Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Parents and children are linked across the life course, and they share common experiences. This article focuses on the bereavement experience of adult children’s loss of a first parent during adulthood and examines the downward influence of emotional closeness with a surviving parent on adult children’s depressive symptoms following loss. Analyses are based on adult children who experienced the death of a first parent (N = 227), drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Generations, a study of three-and four-generation families from Southern California. Multilevel lagged dependent variable models indicate that an emotionally close relationship with a surviving parent is related with fewer post-bereavement depressive symptoms when a mother survives a father, but not vice versa. This analysis extends the theory of linked lives and highlights the mutual influence parents and children exert, as well as the complex role of gender in shaping family relationships.

Keywords

death/bereavement gender and family intergenerational parent–child relations quantitative

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allen

K. R.

Blieszner

Roberto

K. A.

(2011). Perspectives on extended family and fictive kin in the later years: Strategies and meanings of kin reinterpretation. Journal of Family Issues, 32, 1156-1177. doi:10.1177/0192513X11404335

Allison

P. D.

(1990). Change scores as dependent variables in regression analysis. Sociological Methodology, 20, 93-114. doi:10.2307/271083

Bengtson

V. L.

(2001). Beyond the nuclear family: The increasing importance of multigenerational bonds. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 1-16. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00001.x

Bengtson

V. L.

Roberts

R. E.

(1991). Intergenerational solidarity in aging families: An example of formal theory construction. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 856-870. doi:10.2307/352993

Carr

(2004). Gender, preloss marital dependence, and older adults’ adjustment to widowhood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(1), 220-235.

Chodorow

(1978). The reproduction of mothering: Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Douglas

J. D.

(1991). Patterns of change following parent death in midlife adults. OMEGA Journal of Death and Dying, 22, 123-137. doi:10.2190/EU8P-UTG6-05HB-LJAG

Elder

G. H.

(1999). Children of the Great Depression: Social change in life experience. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Elder

G. H.

Johnson

M. K.

(2003). The life course and aging: Challenges, lessons, and new directions. In Settersen

Jr. (Ed.), Invitation to the life course: Toward new understandings of later life (pp. 49-81). Amityville, NY: Baywood.

10.

Elder

G. H.

Johnson

M. K.

Crosnoe

(2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In Mortimer

J. T.

Shanahan

M. J.

(Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 3-19). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic.

11.

Fingerman

K. L.

(2001). Aging mothers and their adult daughters: A study in mixed emotions. New York, NY: Springer.

12.

Fingerman

K. L.

(2004). The role of offspring and in-laws in grandparents’ ties to their grandchildren. Journal of Family Issues, 25, 1026-1049. doi:10.1177/0192513X04265941

13.

Fingerman

K. L.

Cheng

Y.-P.

Birditt

Zarit

(2012). Only as happy as the least happy child: Multiple grown children’s problems and successes and middle-aged parents’ well-being. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological & Social Sciences, 67, 184-193. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr086

14.

Fingerman

K. L.

Vanderdrift

L. E.

Dotterer

Birditt

K. S.

Zarit

(2011). Support to aging parents and grown children in black and white families. The Gerontologist, 51, 441-452. doi:10.1093/geront/gnq114

15.

Gans

Silverstein

(2006). Norms of filial responsibility for aging parents across time and generations. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 961-976. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00307.x

16.

Greenfield

E. A.

Marks

N. F.

(2006). Linked lives: Adult children’s problems and their parents’ psychological and relational well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 442-454. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00263.x

17.

J.-H.

(2008). Changes in support from confidants, children, and friends following widowhood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 306-318. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00483.x

18.

J.-H.

(2010). The effects of positive and negative support from children on widowed older adults’ psychological adjustment: A longitudinal analysis. The Gerontologist, 50, 471-481. doi:10.1093/geront/gnp163

19.

J.-H.

Carr

Utz

R. L.

Nesse

(2006). Older adults’ perceptions of intergenerational support after widowhood: How do men and women differ? Journal of Family Issues, 27, 3-30. doi:10.1177/0192513X05277810

20.

J.-H.

Ingersoll-Dayton

(2008). The effect of widowhood on intergenerational ambivalence. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological & Social Sciences, 63, S49-S58. doi:10.1093/geronb/63.1.S49

21.

