Parenting style, resilience, and mental health of community-dwelling elderly adults in China

Abstract

BackgroundGiven the increasing elderly population worldwide, the identification of potential determinants of successful ageing is important. Many studies have shown that parenting style and mental resilience may influence mental health; however, little is known about the psychological mechanisms that underpin this relationship. The current study sought to explore the relationships among mental resilience, perceptions of parents’ parenting style, and depression and anxiety among community-dwelling elderly adults in China.MethodsIn total, 439 community-dwelling elderly Chinese adults aged 60–91 years completed the Personal and Parents’ Parenting Style Scale, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale.ResultsElderly adults whose parents preferred positive and authoritative parenting styles had higher levels of mental resilience and lower levels of depression and anxiety. Elderly adults parented in the authoritarian style were found to have higher levels of depression and anxiety, with lower mental resilience.ConclusionsThe findings of this study provide evidence related to successful ageing and coping with life pressures, and highlight the important effects of parenting on mental health. The results suggest that examination of the proximal determinants of successful ageing is not sufficient—distal factors may also contribute to the ‘success’ of ageing by modifying key psychological dispositions that promote adaptation to adversity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12877-016-0308-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Parenting Style and Emotional Distress Among Chinese College Students: A Potential Mediating Role of the Zhongyong Thinking Style

“…Conversely, if parents communicate with their children in a refusing way, it might impede the development of Zhongyong thinking, leading to emotional distress. These results were also in line with previous reports which implied that parenting styles might influence adult's emotional distress indirectly through their associations with personality traits, such as self-control (Hong and Cui, 2020) and resilience (Zhong et al, 2016). The mediating effect of Zhongyong thinking could be partially accounted for as follows.…”

“…Congruent with previous research (Gao et al, 2012;Zhong et al, 2016;Cui, 2017), we found a positive association of parental rejection and overprotection with depression and anxiety symptoms and a negative association of parental warmth with depression and anxiety among adult college students. It is also consistent with a meta-analytic review of the link between parenting styles and both depressive and anxiety symptoms among adolescents that concluded that less parental warmth and over-involvement were linked with increased risks of depression and anxiety (Yap et al, 2014).…”

“…For age, a great many studies have shown that parenting style has a life-long impact on the offspring (Zhong et al, 2016;Ernst et al, 2020). We therefore hypothesized that age would not moderate the direct or indirect correlations between parenting style and both depression and anxiety symptoms among college students.…”

Compreensão da relação entre a saúde mental do idoso e seu ambiente familiar: uma revisão integrativa

“…14,20,22,24 Fica evidente como a qualidade das relações é proporcional à satisfação, sendo em diversos contextos o motivo de melhora na saúde mental dos idosos. 18,25,15,14 Relações familiares mais atenciosas podem ser associadas com menor ocorrência de ansiedade e transtornos de humor, além de levar a comportamentos de saúde mais positivos. 18,20 Em contrapartida, relações familiares negativas podem ser arroladas com piora da saúde mental, sendo a ansiedade o transtorno mais demonstrado nesses casos.…”

Capacidade funcional e resiliência em idosos hospitalizados

“…It is then observed that being resilient increases the likelihood of talking to health professionals about depressive symptoms and seeking healthcare to alleviate these symptoms, in addition to affecting health and well-being, which are other important aspects of physical and psychological adjustment and adaptation of older adults during the aging process. 19 The experience of aging is heterogeneous and can occur in different ways due to its own insertion in the different historical and social contexts. During the development of a disease, which is usually chronic at this stage, intellectual factors and the personality of the individuals will influence the perception and determine how each one "faces" this stage of life, favoring a resilient behavior or not.…”