The proposal is for a pilot grant under Topic 22.- Personality and Experimental Social Psychology, to investigate the relationship between everyday problem-solving ability in older adults and the quality of their advice as perceived by advisees -- in this case advice from older women to their daughters. Everyday problem-solving ability has been defined by measures which tap the same domains as those reported to be important in intergenerational advice-giving. Thus, older people who maintain everyday problem-solving skills should be perceived as good advice-givers. It is expected that for older adults, the feeling of success in the role of advice- giver (experienced with the observation that someone seeks one's advice, finds it useful, and follows it) contributes to well-being by affecting role satisfaction (in motherhood), social self-efficacy, and satisfaction with the balance of intergenerational exchange within the family. Close contact, operationalized as residence in the same household, is expected to provide mothers with greater familiarity with daughters' problems, and familiarity with problems should further contribute to the perception that mothers' advice is well-founded and useful. Because residential patterns within families vary by culture, assessing Hispanic and White non-Hispanic women (age 65-75) is expected to yield a sample representative of two residence patterns: Half will reside with their daughters, and the other half in the same metropolitan area as their daughters. In addition, norms of filial respect and obligation, which also vary by culture, are expected to affect the perceived value of a mother's advice. For mothers, the assessment includes everyday problem-solving, instrumental activities of daily living, filial respect and obligation, social- self efficacy, feelings of control in the role of parent. Daughters will be asked their opinions of their mothers' advice and also respond to measures of filial respect and obligation.
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NIH ExPorter