Aging Mother-Adult Daughter Differentiation, Psychological Well-Being, and Parental Status.

Abstract

Despite the understanding that differentiation is a lifelong process crucial for psychological adaptation, there is limited knowledge regarding how parent-child differentiation in adulthood is associated with the psychological well-being of both parents and adult children. Furthermore, empirical research has yielded inconclusive results regarding whether the parental status of adult children influences the parent-child relationship. Consequently, the current study focuses on the moderating effect of adult daughters' parental status on the association between aging mother-adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being. The study utilized data from 167 pairs of Korean aging mothers and adult daughters to examine two main aspects: (1) the relationship between aging mother-adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being; and (2) the moderating role of adult daughters' parental status on the relationship between aging mother-adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being. The findings revealed that both the differentiation of adult daughters and mothers was positively associated with their respective psychological well-being. However, no significant cross-interactional effects of aging mother-adult daughter differentiation on psychological well-being were observed. Notably, there was a positive moderating effect of the adult daughter's parental status on the association between aging mother-adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being for aging mothers.