Abstract
BackgroundGiven the increasing elderly population worldwide, the identification of potential determinants of successful ageing is important. Many studies have shown that parenting style and mental resilience may influence mental health; however, little is known about the psychological mechanisms that underpin this relationship. The current study sought to explore the relationships among mental resilience, perceptions of parents’ parenting style, and depression and anxiety among community-dwelling elderly adults in China.MethodsIn total, 439 community-dwelling elderly Chinese adults aged 60–91 years completed the Personal and Parents’ Parenting Style Scale, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale.ResultsElderly adults whose parents preferred positive and authoritative parenting styles had higher levels of mental resilience and lower levels of depression and anxiety. Elderly adults parented in the authoritarian style were found to have higher levels of depression and anxiety, with lower mental resilience.ConclusionsThe findings of this study provide evidence related to successful ageing and coping with life pressures, and highlight the important effects of parenting on mental health. The results suggest that examination of the proximal determinants of successful ageing is not sufficient—distal factors may also contribute to the ‘success’ of ageing by modifying key psychological dispositions that promote adaptation to adversity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12877-016-0308-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Given the increasing elderly population worldwide, the identification of potential determinants of successful ageing is important
Significant gender differences were observed for depression (SDS score, t = 3.26, p < 0.01) and anxiety (SAS score, t = 3.37, p < 0.01); scores were higher among women than among men (Table 2)
The positive parenting style was related to greater resilience (CD-RISC score, r = 0.36, p < 0.05), but not to anxiety or depression
Summary
Given the increasing elderly population worldwide, the identification of potential determinants of successful ageing is important. In 2012, almost two in five elderly persons in China reported subclinical levels of depression [2] Alleviating this potential burden may depend on uncovering the determinants of successful ageing [3]. Resilient elderly people often view their lives and health as satisfactory despite age-related disease and disability, and greater resilience, as assessed by the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), has been related positively to key components of successful ageing [14]. These studies indicated that resilience may influence the development of human being in whole life
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