The Long Arm of Offspring: Adult Children’s Troubles as Teenagers and Elderly Parents’ Mental Health

Abstract

Little research examines the longevity of the influence of children’s problems on parental well-being. Integrating stress process and life-course perspectives, the authors argue that children’s problematic experiences in adolescence have strong capabilities to influence parents’ mental health in late life, decades after these experiences occur. With a sample of 670 African American and White mothers and fathers age 65 and older, the authors show that elderly parents have higher levels of anger when their offspring had more difficulties as teens; for Black parents this association remains with controls for children’s problems as adults and current concerns about adult children, whereas for Whites it is mediated by concerns. Teen difficulties are also related to current depression for elderly Black but not White parents. This research adds to the literature on family, mental health, and aging by showing how psychological well-being in late life is in part a function of parenting experiences decades earlier.