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RESEARCH ARTICLE |
1 Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
2 School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Address correspondence to Jung-Hwa Ha, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1500 Highland Avenue, Room 529A, Madison, WI 53705. E-mail: ha{at}waisman.wisc.edu
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Abstract |
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Methods. We based analyses on Changing Lives of Older Couples, a prospective study of 1,532 married individuals aged 65 and older. We used ordinary least squares regression models to estimate the direct effect of widowhood and the mediating effects of dependence on intergenerational ambivalence 6 and 18 months after spousal loss.
Results. Widowhood was associated with a decrease in ambivalent feelings toward adult children 6 months after spousal loss, which was partially explained by a reduction in the extent to which children were dependent upon their bereaved parents. However, at 18 months, widowhood did not exert any significant influence on intergenerational ambivalence.
Discussion. Our findings suggest that major life events such as widowhood influence intergenerational ambivalence. The results shed light on the mechanisms by which parent–child dependence contributes to intergenerational ambivalence.
Key Words: Spousal loss • Parent-child relationships • Bereavement • Intergenerational dependence
RECENTLY, a growing number of researchers have used ambivalence theory as a conceptual framework to explain the complex nature of intergenerational relationships. Compared to other theoretical frameworks that highlight either positive aspects, such as the solidarity perspective (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991
; Roberts, Richards, & Bengtson, 1991), or negative aspects, such as the conflict perspective (Akiyama, Antonucci, Takahashi, & Langfahl, 2003; Rook, 1984, 1990), of intergenerational relationships, the ambivalence framework emphasizes both the beneficial and problematic aspects of the same parent–child relationship (Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998; Pillemer & Suitor, 2002).
One proposition of ambivalence theory is that life transitions tend to increase tension within parent–child relationships (Fingerman, 1996; Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998; Pillemer & Suitor, 2002). However, few studies have empirically examined how older adults' experiences of stressful life events such as widowhood influence ambivalence between older adults and their adult children over time. Nor have studies explored which factors influence the relationship between life transitions and parent–child ambivalence. This article addresses this gap in the literature by examining (a) the extent to which widowhood as a stressful life transition affects older adults' perceived ambivalence toward their adult children, (b) the extent to which intergenerational dependence mediates the effect of widowhood on intergenerational ambivalence, and (c) the extent to which effects of widowhood on intergenerational ambivalence change over time.
Understanding how widowhood brings changes to intergenerational ambivalence is critical, considering the implications of these changes for older adults' well-being. Social relationships serve as an important resource in older adults' ability to cope with the distress of widowhood (Antonucci, 1990; Lin, Simeone, Ensel, & Kuo, 1979). However, if the ambivalent nature of social relationships becomes more pronounced as widowhood brings heavier caregiving burden for adult children and unwelcome feelings of dependence and loss of autonomy for older adults (Talbott, 1990), this change may have negative implications for older adults' well-being (Pillemer, 2004). Thus, mapping the diverse ways that widowhood influences intergenerational ambivalence and investigating how dependence mediates the link between widowhood and ambivalence can help researchers and practitioners devise intervention plans that can maximize the benefit of social support following spousal loss.
In the subsequent sections, we first lay out the theoretical framework that guided this research. Then we review the previous literature on the effects of widowhood and dependence on intergenerational ambivalence, followed by describing the sample and measures used in this study. Next we present findings and discuss implications for future research and practice.
Ambivalence Theory
Ambivalence theory is particularly relevant to the current research questions in that it conceptualizes changes in positive and negative emotions as a function of life transitions (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002). It posits that in times of life transition, people are expected to conform to the normative requirements of their new status position while discarding the norms attached to the old status position (Coser, 1966). For example, when children become adults, they are expected to become independent from their parents. When these new expectations are not met, parents may feel ambivalent about their children's continued dependence (Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998). Studies have suggested that life transitions in old age can lead to increased ambivalence just as they do during young adulthood (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002). However, little research has empirically examined how a stressful life transition in old age such as widowhood may influence positive and negative feelings within parent–child relationships. The current study addressed this issue by focusing on widowhood as a potential source of stress that increases ambivalence in older adults' relationships with their children.
