Well‐being of Elderly Australians: the Role of Parent‐Adult Child Contacts

Abstract

It has been reported that the psychological well‐being of elderly people is influenced by their relationships with their adult children. In this study, data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA) (N=2087, age range 65–103, M = 78.16 yrs) were analysed to assess the importance of parent‐adult child contact. Respondents were asked questions relating to the frequency of contact with their children and their satisfaction with that contact. Well‐being was measured by scales of depression and morale. For respondents with children, satisfaction with contact predicted both morale and depression once self‐assessed health and adequacy of income had been entered into the regression equation, while frequency of contact predicted morale but not depression. For those who lived alone, the same pattern was found but the effect of the predictors was greater. However, in both cases the extra variance accounted for by contact predictors was small. The impact of child contact and possible reasons for the small effect size were discussed.