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Widowed Elders Have Less Stress Living Close to
Children - Not Too Close
Aug. 16, 2005 - Living near your children enhances
psychological well-being, but widowed elderly living with children may
find that their social life suffers, a new University of Michigan study
showed.
Older adults reported significantly lower levels of
psychological distress when their children lived within an hour's drive,
said Jung-Hwa Ha, a doctoral student in the U-M School of Social Work
and co-author of "The Effect of Parent-Child Geographic Proximity on
Widowed Parents' Psychological Adjustment and Social Integration."
The study, co-written by Deborah Carr of Rutgers
University, appears in the September issue of Research on Aging.
While geographic proximity is good for widowed
parents, living in the same household with their children can be a
detriment to their social integration, the research indicated. Parents
who live with their children are less likely to be integrated into
informal networks of friends, neighbors and relatives, Ha said.
"Living with adult children may create hassles in
the parent-child relationship, yet it also brings important
psychological benefits as older adults cope with widowhood," she said.
The researchers used data from the "Changing Lives
of Older Couples" study, which compiled responses from 1,532 married
individuals aged 65 and older. This bereavement study was conducted by
U-M's Institute for Social Research, the world's largest academic survey
and research institution. After the spouses' death, participants were
asked how frequently they had certain symptoms, such as depression,
restless sleeping, loss of appetite and anxiety. Based on the parents'
residential status six months following the spousal loss, the study's
findings included:
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--Living with or near one's adult children is
associated with lower levels of psychological distress among bereaved
elders, yet this protective effect is apparent only after parents'
perceptions of dependence on their children are taken into account.
Parental well-being may be compromised if they feel overly dependent on
their children.
--Living with an adult child significantly
decreases the amount of interaction a bereaved older adult has with
friends, neighbors and relatives. One factor could be that older adults
living with their children have more household responsibilities, such as
caring for grandchildren, and may not have much free time to interact
with people outside the immediate family.
--Parent-child proximity did not affect despair and
yearning, which involves the bereaved parent's attachment to the
deceased spouse.
"Our findings suggest that no one living
arrangement is uniformly and unequivocally positive for bereaved older
adults," Ha said.
Links:
Research on Aging:
http://roa.sagepub.com/current.dtl
School of Social Work:
http://www.ssw.umich.edu/
Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) Study:
http://www.cloc.isr.umich.edu/
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