Publication year
2012
Citation Title
Parenthood and psychological well-being: Clarifying the role of child age and parent-child relationship quality.
Journal Name
Social Science Research
Journal Volume
41
Issue Number
2
Page Numbers
489-498
DOI
10.106/j.ssresearch.2011.08.011.
Summary
A nationally representative random sample of parents participated in a study examining the association between age of children and adult psychological well-being. Parents whose oldest child is under five report higher satisfaction with the parent-child relationship, higher self-esteem, higher self-efficacy, and lower levels of depression than parents whose oldest child is school-aged or an adolescent.
Key Findings
Parents whose oldest child was under the age of five reported higher levels of satisfaction with parent-child relationships than did parents whose oldest child was school-age or adolescent.
Parents whose oldest child was under the age of five reported lower levels of depression, higher levels of self-esteem, and greater self-efficacy than those whose oldest child was older.
Parents whose oldest child was a young adult, regardless of if the child lived at home or away, reported less satisfaction with parent-child relationships than did parents whose oldest child was under five.
Implications for Military Professionals
Facilitate support groups for military parents with children to help foster kinship among these groups
Attend trainings related to normative child development to provide accurate information to military parents regarding child development
Implications for Program Leaders
Provide education to military parents regarding the normal fluctuations in parent-child relationship satisfaction and parental well-being across the development of their children
Offer workshops to military parents that provide information and strategies to cope with common parenting challenges at various ages and stages of development
Implications for Policy Makers
Continue to provide support for parenting programs for military parents who are interested in strengthening their parenting skills
Recommend that evidence-based information on child development is made available to the general public, such as via community workshops and websites
Methods
Data were drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households, a U.S. national probability sample collected in 1987-1988; the response rate was 74%.
Only data from families whose oldest child was 22 years old or younger were used.
Parents completed measures of depression, self-esteem, self-efficacy, global happiness, and parental satisfaction with their oldest child.
Participants
Six thousand two hundred twenty-eight parents participated (55% mothers).
Average number of children under 18 living in the household was 2.75 (SD = 1.74).
Twenty-six percent of children were 5-11 years old, 24% were 12-17 years old, 20% were 18-22 years old, and 18% were 0-4 years old.
The majority of parents were White (77%) with an average age of 37.81 years (SD = 9.89).
Limitations
All measures are self-reported and may be biased.
These results are correlational, and causal interpretations are inappropriate.
Parents were not followed longitudinally so no conclusions about how these variables change over time for individual parents were possible.
Avenues for Future Research
Conduct a similar population-based study to see if the relationships between the variables differ in an updated sample (these data were collected in the late 1980s)
Investigate how having multiple children across multiple life stages may create particular demands for military parents
Examine how parents military status (branch and component) and children's age influence parental mental health and psychological well-being
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
Although recent scholarship has emphasized the importance of examining the rewards of raising children in understanding variations in psychological consequences of parenthood, empirical research remains focused on the demands of parenthood. Using a sample of parents with children aged 0-22 in the National Survey of Families and Households, this paper examines the association between age of children and parental psychological well-being, focusing on a key element of rewards of parenthood, parental relationship satisfaction with their children, as a mediator of the link. Findings indicate that parents whose oldest child is under age five report higher satisfaction with the relationship with their children, higher self-esteem, higher self-efficacy, and less depression than do parents whose oldest child is school-age or adolescent. When parental satisfaction is taken into account, the differences in self-esteem, self-efficacy, and depression by age of children disappear.
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