title: Transitions in Relationships With Older Parents: From Middle to Later Years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although intergenerational relationships have been extensively examined, studies applying dynamic multidimensional treatments are rare. Employing the life course framework and the intergenerational solidarity and ambivalence paradigms, a typology of intergenerational relationships was derived and propositions about dynamics of intergenerational relationships were tested.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using latent transition analysis, we modeled 4 waves of panel data spanning 18 years from the Longitudinal Study of Generations to examine how older parent-child relationships (N = 938) transitioned in and out of complex relational configurations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We derived 5 relationship types roughly corresponding to those found in earlier research. Transitions in relationship type occurred mostly when both generations were relatively young, and along the lines of what attachment, ambivalence, and latent kinship theories would predict. When change did occur, it was primarily structured by factors affecting the availability of adult children, as well as circumstances that elevated the dependency of older parents and promoted both positive and negative reactivity in their adult children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has demonstrated how typological analysis captures both the complexities and dynamics of intergenerational relationships in mature families. By including behavioral, emotional, and normative aspects of later life intergenerational relationships, we told a story that was more about continuity than change.
authors: Department of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. m.j.a.hogerbrugge@uu.nl.
authors: Martijn J A
authors: MJ
authors: Hogerbrugge
authors: Maxwell School Department of Sociology and Falk College School of Social Work, Syracuse University, New York.
authors: Merril D
authors: MD
authors: Silverstein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations
keywords: Intergenerational relations; Latent transition analysis; Longitudinal.