TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital and Non-Digital Solidarity between Older Parents and Their Middle-Aged Children
T2 - Associations with Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic
AU - Hwang, Woosang
AU - Fu, Xiaoyu
AU - Brown, Maria Teresa
AU - Silverstein, Merril
N1 - Funding Information:
The project described was supported by awards #61457 from the John Templeton Foundation, R21AG064512 from the National Institute on Aging, and #2020203 from the Retirement Research Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - We incorporated intergenerational digital communication (frequency of texting, video call, and social media interaction) into the intergenerational solidarity paradigm and identified new types of intergenerational and digital solidarity with adult children among older parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we examined whether those types are associated with older parents’ mental health (depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and self-esteem). We used the 2021/2022 wave of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), and a sample of 519 older parents (mean age = 69 years). Latent class analysis identified four classes describing intergenerational and digital solidarity with adult children (distant-but-digitally connected, tight-knit-traditional, detached, and ambivalent). We found that older parents who had distant-but-digitally connected and tight-knit-traditional relationships with their adult children reported better mental health, compared to those who had detached and ambivalent relationships with their adult children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that intergenerational digital communication should be considered as a digital solidarity in intergenerational solidarity paradigm, which is useful for measuring multidimension of intergenerational relationships within family members during and after the pandemic.
AB - We incorporated intergenerational digital communication (frequency of texting, video call, and social media interaction) into the intergenerational solidarity paradigm and identified new types of intergenerational and digital solidarity with adult children among older parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we examined whether those types are associated with older parents’ mental health (depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and self-esteem). We used the 2021/2022 wave of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), and a sample of 519 older parents (mean age = 69 years). Latent class analysis identified four classes describing intergenerational and digital solidarity with adult children (distant-but-digitally connected, tight-knit-traditional, detached, and ambivalent). We found that older parents who had distant-but-digitally connected and tight-knit-traditional relationships with their adult children reported better mental health, compared to those who had detached and ambivalent relationships with their adult children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that intergenerational digital communication should be considered as a digital solidarity in intergenerational solidarity paradigm, which is useful for measuring multidimension of intergenerational relationships within family members during and after the pandemic.
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - digital solidarity
KW - intergenerational digital communication
KW - intergenerational solidarity
KW - mental health
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139769389&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph191912560
DO - 10.3390/ijerph191912560
M3 - Article
C2 - 36231855
AN - SCOPUS:85139769389
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 19
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 19
M1 - 12560
ER -