Emotions towards a relationship partner provide relevant and specific information about relationship quality. Based on this assumption the present study was performed to identify different types of emotional relationship quality of middle-aged adult children with their ageing parents. This was done by cluster analytic procedures in a sample of 1,208 middle-aged adult children (482 men, 726 women). Using ratings of positive and negative emotions towards their mother and father as grouping variables, the same four-cluster solution emerged for both the child-mother relationship and the child-father relationship. Clusters were labelled as amicable, disharmonious, detached and ambivalent relationships. Results showed that especially amicable relationships clearly prevailed followed by ambivalent, detached and disharmonious relationships. Clusters differed significantly with respect to gender of adult child, willingness to support, expected parental support and overt conflicts. In a cross-classification of cluster membership regarding the child-mother relationship (four clusters) and the child-father relationship (four clusters), all possible 16 combinations were observed, with a considerable degree of divergence regarding the type of relationship quality within the same family. Results are discussed with respect to types of emotional relationship quality, within family differences and the intrafamilial regulation of relationship quality.

According to the intergenerational solidarity model, family members who share similar values about family obligations should have a closer relationship and support each other more than families with a lower value consensus. The present study first describes similarities and differences between two family generations (mothers and daughters) with respect to their adherence to family values and, second, examines patterns of relations between intergenerational consensus on family values, affectual solidarity, and functional solidarity in a sample of 51 mother-daughter dyads comprising N = 102 participants from Luxembourgish and Portuguese immigrant families living in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Results showed a small generation gap in values of hierarchical gender roles, but an acculturation gap was found in Portuguese mother-daughter dyads regarding obligations toward the family. A higher mother-daughter value consensus was related to higher affectual solidarity of daughters toward their mothers but not vice versa. Whereas affection and value consensus both predicted support provided by daughters to their mothers, affection mediated the relationship between consensual solidarity and received maternal support. With regard to mothers, only affection predicted provided support for daughters, whereas mothers’ perception of received support from their daughters was predicted by value consensus and, in the case of Luxembourgish mothers, by affection toward daughters.

No abstract

Despite its importance for basic and applied psychology, only a few longitudinal studies have examined whether parental differential treatment (PDT) is a persistent or a transient phenomenon, these studies being confined to childhood or adolescence. Based on latent state-trait theory, the present study identified the amount of variance in three dimensions of perceived PDT in middle adulthood attributable to stable interindividual differences (trait variance) and to intraindividual changes (state variance). At two occasions of measurement (2 years apart), 709 middle-aged adults rated how often they and a sibling currently received parental recognition, nurture, and demand to assume filial responsibility. Tests of latent state-trait models for these three dimensions of PDT by structural equation modeling revealed that trait variance represented the largest proportion of the systematic variance in all observed indicators of perceived maternal and paternal differential treatment. Yet there was a considerable increase in state variance for the dimension of differential parental demand for assuming responsibility. Results are discussed with respect to the conditions accounting for the high overall stability of actual and/or perceived PDT in adulthood, and different approaches for determining their role are proposed.

Zusammenfassung. Ambivalenz in der Beziehung zu Mutter und Vater und anderen Familienmitgliedern stellt neben dem Solidaritätskonzept eine bedeutsame Dimension für die Beschreibung intergenerationeller Beziehungen dar. Psychologische Ambivalenz ist dabei definiert durch das gleichzeitige Auftreten von widersprüchlichen Motiven, Emotionen und Handlungstendenzen gegenüber einer Person. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde ein „Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Ambivalenz in Eltern-Kind-Beziehungen im Erwachsenenalter” entwickelt, der k = 23 Items umfasst und in einer Mutter- respektive Vaterversion vorliegt. Exploratorische und konfirmatorische Analysen in einer Stichprobe von N = 210 Personen jungen und mittleren Erwachsenenalters zeigten unterschiedliche zweifaktorielle Strukturen des Verfahrens für die Vater- und die Mutterversion. Es wurde weiter eine Kurzversion der Instrumente entwickelt, die Vergleiche zwischen elterlichen Beziehungen erlaubt. Die Prüfung der psychometrischen Kennwerte zeigte zufriedenstellende Reliabilitätsschätzungen; ebenso ergaben sich erste Hinweise auf eine substantielle kriterienbezogene Validität der Skalen.