Family Solidarity and Gratefulness

The study carried out with 608 Spanish people intended to analyse the association between gratitude and intergenerational exchange in the family in the final period of individual life. In particular, the study aimed at answering two questions: 1. Is older people gratitude higher when the intergenerational exchange is perceived as equal (older people give as much as they receive) or is it higher when they receive or give more in the intergenerational exchange? 2. Can family prosociality, that is how much older people perceive they have given to their child in terms of engaged parenting and practical help, explain the well documented association between gratitude and older people well-being and adjustment? In relation with these two aims we predicted the following hypotheses: 1. According the equity theory, levels of gratitude should be higher when older people perceive a balance between give and take. In the elderly population it is also well-known that aged persons are likely to prefer to be proactive agents of their life and not become a passive recipient of help. Therefore, it was also assumed that the levels of gratitude would be lowest when participants perceived to have more received than given in life by their offspring in terms of emotional and practical help. 2. Family prosociality should mediate the relationship between gratitude and individual adjustment. In other terms, we assumed that the gratitude for own life was likely to promote a positive and generative engagement in the family, assessed through behaviours of support and help towards the children realization, which in turn would affect personal and family experience of elderly well-being.