Profiles of intergenerational and digital solidarity between middle-aged parents and young adult children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Associations with parents' psychological well-being.

Abstract

We uncovered latent profiles of intergenerational and digital solidarity between middle-aged parents and their oldest young adult children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we investigated whether solidarity latent profiles were related to middle-aged parents' psychological well-being. We used data from the 2022 survey of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), which involved 234 middle-aged parents providing information about their oldest young adult children. Using latent profile analysis, we uncovered five solidarity profiles (Tight-knit traditional, distant-but-digitally connected, obligatory, sociable, and conflictual) in relationships between middle-aged parents and their oldest young adult children during the pandemic. Furthermore, we found that middle-aged parents belonging to the distant-but-digitally connected and tight-knit traditional profiles had enhanced psychological well-being than those in the conflictual profile during the pandemic. These findings indicate that middle-aged parents' use of digital communication with young adult children benefited their psychological well-being during the pandemic. Moreover, using digital communication may be related to strong solidarity between middle-aged parents and young adult children when they live independently.