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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure

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Published on: September 19, 2019

Help with "strings attached": offspring perceptions that middle-aged parents offer conflicted support.

Karen L Fingerman¹, Yen-Pi Cheng, Kelly E Cichy

¹Correspondence should be addressed to Karen L. Fingerman, Human Development and Family Science, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.

The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences

|May 28, 2013

Summary

Conflicted parental support, where adult children feel burdened by help, is linked to parental stress, autonomy beliefs, and poorer parent-child relationship quality. These issues may stem from long-standing family dynamics or adult-onset challenges.

Keywords:

Family Intergenerational ambivalence.Intergenerational relations Personal relationships Social exchanges Social support

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Area of Science:

Family Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Social Psychology

Background:

Middle-aged adults often provide support to adult children.
Parental support can sometimes lead to feelings of obligation or intrusion in adult children.
Understanding conflicted support is crucial for family relationship dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine conflicted support in parent-adult child relationships.
To identify factors associated with adult children perceiving parental support as conflicted.

Main Methods:

Survey study involving middle-aged parents (n=399) and their adult children (n=592).
Parents reported on providing support and relationship quality.
Adult children reported on conflicted support, parental support, and relationship quality.

Main Results:

Adult children's perception of conflicted support correlated with parental stress and beliefs about child autonomy.
Conflicted support was associated with lower parent-child relationship quality.
Offspring experiencing conflicted support also reported more personal problems.

Conclusions:

Conflicted support is part of broader relationship issues and parental/child distress.
These patterns may indicate persistent family relationship difficulties or emerging adult challenges.
Further research should explore differences between conflicted and normative parent-child support dynamics.