The aging of parents results in changes in the filial relationship. The increasing vulnerability of parents leads adult children to realize that they have individual needs and cannot fully function as sources of security and protection, as they did before. Simultaneously, the evidence of losses and disability imposes the need for care, which tends to be assumed by adult children. Therefore, there is a progressive change in the volume of support exchanges between parents and children, with more support from adult children to parents. The way adult children adapt to these transitions is influenced by several internal and relational factors. Filial maturity has been associated with filial caregiving towards aging parents. The concept of filial maturity describes a developmental stage in which the adult child overcomes the filial crisis, realizing and accepting that the parent also needs support and comfort and starting to relate to him/her beyond the strictly parental role. Thus, this study aims to explore the role of attachment and mental representation of caregiving in filial maturity. A total of 304 children aged between 35 and 64 years old participated in this study, with at least one of the living parents aged 65 years or older, not institutionalized. Attachment was assessed with the Adult Attachment Scale, mental representation of caregiving with the Mental Representations of Caregiving Scale and filial maturity with the Filial Maturity Measure. The results suggest that attachment, mental representation of caregiving and the interaction between the two explain 24.5% (p < 0.01) of variability in Comprehending and 11.1% (p < 0.05) of variability in Distance, two dimensions of filial maturity. These findings suggest that it is important to consider mental representation of caregiving and attachment when adult children must adapt to changes in the filial relationship and to the need to care for parents.

Human development is a bidirectional, person-context relational process, but scarce evidence is available about the relation between the individual variability across the life-span and the neighborhood ecological assets. Therefore, it is important that research focus not only on personal characteristics but on ecological assets as well. This way this study aims to analyze the association between neighborhood ecological assets categorized into 4 dimensions: human, physical or institutional, social or collective activity, accessibility, and the individual functioning. A 3% sample of residents aged 65 years and older in 2 downtown and 3 uptown parishes stratified by age and sex was interviewed at home using a protocol that included the Portuguese version of the Barthel Index in basic activities of daily living (BADL), the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 items (GDS) for evaluating functionality, cognitive performance and depression. The 162 participants were aged on average 75y (sd=7.0), 54% were women and 90% had less than 7 years of education. The majority of participants were independent in BADL (M=90; sd=17.7) and moderately dependent in IADL (M=13, sd=6.0), 20% showed cognitive impairment and a mean score of 8 (sd=2.1) in GDS-15. After controlling for the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, functionality and cognitive performance decreases in persons with worst outdoor mobility. On the other hand depressive symptoms are less common as the number of recreation opportunities, namely associative groups (cultural, educative, professional), increases. These results suggest that aging policies and practices must be ecologically embedded.

Adult children may experience filial anxiety when anticipating the need to care for their aging parents. To investigate the extent to which attachment and mental representation of caregiving predict filial anxiety, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 304 middle-age adults with at least one living parent aged 65 or more. Results suggest that the variance in filial anxiety is mainly accounted for by the mental representation of caregiving and then by attachment. These findings suggest that mental representation of caregiving and attachment are important dimensions to consider when adult children feel unprepared and worried with the need to care for their aging parents.

Background: to analyse the study plans of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Huelva (Spain), the Beja Polytechnic Institute (Portugal) and the Algarve University (Portugal), to identify content on attention to diversity, ageing and the four pillars of the World Health Organisation for this population (health, safety, continuous learning, and participation). Methods: a methodology was carried out mixed research, in the first place a quantitative phase of data analysis was carried out, for which the statistical program SPSS was used for the observation of frequencies and percentages. In the second phase of the work, and in a qualitative way, carried out an analysis of the content of the program collected in the syllabuses. Results: of the total of the 54 degrees analysed, content related to active aging or, the 4 basic pillars that the WHO comments to address it, were only found in a visible way in the degrees related to the disciplines of Physical Activity, Psychology, Social Sciences, Gerontology, Nursing, and Special Education. Conclusions: this work shows that there is a lack of content on care for ageing in many university degrees that enables students to work with this specific population group. This analysis led to the conclusion that many professionals who have contact with the senior population do not receive the necessary training to respond to the particular needs of individuals in this age group. Antecedentes: analizar los planes de estudio de grado y posgrado de la Universidad de Huelva (España), el Instituto Politécnico de Beja (Portugal) y la Universidad del Algarve (Portugal), para identificar contenidos sobre atención a la diversidad, envejecimiento y los cuatro pilares de la Organización Mundial de la Salud enfocados para población de tercera edad (salud, seguridad, aprendizaje continuo y participación). Métodos: se realizó una investigación con metodología mixta. En primer lugar se llevó a cabo una fase cuantitativa de análisis de datos, para lo cual se utilizó el programa estadístico SPSS para la observación de frecuencias y porcentajes. En la segunda fase del trabajo, y de forma cualitativa, se realizó un análisis del contenido de los programas recogidos en los planes de estudios. Resultados: del total de las 54 titulaciones analizadas, los contenidos relacionados con el envejecimiento activo o bien, con los 4 pilares básicos que comenta la OMS para abordarlo, solo se encontraron de forma visible en las titulaciones relacionadas con las disciplinas de Actividad Física, Psicología, Ciencias Sociales, Gerontología, Enfermería y Educación Especial. Conclusiones: este trabajo muestra que existe una carencia de contenidos sobre atención al envejecimiento en muchas carreras universitarias que habilitan a los estudiantes para trabajar con este grupo poblacional específico. Este análisis llevó a la conclusión de que muchos profesionales que tienen contacto con la población mayor no reciben la formación necesaria para dar respuesta a las necesidades particulares de las personas de este grupo de edad.

Diana Morais, Lia Fernandes, e Carla Faria, «Maturidade filiar e cuidados a pais envelhecidos», em Novos Desafios, Novas Competências: Contributos Atuais da Psicologia, ed. Paulo C. Dias et al., Psicologia 7 (Braga: Axioma - Publicações da Faculdade de Filosofia, 2016), 157–70, DOI 10.17990/Axi/2016_9789726972679_157