TY - JOUR
T1 - The Negative Impact of Adult Children’s Marital Dissolution on Older Parents’ Mental Health in South Korea
AU - Ko, Pei Chun
AU - Sung, Pildoo
N1 - Acknowledgments:
An earlier version of the paper was presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of Population Association of America (PAA). The authors would like to gratefully thank the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS) for providing the KLoSA data. P.C. Ko planned the study, wrote the paper, and revised the paper. P. Sung analyzed the data, wrote the paper and revised paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Objective: Little is known about whether and the extent children’s marital dissolution deteriorates older parents’ mental health. This study examines the association of children’s marital dissolution with parents’ mental health, and whether children’s gender and intergenerational contact and support moderate such an association in South Korea, where family lives are strongly linked under the Confucian collectivistic legacy.Methods: We apply fixed-effects models on 15,584 parent–child dyads nested in 5,673 older parents (45–97 years in Wave 1) participating in the four waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), conducted from 2006 to 2012.Results: In South Korea, a son’s transition to marital dissolution is associated with higher levels of parents’ depressive symptoms. Frequent parent–son contacts of at least once a week, living with a son, and increasing financial transfers from parents to a son tend to reduce the negative association of the son’s marital dissolution with parents’ depressive symptoms.Discussion: The findings imply that a son’s transition to marital dissolution, as a later-life stressor, is detrimental to parents’ mental health in a patrilineal Asian cultural context. The study also highlights the importance of intergenerational bonding in mitigating the negative impact of children’s marital dissolution upwardly transmitted to their older parents.
AB - Objective: Little is known about whether and the extent children’s marital dissolution deteriorates older parents’ mental health. This study examines the association of children’s marital dissolution with parents’ mental health, and whether children’s gender and intergenerational contact and support moderate such an association in South Korea, where family lives are strongly linked under the Confucian collectivistic legacy.Methods: We apply fixed-effects models on 15,584 parent–child dyads nested in 5,673 older parents (45–97 years in Wave 1) participating in the four waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), conducted from 2006 to 2012.Results: In South Korea, a son’s transition to marital dissolution is associated with higher levels of parents’ depressive symptoms. Frequent parent–son contacts of at least once a week, living with a son, and increasing financial transfers from parents to a son tend to reduce the negative association of the son’s marital dissolution with parents’ depressive symptoms.Discussion: The findings imply that a son’s transition to marital dissolution, as a later-life stressor, is detrimental to parents’ mental health in a patrilineal Asian cultural context. The study also highlights the importance of intergenerational bonding in mitigating the negative impact of children’s marital dissolution upwardly transmitted to their older parents.
KW - Gender
KW - Intergenerational financial transfers
KW - Linked lives
KW - Parent–child contacts
KW - Stress-process model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137136832&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/geronb/gbac056
DO - 10.1093/geronb/gbac056
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35385576
AN - SCOPUS:85137136832
SN - 1079-5014
VL - 77
SP - 1721
EP - 1731
JO - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
JF - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
IS - 9
ER -
