UMass Boston is conducting a research study that is examining the relationships of older adults with living parents who are also very old and how parent-child dynamics work late in life. The study is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and is approved by the UMass Boston Institutional Review Board and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs.

The study was established to address the needs of a growing group of senior adults who are 65 years of age and older who are aging alongside their parents who are 90 years of age and older.

UMass is looking to discern what these relationships are like, what challenges these individuals may face and what support they may need. An additional avenue that is being evaluated is how Dementia may change the senior child/senior parent relationship.

The principal investigator of the study is Kathrin Boerner, a fellow at the LeadingAge LTSS Center* @UMass Boston and an associate professor of gerontology at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School. In a February 2019 article, entitled “How Do Parent-Child Relationships Work in Later Life?“, written by Steve Syre, Ms. Boerner says “Older children with very old parents are not so unusual anymore, and virtually nothing is known about the relationships of very old adults and their ‘old’ children.” 

The article noted: “Researchers have interviewed about 70 pairs of adult children and parents so far. They expect to speak with 120 parent-child couples by the end of the year. The original scope of the study has been expanded to include 100 older children who have a parent living with dementia. The study’s data-collection process is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Researchers plan to finish their data analysis and begin to disseminate final results in a series of articles later in 2020.”

Potential participants should contact the UMass research team at 617-901-1082 or email at agingtogether@umb.edu. If selected, you will receive $40 as a thank you for your participation in the study.

For continually updated information regarding the study, please visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AgingTogetherUMB/.