Widowhood as a Potential Source of Increased Ambivalence
Widowhood is one of the most stressful life transitions in old age (Carr & Utz, 2002; Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Upon spousal loss, older adults become more dependent on their children for emotional as well as instrumental support (Ha, Carr, Utz, & Nesse, 2006), and adult children are expected to provide greater support to their bereaved parents (Hogan & Eggebeen, 1995). Although the increased levels of support from adult children may result in widowed parents' positive feelings toward their children, these newly negotiated relationships, in which one provides and the other receives more help, may breach the previously existing balance of reciprocity and lead to more ambivalent feelings (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002).
To date, no study has empirically examined the possibility of increased ambivalence following late-life widowhood. However, Talbott's (1990) study of the relationships between widowed mothers and their children suggested that widowed persons experience both negative and positive support. Using qualitative data from 55 older widowed mothers, she explored how interactions with their adult children led to the widowed mothers' negative reactions. About half of the widowed mothers she interviewed (49%) made negative comments about their relationships with their children in addition to positive comments. The reasons for these negative perceptions were feelings of unappreciation, feelings of dissatisfaction with the amount of help received, fears about bothering or burdening their children, and emotional dependence on their children. In particular, the imbalance in the exchange of support between parents and children, and the resulting power differential between widowed older adults and children, played an important role in widows' negative reaction to support.
In sum, there is evidence that widowhood entails both positive and negative consequences for one's social relationships. However, partly because of lack of appropriate data, no study has examined precisely how widowhood affects ambivalent feelings within parent–child relationships. By using prospective data from both widowed and married samples, we examined the extent to which widowed persons differ from married persons in their levels of ambivalence, controlling for the level of ambivalence prior to loss.
Intergenerational Dependence as a Source of Ambivalence
One of the often-replicated findings in previous literature is that feelings of dependence are a key determinant of parent–child ambivalence (Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998; Pillemer & Suitor, 2002). Parents' feelings of dependence on children interfere with their sense of autonomy (Blieszner & Mancini, 1987; Silverstein, Chen, & Heller, 1996), and children's dependence on parents contributes to intergenerational tension (Fingerman, 1996). On the one hand, adult children's failure to achieve normative adult status or financial independence leads to an increase in parental ambivalence (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002). On the other hand, parental dependence on adult children can contribute to increased feelings of burden among adult children, which may in turn enhance parents' levels of ambivalence (Talbott, 1990). A recent study suggested that parents' or children's conditions affecting dependence (e.g., poor health and financial difficulty) also increase the feelings of intergenerational ambivalence (Willson, Shuey, Elder, & Wickrama, 2006).
Mediating Effects of Intergenerational Dependence
A previous study suggested that widowhood increases parents' dependence on their children and decreases children's dependence on parents (Ha et al., 2006). Given the positive association between dependence and ambivalence as discussed previously (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002; Willson et al., 2006), parents' greater dependence on children following widowhood may lead to increased ambivalence, whereas children's reduced dependence on their parents following parental widowhood may lead to decreased ambivalence. That is, in addition to the direct effect of widowhood, widowhood may also affect ambivalence through changes in intergenerational dependence. We investigated this potential mediating effect of dependence in addition to its direct effects. Figure 1 illustrates the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of widowhood on ambivalence as well as the effects of parents' and children's dependence on intergenerational ambivalence.
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). The life transition of widowhood may be most stressful during the initial stage (Zisook & Shuchter, 1991). At this stage, the surviving spouse must cope not only with the emotional distress of losing a loved one, but also with various practical matters. The bereaved spouse must attend to funeral arrangements and assume household responsibilities that were once shared by the deceased spouse (Utz et al., 2004). The schism between widowed persons' need for support and their adult children's ability to meet these needs may be greatest at this phase. Likewise, widowed individuals' feelings of dependence and ambivalence may be heightened at this stage. As time passes, widowed persons may adjust their expectations to adult children's availability to provide support. Or, their actual need for assistance declines, and thus, they have fewer requirements for support. In either case, their intergenerational ambivalence is likely to decrease.
Previous studies examining the impact of life transitions on positive and negative social interactions have used cross-sectional data (e.g., Krause & Jay, 1991) and, thus, could not investigate how the influence of widowhood changes over time. Furthermore, previous studies with longitudinal data often have not had comparison groups of married persons and thus could not distinguish the effect of aging from the effect of widowhood. By using prospective data on spousal bereavement and by using a comparison group of still-married persons, the current study investigated the effects of widowhood both at an early stage (6 months after spousal loss) and a later stage (18 months after spousal loss) of bereavement. Examining temporal changes is important because it can guide intervention plans at different stages of widowhood. Given that people adjust to social roles as time passes, we expected that the impact of widowhood and intergenerational dependence on ambivalence would be greater at 6 months after bereavement than at 18 months after bereavement.
