication satisfaction were positive (1) when children inferred that their parent held the same goals and perceived their parent’s future as restricted, or (2) when children inferred that their parent held relatively low levels of the goals and perceived their parent’s future as expansive. The study illuminates the contingencies under which children’s goals predict children’s general communication satisfaction.