The effects of maternal employment on the young child have been examined for over 50 years. This research focuses on perceived maternal employment effects at a later point in the family life cycle: when mother is older and children are grown. Thirty-two poverty level women aged 56-83 (M=66.4 years) and their adult sons (n=l 6) and daughters (n= 16) were independently interviewed. All of the older women were paid workers or "stipended volunteers" who were employed part time (20 hours a week) in child care, clerical, or other service jobs. They had a variety of work histories; all were widowed or divorced.

The existing scholarly literature that addresses the transgenerational transmission of family processes fails to answer many questions concerning adults' current relationships with partners and peers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how adults' perceptions of their family of origin climates affect their own satisfaction with emotionally significant interpersonal relationships and their fear of intimacy in these relationships. Participants were recruited from a mid-western college. A total of 281 participants were tested.The main research question was: What is the nature of the relationship between adults' perceptions of their family of origin climate and their current relationship satisfaction/fear of intimacy. It was hypothesized that adults' perceptions of cohesion, expressiveness, independence, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, moral religious emphasis, and organization within their families of origin would be positively related to their satisfaction with their current friendship and partner relationships and negatively related to their fear of intimacy. It was conversely hypothesized that adult's perceptions of conflict and control within their families of origin would be negatively related to their current relationship satisfaction with friends and partners and positively related to their fear of intimacy.Family of origin climate was assessed by the Family Environment Scale which measures 10 aspects of family of origin climate. These are: cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, independent, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, activerecreational orientation, moral-religious emphasis, organization, and control. Relationshipsatisfaction was measured in two types of relationships: partner relationship satisfaction with the Relationship Assessment Scale and peer relationship satisfaction with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Peer Scale. The Fear of Intimacy Scale was utilized to assess participants' anxiety or fear that influences intimacy in a close relationship or at the prospect of a close relationship. Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire.Results of a canonical correlation analysis indicated that perceptions of family of origin climate did not influence current relationship satisfaction or fear of intimacy in adults. Adults' perceptions of their family of origin climates did not influence their current relationship satisfaction and fear of intimacy. Limitations of the current study and recommendations for future research are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This study investigated the adult child's role as a provider of social support to divorced parents. Each of the 230 randomly-selected individuals participating in the survey had been divorced after 19 or more years of marriage and had at least one child over age 18. Participants ranged in age from 36 to 72 and had been married an average of 28 years prior to divorce. Respondents were asked to indicate the types and amounts of support provided by children in two major areas: instrumental aid (e.g., advice, services, financial assistance) and socioemotional aid. The pattern of support varied according to sex of the parent and the sex of the child. Mothers received significantly more support than fathers in all four categories: advice, services, financial assistance, and socioemotional aid. Sons and daughters did not differ significantly with regard to frequency of provision of advice or financial aid. However, sons provided significantly more services, and daughters provided significantly more socioemotional aid. Circumstances connected with filial provision of support--opportunity, parental expectation of aid, parental financial need, parental health and morale, competing role responsibilities of the child, and quality of the parent-child relationship--were analyzed. Multiple regression was used to specify the relationship between total support received and seven independent variables: frequency of contact, sex of respondent, emotional closeness, filial expectations, frequency of telephoning, sidetaking-behavior, and financial strain. These variables explained 52% of the variance in total support. Mothers were more likely than fathers to rank children as the most helpful source of support during the divorce process: 42.6% of mothers, as compared to 18.3% of fathers ranked children as the most helpful. Mothers ranked children higher than all other sources of support; fathers, on the other hand, ranked their friends and their parents ahead of their children with respect to support provided during the divorce period. / Ph. D.

The intent of this study was to examine how perceived aid exchange patterns between mothers and adult children influence the mothers' perception of the quality of their relationship. We also examined how mothers’ characteristics (health, age, and marital status), children's characteristics (marital status and gender), and propinquity were associated with mothers' perceptions of giving and receiving of aid. The types of aid explored were Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Help With the House, Help During Sickness, Advice on Life's Problems, Advice on Decisions, Affection, and Overall Exchange of Aid. Aid patterns were classified as Mother Gave More, Child Gave More, About Equal Exchange, or No Exchange. Data were collected from interviews with 330 mothers, 65 years or older, using a six-stage sample selection process. Perceived relationship quality was significantly different for the four different aid pattern groups in regard to Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Advice on Life's Problems, and Overall Aid. Highest perceived relationship quality was found in those groups in which Child Gave More or in which there was About Equal Exchange. Lowest perceived relationship quality was found for the group Mother Gave More of these four types of aid. Mother's characteristics, child's characteristics, (except gender), and propinquity were not related to relationship quality. Differences in aid patterns were found between mother's health and Gifts Besides Money, Help When Sick, Affection, and Overall Aid; between mother's age and Advice on Life's Problems, Help When Sick, Help With House; between mother's marital status and Advice on Decisions, Help With House; between children's marital status and Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Help With House; between children's gender with Help With House; and between propinquity and Financial Help, Help When Sick, Help With House, Advice on Decisions. / Master of Science