In sum, this article addresses three research questions. First, we examined whether widowed persons differ from married persons in their levels of perceived intergenerational ambivalence 6 and 18 months after spousal loss, controlling for baseline levels of ambivalence. Consistent with the ambivalence hypothesis, we predicted that widowed persons would experience higher levels of ambivalence than their married counterparts. Second, we examined the extent to which parents' perceived intergenerational dependence mediates the relationship between widowhood and ambivalence. We hypothesized that the positive association between widowhood and intergenerational ambivalence would be mediated both by parents' increased dependence on children and by children's decreased dependence on parents after spousal loss. Finally, we examined how these relationships vary over time (i.e., 6 months and 18 months after widowhood). We predicted that the effect of widowhood on intergenerational ambivalence would be greater at an earlier stage than at a later stage.
Potential Influence of Contextual Factors
We controlled for pre-widowhood marital context (e.g., marital quality and spousal health at baseline) that may have confounded the relationship between widowhood and parent–child ambivalence. Those who had higher marital quality may have relied on their spouse for emotional support prior to spousal death. This reliance may have resulted in increased expectations of support from children or dependence on them following spousal loss, which may have required greater adjustments from both the surviving parent and the child, thus creating greater ambivalence (Willson et al., 2006). In contrast, those who had a spouse in poor health may have already been relying on their children for support prior to spousal death; thus, the transition to widowhood may not have significantly changed the quality of the parent–child relationship or the degree of intergenerational ambivalence.
We also controlled for demographic (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status, race, and number of children) and health (i.e., functional and mental health) characteristics of the respondents that previous research has found to be important correlates of social support. Studies have shown that women are more likely to receive support from children than are men (Umberson, 1992). Although findings are mixed, researchers have found that income and race play an important role in explaining different levels of support (Krause & Rook, 2003; Raschick & Ingersoll-Dayton, 2004; Willson, Shuey, & Elder, 2003). We considered health characteristics because the effect of widowhood may be confounded with the effect of poor mental or physical health, which can lead to greater ambivalence by increasing caregiving burden for adult children.
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METHODS |
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TOPAbstractMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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). To be eligible for the study, respondents had to be English-speaking members of a married couple in which the husband was aged 65 or older. All sample members were community dwelling and were capable of participating in a 2-hr face-to-face interview. Approximately 68% of those contacted for an interview participated, which was consistent with the response rate from other Detroit area studies. Baseline face-to-face interviews were conducted between June 1987 and April 1988. Changing Lives of Older Couples researchers identified spousal loss by reading the daily obituaries in three Detroit-area newspapers and by using monthly death records provided by the State of Michigan. They used the National Death Index to confirm the deaths and obtain causes of death. Of the 319 respondents who lost a spouse during the study, 86% (n = 276) participated in at least one of the follow-up interviews, conducted at 6 months (Wave 1), 18 months (Wave 2), and 48 months (Wave 3) after the death. The primary reasons for nonresponse were refusal to participate (38%) and ill health or death at follow-up (42%). Controls from the original sample of 1,532 were selected to match the widowed persons along the dimensions of age, race, and gender. The matched controls were interviewed at the three follow-up interviews (Wave 1, 2, and 3) at roughly the same time as their corresponding widowed participants. The controls were reselected at each follow-up wave because some members in the control group later became widowed; widowed participants, however, were followed longitudinally, although not everyone participated in all follow-up waves. The analyses focus on the first two waves of follow-up data (Waves 1 and 2) because of the large attrition between Wave 2 and Wave 3 and the resulting small sample size. This article uses two subsamples of the Changing Lives of Older Couples study. The first sample included 267 persons (188 widowed persons and 78 married controls; not every widowed person was matched with a control due to a temporary cut in funding; numbers do not add up to 267 due to a rounding error) who participated in the baseline and the 6-month follow-up (Wave 1) interviews and who gave valid responses to questions asking for positive and negative social interactions with their children. The second sample included 338 persons (160 widowed persons and 178 married controls) who participated in the baseline and the 18-month follow-up (Wave 2). For both samples, we included only those who had at least one living child at baseline and the respective follow-up interview. Sample sizes were weighted using probability weights in order to account for the different probabilities of selection and nonresponse at the initial baseline interview.
