Social support: can it be too much?

Valeria Bordone, University of Mannheim

Social support impacts on health outcomes through several pathways. The specific mechanisms are, however, not fully explored. My research question focuses on the amount of different dimensions of social support (emotional, informational, appraisal and instrumental). In particular, I wonder whether there might be a “too much” support provided by adult-children to their older-parents. This study takes into account the role of intergenerational conflict, controls for selection in family support due to changes in health conditions and avoids unobserved heterogeneity. In the empirical analysis, I apply fixed-effect logistic regression models to panel data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Preliminary analyses show that it exists a curvilinear relationship between child´s (informational-appraisal) support to the parent and locus of control of the elderly.