Marital Quality of Adult Children and Parental Influence

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Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research
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A growing body of research demonstrates the fundamental ways in which the lives of parents and children are interconnected throughout the life course (Bengtson & Allen 1993; Lye 1996; Umberson 1992; Umberson et al. 2005). However, relatively little research has examined the implications of this enduring parent–child tie on the marital quality of their adult children (Reczek et al. 2010). Research shows that parental influence on the lives of adult children wanes but does not altogether cease, as children grow into adulthood (Cooney & Uhlenberg 1992; Sarkisian & Gerstel 2008; Umberson 1992). Parents are likely to continue to provide their adult child with emotional, practical, and financial support well into adulthood (Cooney and Uhlenberg 1992; Lye 1996). As children marry, however, the salience of the parent–child relationship further diminishes because parents assume a secondary role in providing social support in relation to the spouse (Bryant and Conger 1999...

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Correspondence to Megan R. Underhill .

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Underhill, M.R. (2023). Marital Quality of Adult Children and Parental Influence. In: Maggino, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17299-1_3867

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