Adult Children’s Serious Health Conditions and the Flow of Support between the Generations

• In Event: 418 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Paper Session. Disability over the Life Course

Abstract

Purpose: The life course perspective suggests that serious physical or mental health conditions that limit the daily activities of any one family member are likely to be consequential for other family members as well. In this paper, we explored whether adult children’s serious health conditions affected the flow of support between mothers and both the offspring with health conditions and with other offspring in the family.

Design and Methods: We used data collected from 369 older mothers (M=78years) regarding 1,327 of their adult children (M=49 years), as part of the Within-Family Differences Study.

Results: Adult children with health conditions were more likely than their siblings to be given support by their mothers. The presence of a child with a serious health issue did not reduce mothers’ provision of expressive or instrumental support to other children in the family; but children in families in where there was a sibling with a serious health concern were substantially more likely to provide their mothers with expressive support than were those in other families.

Implications: These findings contribute to a growing body of research demonstrating the ways in which conditions in adult children’s lives affect their mothers.

Authors

• Megan Gilligan, Iowa State University

• J. Jill Suitor, Purdue University

• Marissa Rurka, Purdue University

• Gulcin Con, Purdue University

• Karl Pillemer, Cornell University