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 during the later years of the life course. We examined how maternal age and future orientation (legal guardianship) with respect to caregiving condition the effects of social support. For women over age 65, an increase in the amount of emotional support from network members was predictive of an increase in psychological well‐being, but change in the number of network members was not related to change in well‐being. For women age 65 or younger, an increase in both the size of their social support network and the amount of emotional support received predicted enhanced well‐being only for those who were not legal guardians for their adult child.