Measures
Ambivalence
Ambivalence was defined as the extent to which older persons perceive their relationships with children as both positive and negative. We used the following computational formula drawn from previous literature (Willson et al., 2006):
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Empirically, this measure captured the intensity (i.e., the sum of the scores on positive and negative interactions scales should be high to get a high ambivalence score) and the similarity (i.e., the difference between the ratings of positive and negative indicators should be small to get a high ambivalence score) of the positive and negative interactions with children (Thompson & Zanna, 1995; Willson et al., 2006).
Positive interactions with children (
=.70) was assessed with the following questions: "How much do your children make you feel loved and cared for?" and "How much are they willing to listen when you need to talk about your worries or problems?" Negative interactions with children ( =.48) was assessed with the following questions: "How much do you feel they make too many demands on you?" and "How much are they critical of you or what you do?" For both measures, response categories were a great deal, quite a bit, some, a little, and not at all. Higher values indicated higher positive and higher negative social interactions with children. The correlations between positive and negative interactions were significant but moderate (r = –.26, p <.001 at Wave 1; r = –.33, p <.001 at Wave 2), suggesting that these two components were capturing contrasting aspects of one's intergenerational relationships but were not polar opposites.
The reliability coefficient for the negative social interactions measure was quite low, due most likely to the somewhat diverse content of the two items (criticism vs demands). This low reliability may have made it harder to detect the significant relationship between independent and dependent variables by attenuating the correlations between variables, though the broader range of content may have increased the validity of the measure in covering the dimensions of negative interaction.
Independent variables
Widowhood was a dichotomous variable, where 1 indicated that the respondent had become widowed during the study period (after the baseline interview), and 0 indicated that the respondent was still married at the follow-up interviews.
Pre-loss marital context
Two variables were considered in order to capture marital contexts prior to widowhood. Marital quality at baseline ( =.88) was assessed with 10 items: "How much does your (husband/wife) make you feel loved and cared for?"; "How much is (he/she) willing to listen when you need to talk about your worries or problems?"; "Thinking about your marriage as a whole, how often do you feel happy about it?"; "Taking all things together, how satisfied are you with your marriage?"; "How much do you feel (he/she) makes too many demands on you?"; "How much is (he/she) critical of you or what you do?"; "How often would you say you and your (husband/wife) typically have unpleasant disagreements or conflicts?"; and "How often do you feel bothered or upset by your marriage?" Respondents were also asked to state how much they agreed with the following statements: "There are some serious difficulties in our marriage" and "My (husband/wife) doesn't treat me as well as I deserve to be treated." Response categories for the first eight questions were a great deal, quite a bit, some, a little, and not at all; response categories for the final two statements were very true, somewhat true, a little true, and not true at all. Higher values indicated greater marital quality. Spouse's health at baseline was assessed with the question "How would you rate your (husband's/ wife's) health at the present time?" Responses of fair and poor were coded 1, indicating poor health; responses of excellent, very good, and good were coded 0, indicating good health.
Control variables
The analysis controlled for demographic and health variables. Demographic variables included gender (1 = female, 0 = male), race (1 = White, 0 = Black), age (in years), education (in years), and number of children. Two variables captured physical and psychological health characteristics. Functional difficulty at baseline ( =.77) was a four-item scale indicating how much difficulty the respondent had (a) bathing by himself or herself; (b) climbing a few flights of stairs; (c) walking several blocks; and (d) doing heavy housework, such as shoveling snow or washing walls. Response categories were a little, some, a lot, and cannot do. Higher values indicated greater functional difficulty. Depression at baseline ( =.78) was assessed with a subset of 11 items (9 negative and 2 positive items) from the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression scale (Radloff, 1977). Higher values represented higher depression.
Finally, all analyses controlled for the duration between the baseline and follow-up interviews. This variable was controlled because although all follow-up interviews were conducted on average at 6 and 18 months following spousal death, the duration between the baseline and the follow-up interviews differed across respondents. We assessed this variable in months. We also tested the interaction between baseline ambivalence and the duration between the baseline and follow-up interviews in order to see if the effect of baseline ambivalence differs depending on this duration. These interaction terms were not significant.
