Merril Silverstein (HDFS/ MAX/ ASI) PI, Douglas Wolf (MAX/ ASI) co-I, and Maria Brown (SWK/ ASI) co-I,
Extramural Sponsored Project – National Institutes of Health (NIH), 7/1/19-6/30/21
In this project, researchers examine vulnerability of older adults in relation to the care-careers of their adult children over the family life cycle. Results will inform theory about how and when children respond to their parents’ early investments in them. Goals of the research are to: (1) link early transfers of valued resources of time, money, and emotion to rates of change in the amount of care adult children provide to their vulnerable older parents; (2) test a novel methodological approach—the “countdown model”—that uses time-to-death to represent global vulnerability that triggers the delivery of care to older parents; and (3) identify whether care to older parents is more strongly associated with time-to-death from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related causes compared to other causes.