Change in social support and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of aging mothers of adults with mental retardation

We studied 251 older women, who had an adult child with mental retardation to examine the psychological consequences of change in social support durin g the later years of the life course. We examined how maternal age and futu re orientation (legal guardianship) with respect to caregiving condition me effects of social support. For. women over age 65, an increase in tire amo unt of emotional support from network members was predictive of an increase in psychological well-being but change in the number of network members wa s not related to change iii well-being. For women age 65 or younger, an inc rease in both the size of their social support network and the amount of em otional support received predicted enhanced well-being only for those who w ere not legal guardians for their adult child.