Adult Children of Aging Parents: A Guide for Counselors

AdriAnne L. Johnson

2005

This country is seeing a dramatic incline in the aging of one of its largest populations, the baby boomer generation, bringing to the surface an unprecedented demand for needs and services in the adult child population as they transition among increasingly blurring familial roles, boundaries, and expectations. Shulman and Sperry (1992) defined adult children of aging parents as caregivers (p. 427), and state that they tend to range in age from 40 to 60 years of age, and that women account for approximately 72%. Stein, Wemmerus, Ward, Gaines, Freeberg, and Jewell (1998) asserted that in fact, despite such dramatic shifts in family roles, researchers have paid relatively little attention to the obligations that accompany parent-child relationships throughout adulthood.