Intergenerational dependence
To examine the second research question, we controlled for parents' perception of their dependence on children and their children's dependence on them at the follow-up waves as factors that potentially mediate the relationship between widowhood and social support. Parents' dependence on children at Wave 1 ( =.47) and at Wave 2 ( =.49) were evaluated with the following questions: "How much do you depend on your children for (a) emotional support; (b) help or advice with financial and legal matters; and (c) help with errands or other chores?" Children's dependence on respondent at Wave 1 ( =.47) and at Wave 2 ( =.50) were assessed with the following questions: "How much do your children depend on you for: (a) emotional support; (b) help or advice with financial and legal matters; and (c) help with baby-sitting or other errands?" Response categories included not at all, a little, some, and a lot. Higher scores reflected higher levels of dependence for both scales.
The reliability coefficients of these scales were low, probably because individual items in the scales captured different aspects of dependence. In order to address this limitation, we further explored how dependence in specific domains of support (e.g., emotional support, financial or legal advice, and instrumental help) influences parent–child ambivalence following spousal loss. These subanalyses can offer greater insights into the ways that intergenerational dependence in specific domains influences ambivalence within intergenerational relationships.
The dependence measures used here reflected older parents' perceptions of their dependence on children and children's dependence on parents. Thus, they may not have captured "objective" levels of instrumental and emotional dependence between generations. Nevertheless, given research findings that perceived support is a more powerful predictor of older adults' well-being than actual support measures (Wallsten, Tweed, Blazer, & George, 1999), it was important to examine how parents' subjective appraisals of parent–child dependence influence older adults' positive and negative social interactions with their children.
Analytic Plan
We first present t-test and chi-square results, comparing means (for continuous variables) or proportions (for dichotomous variables) and standard deviations of dependent and independent variables between the widowed and married samples. Next we present ordinary least squares regression models examining the effect of widowhood on parents' perception of ambivalence in their relationship with children at Waves 1 and 2. In examining the relationship between widowhood and ambivalence, we used hierarchical regression models to further explore the mediating effects of intergenerational dependence. Model 1 included widowhood and other control variables, and Model 2 controlled for parents' perceptions of their dependence on children and children's dependence on them.
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RESULTS |
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Effect of Widowhood on Parent–Child Ambivalence
Table 2 shows the regression models predicting the effect of widowhood on parents' perception of ambivalence in their relationship with children. Model 1 shows the results of the regression models that did not include indicators of intergenerational dependence as predictors. At Wave 1, widowed persons experienced lower levels of ambivalence than married persons, controlling for baseline level of ambivalence. However, there was no significant difference between widowed and still-married persons at Wave 2.
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In order to examine the extent to which these changes in ambivalence following widowhood were due to positive or negative components of ambivalence, in supplementary analyses we further examined how widowhood differentially affected these components of ambivalence (data are not presented). At the 6-month follow-up, widowhood was not significantly associated with positive interactions with children, yet it was significantly associated with lower levels of negative social interactions. Thus, the diminished ambivalence that we found in the main analysis (see Table 2) was likely to be attributable to decreased negative social interactions between parents and children rather than to increased positive support. At the 18-month follow-up, however, widowhood was not significantly related to either positive or negative components of ambivalence.
Mediating Effects of Intergenerational Dependence
The second objective of this article was to examine the potential mediating effects of parents' dependence on children and children's dependence on parents in explaining the relationship between widowhood and ambivalence (see Model 2). According to Baron and Kenny (1986), in order to establish that there is a significant mediating effect of dependence, the following three conditions must be true: (a) Widowhood has a direct effect on ambivalence, (b) dependence has a direct effect on ambivalence with widowhood controlled, and (c) widowhood has a direct effect on dependence. Given these conditions, there is complete mediation when widowhood no longer affects ambivalence after controlling for dependence. There is partial mediation when the effect of widowhood on ambivalence is reduced after controlling for dependence, yet the effect of widowhood remains significant.
At Wave 1, as presented in Model 2, our results showed that widowhood exerted a significant influence on ambivalence, thus meeting the first condition. Parents' dependence was not significantly associated with ambivalence, yet children's dependence was associated with greater levels of ambivalence, meeting the second condition. Regarding the third condition, a supplementary analysis (not presented) showed that widowhood was significantly associated with higher levels of parents' dependence on children and lower levels of children's dependence on parents at Wave 1. When we compared the coefficients of widowhood in Models 1 and 2 at Wave 1, we found a slight attenuation in the effect of widowhood on ambivalence after controlling for intergenerational dependence. However, the size of the decrease in the coefficient was small and remained significant in Model 2, suggesting that children's dependence partially mediated the relationship between widowhood and ambivalence and that this mediating effect was not strong. We also examined which of two measures of dependence (i.e., parents' or children's dependence) produced this change in the effect of widowhood by including each of these variables in separate equations (not presented here) and found that children's dependence had a stronger role in attenuating the effect of widowhood on ambivalence.
