title: Everyday Support to Aging Parents: Links to Middle-Aged Children's Diurnal Cortisol and Daily Mood.
abstract: Middle-aged adults are often called upon to support aging parents. However, providing support to an aging parent with health problems and disability may be a stressful experience. This study asked whether giving everyday support to parents in the context of health problems and disability has implications for middle-aged children's diurnal cortisol and daily mood.
  
  
  
  During four consecutive days, 148 middle-aged adults (mean age = 55) reported the support they gave to their parents and provided saliva 4 times a day (wake, 30 min post-wake, lunchtime, and bedtime). Multilevel models estimated within-person differences in positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), cortisol awakening response and area under the curve with respect to ground (AUC-G) as a function of giving same-day and previous-day support. We examined whether these associations are exacerbated when a parent has health problems or activities of daily living (ADL) needs.
  
  
  
  Middle-aged children had significantly higher next-day AUC-G on days after they gave support to parents with ADL needs. When participants gave support to parents with ADL needs, they had significantly greater same-day PA and lower next-day NA. Giving support to parents with health problems was associated with significantly higher next-day NA.
  
  
  
  Giving support to parents is an ambiguous experience with implications for biological stress and daily mood. A biopsychosocial approach reveals under what conditions giving support to parents may become detrimental to health and well-being; this knowledge is essential for the development and implementation of interventions.
authors.affiliation: Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.
authors.forename: Lauren R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Bangerter
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Gerontology, John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston.
authors.forename: Kyungmin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Steven H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Zarit
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Kira S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Birditt
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Fingerman
mesh_terms: D032721:Adult Children / Q000523:psychology*; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D000078331:Correlation of Data; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone