Attachment in Adult Child‐Older Parent Relationships: Research, Theory, and Practice

Abstract

Greater longevity has increased the years that adult children share with their older parents, yet it creates the potential for family stress situations that may be amenable to counseling intervention. In this article, the authors examined an attachment theory perspective for conceptualizing adult child—older parent issues by introducing the basic constructs of attachment theory and by demonstrating how the theory and its related research can be applied to adult children's struggles with older parental issues.