Frail parents and adult children's life-satisfaction: a longitudinal analysis of Norwegian data.

IF 3.5 2区社会学 Q1 GERONTOLOGY

European Journal of Ageing Pub Date : 2025-09-29 DOI:10.1007/s10433-025-00883-9

Morten Blekesaune, Vegard Skirbekk

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Earlier research has found that adult children's caregiving for older parents is associated with a decline in life satisfaction. However, other research indicates that emotional stress in adult children might be related to the declining health and frailty of their older parents rather than caregiving per se. Hence, there is a possibility that the first set of findings (declining life satisfaction when giving care) reflects factors not specified in statistical models rather than the care provided by adult children. This study tests this possibility by investigating changes in life satisfaction among 3,094 adult children from panel data in Norway that includes multiple indicators of health and care needs in older parents, together with data on who is providing care. Declining life satisfaction was observed among daughters but not among sons, and these changes were driven by the frailty and care needs of their parents rather than caregiving per se. The findings indicate that it is not caregiving that affects life satisfaction but the circumstances leading to caregiving. In these situations, adult daughters may struggle with sources of distress beyond providing support and care. Further research should investigate these relationships in countries with different distributions of care between families and public care institutions.

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虚弱的父母和成年子女的生活满意度：挪威数据的纵向分析。

早期的研究发现，成年子女对老年父母的照顾与生活满意度的下降有关。然而，其他研究表明，成年子女的情绪压力可能与他们年迈父母的健康状况下降和身体虚弱有关，而不是照顾本身。因此，有可能第一组发现（给予照顾时生活满意度下降）反映了统计模型中未指定的因素，而不是成年子女提供的照顾。本研究通过调查挪威小组数据中3,094名成年子女生活满意度的变化来检验这种可能性，该小组数据包括老年父母的健康和护理需求的多个指标，以及谁在提供护理的数据。在女儿中观察到生活满意度下降，而在儿子中没有，这些变化是由父母的虚弱和照顾需求驱动的，而不是照顾本身。研究结果表明，影响生活满意度的不是照顾，而是导致照顾的环境。在这些情况下，成年女儿可能会在提供支持和照顾之外与痛苦的来源作斗争。进一步的研究应该在家庭和公共护理机构之间护理分布不同的国家调查这些关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Ageing GERONTOLOGY-

CiteScore

6.50

自引率

7.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： The European Journal of Ageing: Social, Behavioural and Health Perspectives is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the understanding of ageing in European societies and the world over. EJA publishes original articles on the social, behavioral and population health aspects of ageing and encourages an integrated approach between these aspects. Emphasis is put on publishing empirical research (including meta-analyses), but conceptual papers (including narrative reviews) and methodological contributions will also be considered. EJA welcomes expert opinions on critical issues in ageing. By stimulating communication between researchers and those using research findings, it aims to contribute to the formulation of better policies and the development of better practice in serving older adults. To further specify, with the term ''social'' is meant the full scope of social science of ageing related research from the micro to the macro level of analysis. With the term ''behavioural'' the full scope of psychological ageing research including life span approaches based on a range of age groups from young to old is envisaged. The term ''population health-related'' denotes social-epidemiological and public health oriented research including research on functional health in the widest possible sense.