title: Conceptualizing and measuring intergenerational ambivalence in later life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this paper, we explored the association between direct and indirect measures of intergenerational ambivalence, making comparisons by generational position and child's gender; furthermore, we examined whether these measures were similarly strong predictors of depressive symptoms and positive affect.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data for the analysis were collected from 254 mothers aged 72-82 years and a randomly selected adult child as part of a larger study of within-family differences in parent-adult child relations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings provided evidence that direct and indirect measures were strongly associated among mothers but only weakly associated among adult children, particularly sons. The two measures were similarly strong predictors of mothers', but not children's, depressive symptoms and positive affect. The most pronounced differences in congruence between direct and indirect measures were found when comparing mothers and sons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The analyses presented here suggest that direct and indirect measures of intergenerational ambivalence may not be tapping the same underlying construct, particularly in the case of adult children and especially sons. Furthermore, direct measures may have an advantage over indirect measures when including sons in the study design. We conclude that direct and indirect measures cannot be used interchangeably across the combination of generation and gender.
authors: Department of Sociology and Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, 700 Stone Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. jsuitor@purdue.edu
authors: J Jill
authors: JJ
authors: Suitor
authors: Megan
authors: M
authors: Gilligan
authors: Karl
authors: K
authors: Pillemer
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors