Patterns of family support exchange and personal mastery in later life: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Objectives: The association between family support exchange and personal mastery among older adults remains unclear. The present study addresses this gap.

Methods: We utilized two waves of data from the Panel on Health and Ageing of Singaporean Elderly (N = 1398). Latent class analysis was conducted to identify distinct patterns of family support exchange. Regression analysis was then used to assess whether the identified patterns predicted personal mastery four years later.

Results: Four and three prevalent patterns of family support exchange emerged for males and females, respectively. Males who received monetary and material support from their kin developed lower personal mastery than those who only received monetary support. Females who provided and received monetary support developed higher personal mastery than those who lacked support exchange.

Conclusion: Our latent class approach has captured the reality of family support exchange and thus provided a valid picture of the implication of such exchange for personal mastery. Our data suggest that support provision may elevate personal mastery. This observation is discussed with reference to the self-enhancement perspective and notion of valence of support provision.

Keywords:

• Support exchange
• personal mastery
• latent class analysis
• longitudinal
• older adults

Acknowledgements

The second author acknowledges use of the services and facilities of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, funded by NICHD Center Grant P2CHD041028.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The complete PHASE dataset is not publicly available. The data used this study is available upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

Waves 2 and 3 of the Panel on Health and Ageing of Singaporean Elderly (PHASE) were funded or supported by the following sources: Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council under its Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award ‘Establishing a Practical and Theoretical Foundation for Comprehensive and Integrated Community, Policy and Academic Efforts to Improve Dementia Care in Singapore’ (NMRC-STAR-0005-2009), and its Clinician Scientist – Individual Research Grant - New Investigator Grant ‘Singapore Assessment for Frailty in Elderly-Building upon the Panel on Health and Aging of Singaporean Elderly’ (NMRC-CNIG-1124-2014); and Duke-NUS Geriatric Research Fund.