Intergenerational Transmission of Relationship Quality in Later-Life Families

Objective

This article examines the transmission of older women's relationship quality with their mothers and fathers to their relationship quality with their own adult children in midlife. We also investigate how the transmission is moderated by the dimension of relationship quality (closeness vs. strain) and the gender of both the older women's parents and their adult children.

Background

Prior research has primarily examined parents' transmission of relationship quality to young children with little attention to whether and when this pattern occurs in later-life families.

Method

We conducted multilevel analyses using data collected from 249 older women and 643 of their adult children as part of the Within-Family Differences Study-I.

Results

We found evidence for transmission of older women's reported closeness and tension with their mothers and fathers to their reported closeness and tension with their adult children. Adult children's reports also revealed that older women's closeness with their own mothers was transmitted to their adult children's reported closeness with the older women themselves. Mother-child closeness was transmitted more strongly than mother-child tension, and mother-child closeness was transmitted more strongly to daughters than sons, based on adult children's reports.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates the continuity of intergenerational influence in later-life families and highlights the essential roles that selective social learning and social structural position (i.e., gender) play in conditioning the socialization process.

Measuring Awareness of Age-Related Change: Development of a 10-Item Short Form for Use in Large-Scale Surveys

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Existing measures of subjective aging have been useful in predicting developmental outcomes. Unlike other constructs of subjective aging, Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) focuses on how adults' self-perceptions of aging result in an awareness of age-related gains and losses. We developed a 10-item short form (SF) of the existing 50-item AARC questionnaire as a reliable, valid, and parsimonious solution for use primarily in large-scale surveys but also in applied contexts.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

AARC was assessed in a German and North American sample of 819 individuals. Item selection for the suggested AARC-10 SF was based on multidimensional item response theory (MIRT). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test for measurement invariance (MI) across groups of participants in middle age (40-69 years), early old age (70-79 years), and advanced age (80+ years). Concurrent and discriminant validity in old age was assessed with regard to established measures of subjective aging, well-being, and health.

RESULTS

The AARC-10 SF showed adequate fit to the data and reliability for the perceived gains and losses composites. Valid comparison of latent means was confirmed for early old and advanced age respondents and with some reservation also for middle-aged individuals due to partial MI. Concurrent and discriminant validity were confirmed.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The proposed AARC-10 SF offers an economic device to measure AARC and use the construct as an antecedent or outcome in the context of substantive model testing in large-scale survey data.

Age-Moderation of Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Cognitive Functioning in Mid- and Late-Life for Specific Cognitive Abilities

Age moderation of genetic and environmental contributions to Digits Forward, Digits Backward, Block Design, Symbol Digit, Vocabulary, and Synonyms was investigated in a sample of 14,534 twins aged 26 to 98 years. The Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium contributed the sample, which represents nine studies from three countries (USA, Denmark, and Sweden). Average test performance was lower in successively older age groups for all tests. Significant age moderation of additive genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared environmental variance components was observed, but the pattern varied by test. The genetic contribution to phenotypic variance across age was smaller for both Digit Span tests, greater for Synonyms, and stable for Block Design and Symbol Digit. The non-shared environmental contribution was greater with age for the Digit Span tests and Block Design, while the shared environmental component was small for all tests, often more so with age. Vocabulary showed similar age-moderation patterns as Synonyms, but these effects were nonsignificant. Findings are discussed in the context of theories of cognitive aging.

Defining the Neural Substrate of the Adult Outcome of Childhood ADHD: A Multimodal Neuroimaging Study of Response Inhibition

OBJECTIVE

Understanding the neural processes tied to the adult outcome of childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could guide novel interventions to improve its clinical course. It has been argued that normalization of prefrontal cortical activity drives remission from ADHD, while anomalies in subcortical processes are "fixed," present even in remission. Using multimodal neuroimaging of inhibitory processes, the authors tested these hypotheses in adults followed since childhood, contrasting remitted against persistent ADHD.

METHOD

Adult participants (persistent ADHD, N=35; remit-ted ADHD, N=47; never affected, N=99) were scanned with functional MRI (fMRI) (N=85), magnetoencephalography (N=33), or both (N=63) during a response inhibition task.

RESULTS

In fMRI analyses, during inhibition, right caudate anomalies reflected a childhood ADHD history and were present even among those who remitted. By contrast, differences related to adult outcome emerged in cortical (right inferior frontal and inferior parietal/precuneus) and cerebellar regions. The persistent ADHD group showed under-activation, whereas the remitted ADHD group did not differ significantly from the never-affected group. Magnetoencephalography showed that the association between adult symptom severity and prefrontal neuronal activity was confined to the time window covering the act of inhibition (300 ms-350 ms). Group differences in cerebellar and parietal neuronal activity occurred during the time window of performance monitoring processes (500 ms-600 ms).

CONCLUSIONS

By combining fMRI and magnetoencephalography, the location and time window of neuronal activity that underpins the adult outcome of ADHD was pinpointed. Thus, the cortico-cerebellar processes tied to the clinical course of ADHD are separated from the subcortical processes that are not.

Persistent cannabis dependence and alcohol dependence represent risks for midlife economic and social problems: A longitudinal cohort study

With the increasing legalization of cannabis, understanding the consequences of cannabis use is particularly timely. We examined the association between cannabis use and dependence, prospectively assessed between ages 18-38, and economic and social problems at age 38. We studied participants in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, a cohort (n=1,037) followed from birth to age 38. Study members with regular cannabis use and persistent dependence experienced downward socioeconomic mobility, more financial difficulties, workplace problems, and relationship conflict in early midlife. Cannabis dependence was not linked to traffic-related convictions. Associations were not explained by socioeconomic adversity, childhood psychopathology, achievement orientation, or family structure; cannabis-related criminal convictions; early onset of cannabis dependence; or comorbid substance dependence. Cannabis dependence was associated with more financial difficulties than alcohol dependence; no difference was found in risks for other economic or social problems. Cannabis dependence is not associated with fewer harmful economic and social problems than alcohol dependence.