8. THE FILIAL TASK IN MIDLIFE: AMBIVALENCE AND THE QUALITY OF ADULT CHILDREN’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR OLDER PARENTS

Abstract

Relationships between adult children and their aging parents are challenged when parents need help or care. As a consequence, adult children often experience a transition in their filial role as older parents experience functional losses and the children have to reorganize and restructure their relationship with them (Lang & Schütze, 2002). This filial task competes with other demands of midlife (such as family and career demands). As a consequence, the filial role in midlife may be associated with contradictory experiences in the relationship with one’s parents, typically entailing a high potential for ambivalence.

Citation

Lang, F.R. (2003), "8. THE FILIAL TASK IN MIDLIFE: AMBIVALENCE AND THE QUALITY OF ADULT CHILDREN’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR OLDER PARENTS", Pillemer, K. and Luscher, K. (Ed.) Intergenerational Ambivalences: New Perspectives on Parent-Child Relations in Later Life (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 183-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1530-3535(03)04008-1