Women’s Emotions During Interactions With Their Grown Children in Later Adulthood

Abstract

Do women’s interactions with their grown children improve their emotional lives later in life? Women in their early 60s participated in a 7-day daily experience study of positive and negative events to examine how interactions with their grown children contribute to specific daily emotions as well as how individual differences in adult attachment moderate these effects. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that when they interacted with their children, women low in attachment avoidance experienced boosts in joy, love, and pride, whereas women high in attachment avoidance only experienced boosts in love. Women low in attachment avoidance also experienced reduced anger but greater sadness during negative events involving their children, whereas for women high in avoidance, the experience of anger and sadness was unaffected by the presence of their children. Implications for attachment theory and parenting across the lifespan are discussed.