PARENT-ADOLESCENT COMMUNICATION IN SANDWICH GENERATION FAMILIES

This study examined parent-adolescent communication in families of middle-adolescent children in which al least one parent war providing assistance to an aging grandparent. Parents and adolescents from 62 three-generation families completed questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis indicated that developmental characteristics of family members and mothers' strain in their relationships with grandparents were related to variations in parent-adolescent communication. Specifically, the major findings were that (a) adolescents who exhibited greater psychosocial maturity indicated that they shared better communication with parents than did less mature adolescents (b) fathers' heightened concerns over midlife issues were related both to fathers' and adolescents' reports of poorer communication, and (c) mothers' experiences of strain in their relationships with grandparents were associated with their perceptions of poorer communication with their children. These results illustrate the usefulness of combining life-span development and family systems theories to serve as a framework for understanding parent-adolescent communication in a multigenerational context.