Adult Children

Ties between children and their parents are among the most enduring and consequential for the well-being of both generations across the life course. In fact, from early adulthood through the last decades of parents’ lives, adult children and their parents are typically in frequent contact, regardless of how far they live from one another, and serve as major sources of both instrumental and expressive social support. This entry begins with a discussion of the role of parent–adult child ties in well-being; it continues with a description and explanation of relationship quality and patterns of exchanges between parents and adult children outside the context of caregiving.