Can You Believe Aging Parents Grow Stubborn and They Know It?

Studies show that adult children complain that their parents are stubborn and that the parents themselves admit this.

Considerable’s recent article entitled “Why are your aging parents so stubborn? Researchers think they have the answer” explains that as children become more involved, they may make suggestions for things that older adults might do to maintain their safety and well-being.

However, older adults see things differently, says a study of 189 aging parents with an adult child.

Researchers say a primary reason is differing goals of children and parents. An aging parent might want to exercise his independence, by walking to the store for groceries. However, his adult son may see it as risking a fall.

A study that asked 192 middle-aged adults to keep diaries of their parents’ behavior found that 75% of adult children and 66% of older parents reported that the parents acted stubbornly sometimes. Just 40% of children and 20% of parents said the stubborn behavior happened frequently.

A third reported stubborn behavior at least once, and about 20% reported risky behavior at least once in a seven-day period.

The studies wanted to distinguish the difference between stubbornness as a personality trait and as behavior that can be modified.

The research cautioned that such circumstances could harm the emotional well-being of the adult children and their relationships with their parents.

“As parents age, every day, some adult children encounter behaviors that are difficult to manage,” the second study said.

Children with good relationships with their parents reported less stubbornness and vice versa, as one might expect.

Children were more likely to report parental stubbornness, if the parents were disabled, and children were likely to say that fathers were more stubborn than mothers.

These tensions in families may have a “corrosive effect,” in the way in which adult children and their parents interact with one another over the long term, the researchers said.

Reference: Considerable (July 17, 2020) “Why are your aging parents so stubborn? Researchers think they have the answer”

Suggested Key Terms: Elder Law Attorney, Elder Care, Caregiving, Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease

Will I Live Longer, if I Babysit the Grandchildren?

There’s a growing body of research that supports the notion that grandparents will live longer if they babysit the grandchildren. Parents with young children can know that their parents and their children are getting benefits from babysitting time together, says Considerable’s June article entitled “Grandparents who babysit a grandchild live longer, study finds.”

Considerable spoke with Dr. David Coall, senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University and a co-author of a 2017 study that found a connection between grandparent caregiving and mortality. Dr. Coall gave some updates in the field and highlighted further connections that still need to be made.

The 2017 study that Dr. Coall co-authored analyzed date from the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), which monitored the health and social conditions of over 500 participants in Germany between 1990 and 2009. The study focused on grandparents who simply provided periodic babysitting, rather than primary caregiving for their grandchildren.

Dr. Coall’s team of researchers found that caregiving grandparents had a 37% lower risk of death than non-caregiving grandparents. The same 37% risk reduction in mortality was found when comparing caregiving grandparents with non-grandparents.

Therefore, the risk of dying over a 20-year period was a third lower for grandparents who provided some level of care for their grandchildren, as opposed to grandparents who provided no care at all.

According to Dr. Coall, “The obvious next question was, ‘Is that purely because healthier grandparents are more likely to babysit and live longer?’”

In August 2017, he used the same BASE data to see if grandparents were healthier due to babysitting, or if they were babysitting, because they were already healthier and able to do so. Dr. Coall found that health only accounted for 22% of the link between helping and longevity. Interestingly, a direct effect of babysitting on longevity still existed in the data.

“So, we continue to look for what could be making this link between helping and living longer.”

Some longitudinal studies have examined if babysitting is linked with a subsequent improvement in grandparental health, with mixed results. The most recent study, a collaboration with researchers in Finland that was published in July, looked at whether an individual who became a grandparent subsequently went on to enjoy improved health.

Dr. Coall said that the research shows “a specific improvement in physical health, but not in emotional or mental health. Maybe this works through increased activity levels looking after grandchildren.”

Reference: Considerable (June 23, 2020) “Grandparents who babysit a grandchild live longer, study finds”

Suggested Key Terms: Elder Law Attorney, Child Care, Caregiving