Intergenerational solidarity and psychological well-being among older Mexican Americans: a three-generations study

The influence of intergenerational solidarity (association and affection) on the psychological well-being of older Mexican Americans was investigated with data from a three-generations study. Perceived affection with grandchildren was an important positive predictor of well-being. Affection with children and association with either children or grandchildren, however, were not positively related to well-being. In fact, association with children was related to greater depression among the elderly adults. This unexpected finding might be the result of dependency of elderly people on their children, which is positively correlated with both association and depression. The addition of a measure of dependency to the analysis, however, failed to explain the positive relationship between association and depression.