The role of health status and efficacy-based self-esteem in the older parent-adult child relationship
Abstract
Most research analyzing the relationship between social support and health status has placed the social support variable within the research model as an independent variable. Rather than examining the effects of social support, the primary objective of this study was to examine determinants of support, and in particular, the role that elders' health statuses played in evaluation of positive and negative types of support from their adult children. Based on assumptions underlying the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, it was hypothesized that: (1) health status defined as problematic or non-problematic situation is a function of elders' perceptions of their objective and subjective health status, efficacy-based self-esteem, and evaluation of support from their adult children; (2) the relationship between health status and evaluation of support will be mediated by the individual's efficacy-based self-esteem; and, (3) definitional aspects of health status as being a problematic or non-problematic situation will differentially affect the relationship between health status, efficacy-based self-esteem, and evaluation of support. The data used were obtained from the 1986 Study of Americans Changing Lives, Wave I. The sample consisted of two groups of individuals. One group, consisting of 418 individuals defined their health status as a problematic situation; the second group, consisting of 245 individuals defined their health status as non-problematic. Results using discriminant analysis indicated that older individuals who have fewer chronic conditions and functional limitations and who rate their health status as good or excellent define their health status as non-problematic. Although the three health indicators were significant predictors, together they accounted for only 16% of the explained variance. LISREL techniques were used to examine the mediation effects of efficacy-based self-esteem in the problematic and non-problematic groups. Results indicate that in the non-problematic group, efficacy-based self-esteem mediated the effects of health status on evaluation of support. Through its relationship with efficacy-based self-esteem, elders who indicate higher levels of health status indicate increased levels of positive support in the forms of loving, caring, willingness to listen and decreased levels of support in the forms of criticism and demands from their adult children. In the problematic group, although negligible, elders who have higher levels of health status indicate higher levels of negative support in the forms of criticism and demands. Furthermore, the mediating effects of efficacy-based self-esteem were not supported. Findings demonstrate the theoretical importance of empirically examining definitional aspects of the situation as well as dimensions of the self. How one defines their health status we well as their evaluation of efficacy-based self-esteem has implications for the negotiation of joint action.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Stahl, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Gerontology|Social research|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
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