Johnson

D. R.

Young

(2011). Toward best practices in analyzing datasets with missing data: Comparisons and recommendations. Journal of Marriage and Family, 73, 926-945. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2011.00861.x

22.

Kaufman

Uhlenberg

(1998). Effects of life course transitions on the quality of relationships between adult children and their parents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 924-938. doi:10.2307/353635

23.

Knoester

(2003). Transitions in young adulthood and the relationship between parent and offspring well-being. Social Forces, 81, 1431-1457. doi:10.1353/sof.2003.0063

24.

Kranz

Daniluk

J. C.

(2002). Gone but not forgotten: The meaning and experience of mother-loss for midlife daughters. Women & Therapy, 25(1), 1-18. doi:10.1300/J015v25n01_01

25.

Lawrence

Jeglic

E. L.

Matthews

L. T.

Pepper

C. M.

(2006). Gender differences in grief reactions following the death of a parent. OMEGA Journal of Death and Dying, 52, 323-337. doi:10.2190/55WN-1VUF-TQ3W-GD53

26.

Marks

N. F.

Jun

Song

(2007). Death of parents and adult psychological and physical well-being: A prospective U.S. national study. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 1611-1638. doi:10.1177/0192513X07302728

27.

McHale

S. M.

Updegraff

K. A.

Whiteman

S. D.

(2012). Sibling relationships and influences in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, 913-930. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.01011.x

28.

Mirowsky

Ross

C. E.

(1992). Age and depression. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 33(3), 187-205. doi:10.2307/2137349

29.

Monserud

(2008). Intergenerational relationships and affectual solidarity between grandparents and young adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 182-195. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2007.00470.x

30.

Moss

M. S.

Resch

Moss

S. Z.

(1997). The role of gender in middle-age children’s responses to parent death. OMEGA Journal of Death and Dying, 35, 43-65. doi:10.2190/W6MM-QARH-PHVA-YTQD

31.

Radloff

(1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401. doi:10.1177/014662167700100306

32.

Reczek

Liu

Umberson

(2010). Just the two of us? How parents influence adult children’s marital quality. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 1205-1219. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00759.x

33.

Rosenblatt

P. C.

Barner

J. R.

(2006). The dance of closeness-distance in couple relationships after the death of a parent. OMEGA Journal of Death and Dying, 53, 277-293. doi:10.2190/X1W4-M210-6522-1034

34.

Rostila

Saarela

(2011). Time does not heal all wounds: Mortality following the death of a parent. Journal of Marriage and Family, 73, 236-249. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00801.x

35.

Royston

(2005). Multiple imputation of missing values: Update of ice. Stata Journal, 5, 527-536.

36.

Sarkisian

Gerena

Gerstel

(2007). Extended family integration among Euro and Mexican Americans: Ethnicity, gender, and class. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 40-54. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00342.x

37.

Silverstein

Bengtson

V. L.

Lawton

(1997). Intergenerational solidarity and the structure of adult child-parent relationships in American families. American Journal of Sociology, 103, 429-460. doi:10.1086/231213

38.

Silverstein

Parrott

T. M.

Bengtson

V. L.

(1995). Factors that predispose middle-aged sons and daughters to provide social support to older parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 57, 465-475.

39.

Stroebe

Schut

Boerner

(2013). Goals and overview of the special issue. Bereavement: A family affair. Family Science, 4, 1-3. doi:10.1080/19424620.2013.819223

40.

Suitor

J. J.

Pillemer

Sechrist

(2006). Within-family differences in mothers’ support to adult children. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological & Social Sciences, 61, S10-S17. doi:10.1177/0164027507303636

41.

Suitor

J. J.

Sechrist

Plikuhn

Pardo

Gilligan

Pillemer

(2009). The role of perceived maternal favoritism in sibling relations in midlife. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71, 1026-1038. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00650.x

42.

Thomeer

M. B.

Umberson

Pudrovska

(2013). Marital processes around depression: A gendered and relational perspective. Society and Mental Health, 3, 151-169. doi:10.1177/2156869313487224

43.

Umberson

(1992). Relationships between adult children and their parents: Psychological consequences for both generations. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 664-674.

44.

Umberson

(1995). Marriage as support or strain? Marital quality following the death of a parent. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 709-723.

45.

Umberson

(2003). Death of a parent: Transition to a new adult identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Surviving Parents’ Influence on Adult Children’s Depressive Symptoms Following the Death of a First Parent

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References