This research investigated selected aspects of the effects on adult children of placing a parent in a nursing home; specifically, the ease of placement, change in parent-child relationships, and effects on the personal life of the adult child as perceived by the child. Scales constructed for use in measuring these dependent and several independent variables in an original study were revised on the basis of factor analysis, internal consistency analysis and subjective judgement. The revision of the scales was based on the original study's data. The revised scales were included in a shorter, more focused questionnaire utilized in the present study. Results of the original study and evidence from existing literature formed a basis for hypotheses tested in the present study. Revised questionnaires were mailed to 175 adult children listed as guarantors of patients in seven nursing homes. A 66.9% usable response rate was obtained. Stepwise regression was utilized to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that the more concerned the child was about the parent's placement and the less the child favored the placement, the more difficult it was for the child to carry out the decision to place his or her parent. The placement of a parent did not appear to be accompanied by deterioration of the parent-child relationship. Rather, it tends to either remain the same or improve. Those children who are most likely to have perceived positive change in the relationship were those who had more concerns about the parent being in a nursing home, had younger parents, saw their parent as making a good adjustment to being in a nursing home, and did not view their own aging positively. None of the independent variables were significant predictors of perceived effects on the personal life of the adult child. Support for potential positive changes in parent-child relationships as a result of a parent being placed in a nursing home was discussed. Recommendations for further research utilizing the family theory framework of Bowen (1978) was presented. / Ph. D.

Examing the antecedents and outcomes of elder care based work-family conflict, - presenting family interference with work and work interference with family as major components.

In this study, the nature of a current social problem is explored: the provision of services to elderly parents by their adult daughters - a part of the informal system of social support for the elderly. In particular, the influence of the caregiver's construction of old age on their assessment of parental autonomy is examined.

This study is an investigation of the long-term care planning entered into by 170 adult children who had independent parents. A decision-making process with four stages was hypothesized. Sons and daughters entered into planning activities primarily at the "consideration" and "discussion" stages. This involvement proceeds along a sequence of stages with lower stage activities being completed before entering into more advanced stages. Minimal involvement from adult children in "preliminary planning" and "making final decisions" suggests the process does not continue unless independence is threatened. Age and family stressors positively influenced the likelihood that respondents gave consideration to future needs of their parents. The likelihood that discussion occurs between the generations was influenced negatively by family stressors and positively by personal authority. No variables were significant for the "preliminary planning" and "final decision" stages. Application is made to educational and clinical practice. / Ph. D.

This investigation represents an initial attempt toward the construction of a general life cycle theory of parent-child relations. Emphasis was placed on the parent-adult child relationship with the onset of a filial crisis, e.g., due to illness. After the theory was described, two of the five propositions comprising this orientation (i.e., propositions four and five) were analyzed through a series of twenty-five hypotheses. The objectives of these hypotheses were (a) to analyze the relationship between the length of time involved in various patterns of filial responsibility and the likelihood that these patterns will become institutionalized as obligatory roles and (b) to determine how factors associated with these emergnt role obligations contribute to the cost of caregiving. A probability sample of 180 caregivers was obtained from within the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Multiple and partial correlation analyses and the use of Student's t revealed that the length of time involved as a caregiver was significantly related to the number of informal caregiving roles performed by adult children. In addition, results indicated that the length of involvement in each caregiving role examined (i.e., household care, transportation service, personal care, medical attention, meal preparation, financial management and mobility assistance) was significantly related to (a) the frequency of providing these services to an aged parent and (b) the level of responsibility in each service area except financial management (which tended to remain constant over time)• An adult child s level of obligation to ensure that caregiving services were provided was also significantly associated with the length of caregiving involvement. Furthermore, this study found tentative support for the contention that the social-psychological cost of providing care for a dependent parent was associated with (a) the frequency of providing transportation services and medical attention, (b) the number of informal caregiving activities performed and (c) the length of caregiver involvement. A set of three control variables (i.e., the household living arrangements and both the aged parent s and adult child's physical health status) were identified as significant contributors to the cost of caregiving. Based on the empirical results of this investigation, propositions four and five of the theoretical perspective presented in this dissertation were supported.