Whole and Healthy Family: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Mind, Body, and Spirit

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Gerard J. M., Landry-Meyer L., & Roe J. G (2006). Grandparents raising grandchildren: The role of social support in coping with caregiving challenges. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 62, 359–383. doi:10.2190/3796-DMB2-546Q-Y4AQ [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Quinn C., Clare L., & Woods B (2009). The impact of the quality of relationship on the experiences and wellbeing of caregivers of people with dementia: A systematic review. Aging & Mental Health, 13, 143–154. doi:10.1080/13607860802459799 [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Making meals together also allows family recipes to be passed down. Children who learn to cook are developing a valuable life skill, and the work involved is shared – Mom or Dad doesn’t need to feel as though meal prep is their burden alone. [4] 3. Plan Vacations Together That being said, their family has some rather extreme views and practices. I don’t want to criticize their choices in any way, but I felt this book could either be an inspiration or a discouragement, depending on where you are with your family and what choices you make.

Williams K. (2003). Has the future of marriage arrived? A contemporary examination of gender, marriage, and psychological well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 470. doi:10.2307/1519794 [ PMC free article] [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] As children and parents age, the nature of the parent–child relationship often changes such that adult children may take on a caregiving role for their older parents ( Pinquart & Soerensen, 2007). Adult children often experience competing pressures of employment, taking care of their own children, and providing care for older parents ( Evans et al., 2016). Support and strain from intergenerational ties during this stressful time of balancing family roles and work obligations may be particularly important for the mental health of adults in midlife ( Thomas, 2016). Most evidence suggests that caregiving for parents is related to lower well-being for adult children, including more negative affect and greater stress response in terms of overall output of daily cortisol ( Bangerter et al., 2017); however, some studies suggest that caregiving may be beneficial or neutral for well-being ( Merz et al., 2010). Family scholars suggest that this discrepancy may be due to varying types of caregiving and relationship quality. For example, providing emotional support to parents can increase well-being, but providing instrumental support does not unless the caregiver is emotionally engaged ( Morelli, Lee, Arnn, & Zaki, 2015). Moreover, the quality of the adult child-parent relationship may matter more for the well-being of adult children than does the caregiving they provide ( Merz, Schuengel, et al., 2009). Xu M., Thomas P. A., & Umberson D (2016). Marital quality and cognitive limitations in late life. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 71, 165–176. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbv014 [ PMC free article] [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] condemning western medicine and yet saying it has its value at times, then finishing off with “my oldest child has neurological issues, and I’m not saying it was a dose of Tylenol as an infant that did it, but it probably was. I understand you feel guilty if you gave it to your kids too.”For better and for worse, family relationships play a central role in shaping an individual’s well-being across the life course ( Merz, Consedine, Schulze, & Schuengel, 2009). An aging population and concomitant age-related disease underlies an emergent need to better understand factors that contribute to health and well-being among the increasing numbers of older adults in the United States. Family relationships may become even more important to well-being as individuals age, needs for caregiving increase, and social ties in other domains such as the workplace become less central in their lives ( Milkie, Bierman, & Schieman, 2008). In this review, we consider key family relationships in adulthood—marital, parent–child, grandparent, and sibling relationships—and their impact on well-being across the adult life course. Revenson T. A., Griva K., Luszczynska A., Morrison V., Panagopoulou E., Vilchinsky N., & Hagedoorn M (2016). Gender and caregiving: The costs of caregiving for women. In Caregiving in the Illness Context (pp. 48–63). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi:10.1057/9781137558985.0008 [ Google Scholar]

Van Volkom M. (2006). Sibling relationships in middle and older adulthood. Marriage & Family Review, 40, 151–170. doi:10.1300/J002v40n02_08 [ Google Scholar] Research on intergenerational relationships suggests the importance of understanding greater complexity in these relationships in future work. For example, future research should pay greater attention to diverse family structures and perspectives of multiple family members. There is an increasing trend of individuals delaying childbearing or choosing not to bear children ( Umberson, Pudrovska, et al., 2010). How might this influence marital quality and general well-being over the life course and across different social groups? Greater attention to the quality and context of intergenerational relationships from each family member’s perspective over time may prove fruitful by gaining both parents’ and each child’s perceptions. This work has already yielded important insights, such as the ways in which intergenerational ambivalence (simultaneous positive and negative feelings about intergenerational relationships) from the perspectives of parents and adult children may be detrimental to well-being for both parties ( Fingerman, Pitzer, Lefkowitz, Birditt, & Mroczek, 2008; Gilligan, Suitor, Feld, & Pillemer, 2015). Future work understanding the perspectives of each family member could also provide leverage in understanding the mixed findings regarding whether living in blended families with stepchildren influences well-being ( Gennetian, 2005; Harcourt, Adler-Baeder, Erath, & Pettit, 2013) and the long-term implications of these family structures when older adults need care ( Seltzer & Bianchi, 2013). Longitudinal data linking generations, paying greater attention to the context of these relationships, and collected from multiple family members can help untangle the ways in which family members influence each other across the life course and how multiple family members’ well-being may be intertwined in important ways. Williams K. (2004). The transition to widowhood and the social regulation of health: Consequences for health and health risk behavior. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59, S343–S349. doi:10.1093/ geronb/59.6.S343 [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar]Goldsen J., Bryan A., Kim H.-J., Muraco A., Jen S., & Fredriksen-Goldsen K (2017). Who says I do: The changing context of marriage and health and quality of life for LGBT older adults. The Gerontologist, 57, S50. doi:10.1093/geront/gnw174 [ PMC free article] [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar]