Enmeshed lives: adult children with developmental disabilities and their aging mothers.
This article uses equity theory to examine the ways in which aging mothers and their adult children with developmental disabilities support each other and the effects that this exchange has on the caregiving satisfaction and burden of the mothers. Data from 305 mothers revealed that exchange flows both from mother to child and from child to mother. Results indicate that caregiving satisfaction increased when affection from child to mother was greater. Caregiving burden was not affected by either functional support or affection from child to mother.
Pruchno
Rachel A
RA
Initiatives on Aging, Boston College, Newton, Massachusetts 02459, USA. pruchno@bc.edu
D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D017281:Cost of Illness; D002658:Developmental Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011788:Quality of Life; D012944:Social Support