Because our dependence measures had a low reliability, we also ran supplementary analyses using measures of dependence in specific domains including emotional, financial, and institutional support (data are not shown). In this analysis, the significant effect of widowhood on ambivalence in Model 1 became insignificant in Model 2 at Wave 1, yielding stronger evidence for mediation of intergenerational dependence. At Wave 2, we detected no evidence of mediating effect.
As for the main effects of dependence, the results only partially supported our hypothesis. Contrary to our proposed hypothesis that older adults' greater dependence on children would predict greater intergenerational ambivalence, parents' perception of their dependence on children had no significant impact at Wave 1. At Wave 2, parents' dependence on children was associated with decreased ambivalence. Consistent with our hypothesis, children's dependence on parents was associated with increased ambivalence at both Waves 1 and 2.
In order to further explore which aspects of dependence produced significant effects, we conducted additional analyses (data are not presented) examining how intergenerational dependence in specific domains (e.g., emotional, financial, and instrumental) influenced changes in ambivalent feelings. Regarding parents' dependence on children, none of the three kinds of dependence predicted changes in intergenerational ambivalence at Wave 1. At Wave 2, parents' emotional dependence on children was associated with lower levels of ambivalence. As for children's dependence on parents, dependence for instrumental support predicted an increase in intergenerational ambivalence at Wave 1. Similarly at Wave 2, children's dependence on parents for financial and legal advice, as well as for instrumental support, predicted an increase in intergenerational ambivalence. Taken together, these findings suggested that adult children's dependence produced mixed emotions for parents, whereas parents' dependence on adult children did not.
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DISCUSSION |
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Summary of Findings
First, inconsistent with ambivalence theory, these analyses revealed that widowhood is a source not of increased ambivalence, but of decreased ambivalence, during the early stages of bereavement. At least two reasons may account for why the impact of widowhood on ambivalence differs from the proposed hypothesis. One reason may be that widowhood is a life transition that affects social networks as a whole, rather than the widowed person as an individual. Children share their widowed parent's sense of loss and feelings of grief (Umberson & Chen, 1994), and thus, providing support to the surviving parent during the time of adjustment may be seen as a way of coping with the loss together rather than as a burden. Another reason is that adult children may be aware of the surviving spouse's intense distress during bereavement and thus try to minimize conflict, which may contribute to lower levels of ambivalence among widowed parents than among still-married parents. Our component analysis results supported this speculation, showing that widowhood is associated with lower negative interactions (i.e., demands and criticism), especially in the short term.
Our second, and perhaps greatest, contribution is that we investigated the mechanisms through which widowhood affects ambivalence in parent–child relationships. Although they were small in size, we found that lower levels of children's dependence among widowed persons than among married parents partially explain why widowhood leads to lower levels of ambivalence.
As for the main effects of dependence on ambivalence, consistent with our hypothesis we found that children's greater dependence on their parents is associated with increased ambivalence. This finding concurs with previous literature that has suggested that children's failure to achieve adult status and independence increases parents' feelings of ambivalence and intergenerational tension (Fingerman, 1996; Pillemer & Suitor, 2002). However, contrary to our hypothesis, parents' dependence on their children was not associated with increased ambivalence. There are at least two possible explanations for this finding. One is that the norms of intergenerational solidarity (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991) and intergenerational independence (Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998) differentially guide parental expectations of family relationships during widowhood. That is, widowed parents may feel entitled to depend upon their children following the loss of their spouse (i.e., intergenerational solidarity) while also expecting that their children will be less dependent upon them (i.e., intergenerational independence). An alternative explanation is that our findings are a function of the study measures. At Wave 2, parents' dependence on children was associated with lower levels of ambivalence, especially in the domain of emotional support, which was conceptually closely tied to the items that we used to assess positive indicators of ambivalence (i.e., willingness to listen and make the respondent loved and cared for). Similarly, measures of children's dependence may be closely tied to negative indicators of ambivalence (e.g., children are demanding).
