Issues in the study of the quality of the elderly mother-adult daughter relationship.

Abstract

The quality of intergenerational relationships seems to be a relevant factor in assessing both the family's capacity to continue to provide care for elderly family members and the effectiveness with which it performs caregiving functions. The purpose of this paper is first, to raise several questions with regard to the quality of family ties to which we believe research should address itself. These include the implications of recent sociodemographic trends for quality, and the effects which variations in quality may have for various dimensions of the caregiving process. The literature and research on qualitative aspects of family relationships seems to suffer from basic conceptual and methodological limitations. Thus, this paper also aims at presenting a multidimensional conceptualization of quality which we believe is essential for identifying those specific aspects of relationships most significant in their impact on caregiving.