MIDLIFE, ADOLESCENCE, AND PARENTAL EMPLOYMENT IN FAMILY SYSTEMS

Parents' midlife concerns and the resolution of those concerns were ex amined as a function of their children's adolescence and their involve ment in employment via analyses acknowledging the interdependence of m others and fathers. Multivariate analyses of variance results demonstr ated that fathers' and mothers' midlife concerns were similar and mode stly related to their children's pubertal development. There were sign ificant differences between families of sons and of daughters. Mothers ' and fathers' temporal and emotional involvement in paid work were di fferentially related to their own and to one another's midlife concern s. Finally, the relationships among parents' midlife concerns, work in volvement, and children's pubertal status depended in part on the degr ee to which spouses felt supported by one another.