Our third major finding is that there is a temporal change in the impact of widowhood on ambivalence. Consistent with our hypothesis, during the early stages of bereavement widowed persons were far less likely than their married counterparts to experience ambivalence, whereas at a later stage of bereavement (i.e., 18-month follow-up), the difference in the effect of widowhood on ambivalence was minimal. This finding may suggest that parent–child relationships are highly adaptive. During early bereavement, widowed persons may experience lower levels of ambivalence because their adult children accommodate their needs through decreased negative social interactions. However, as widowed parents adjust to the acute stress of widowhood, parent–child relationships may return to long-standing patterns of positive and negative exchanges of support, resulting in similar degrees of intergenerational ambivalence when comparing widowed and still-married parents.
Limitations and Future Directions
By examining the interplay between widowhood, intergenerational dependence, and ambivalence in parent–child relationship, this study offers important insights into understanding changes in social relationships following spousal loss. However, several limitations remain to be addressed by future studies.
First, the current study used parents' separate evaluation of positive and negative social interactions with their children to construct the measure of ambivalence. Although previous studies have used similar measures to capture the ambivalent nature of intergenerational relationships (e.g., Willson et al., 2003), we should note that these measures were limited in assessing the full spectrum of ambivalent feelings. For example, the measure of negative social interactions captured the degree to which others were demanding or critical of the respondents, but it did not inform us about the degree to which respondents had negative feelings toward those individuals. With the indirect measures utilized in this study, we were also limited in evaluating the extent to which respondents had mixed feelings toward their children. Measures of ambivalence are still in the process of refinement and development (Lettke & Klein, 2004), and different predictors influence interpersonal closeness, stress, and ambivalence (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002); researchers should take into account the implications of different measures of ambivalence in interpreting and comparing different study findings. Future studies also should examine the impact of widowhood using direct measures of ambivalence, such as the degree to which one has mixed feelings toward others (Pillemer & Suitor, 2002).
Second, the measures of intergenerational dependence as well as positive and negative social interactions used in this study reflected only widowed parents' feelings of ambivalence. Although a parent's widowhood is a shared experience of loss within a family, because aging parents and their adult children are at different stages in adult development (Fingerman, 1996) bereaved persons and their children may hold different views or expectations of one another. Bereaved persons may expect increased positive support from children and consider their dependence on children unavoidable. In contrast, children may view their bereaved parent's increased need for support as burdensome. They may also expect their parent to overcome grief in a short time period. Examining the perceptions of adult children vis-à-vis dependence would provide important insights into understanding the dynamics of intergenerational ambivalence during stressful life transitions from the perspective of the adult child.
With the method of measurement used in this study, it was also not possible to determine whether respondents thought about all of their children or about a specific child when answering the questions concerning their relationships with and feelings about their children. Future studies should focus on dyadic relationships between parents and children and take into account the influence of children's characteristics on intergenerational ambivalence in the midst of late-life transitions.
Third, our analysis used dependency as a static measure (i.e., we included only follow-up measures of dependence in our models), although our theoretical framework inferred that changes in the levels of intergeneration dependence following widowhood may exert a significant influence on ambivalence. More thorough investigation on the extent to which changes in dependence following spousal loss affect ambivalence would deepen researchers' understanding of the role of intergenerational dependence.
Finally, widowhood is only one example of a stressful life transition in old age. Because the death of a spouse is a shared bereavement experience for family members, children may be more willing to provide support. Future studies should examine how other stressful life transitions that are more person centered, such as retirement, affect intergenerational ambivalence over time.
In conclusion, this study contributes to the intergenerational relationship literature by applying ambivalence theory to examine changes in social relationships with adult children following late-life widowhood. The study expands the application of ambivalence theory in several important ways. First, it extends the scope of empirical research in this area by examining the effect of one late-life transition, as opposed to transitions that occur from adolescence to adulthood. Furthermore, it examines how parents' evaluation of intergenerational relationship changes in response to their own transition, as opposed to their adult children's transitions. In addition, the findings shed light on the mechanisms by which dependence contributes to intergenerational ambivalence. Future studies should build upon this research by examining how adult children's view of intergenerational relationships changes as their parents experience life transitions in old age.
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Acknowledgments |
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Jung-Hwa Ha planned the study, conducted the data analysis, and wrote the article as part of her dissertation research. Berit Ingersoll-Dayton (dissertation co-chair) supervised the planning of the study and data analyses, and contributed to revising the article for publication.
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Received for publication May 2, 2007. Accepted for publication October 26, 2007.
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