Revisiting Intergenerational Contact and Relationship Quality in Later Life: Parental Characteristics Matter

Abstract

Contact and relationship quality between adult children and aging parents are two widely used indicators of intergenerational solidarity and are often assumed to be positively correlated. However, the association between the two may depend on characteristics of the parent involved. Using Family Exchanges Study Wave 1, this study assessed whether parental difficulties—measured as functional limitations and life problems—and gender moderated the associations between middle-aged adults’ contact and relationship quality with their parents. We found that more frequent email or phone contact was associated with worse relationship quality for fathers who had functional limitations. For life problems, however, more contact was not related to relationship quality for fathers with life problems. The associations did not differ by mother’s difficulties. These results suggest that frequent contact between middle-aged adult children and aging parents does not uniformly reflect better relationship quality but rather depends on parents’ characteristics.