Narratives about relationships with parents from the perspective of middle-aged and older adults

The paper examines narratives about relationships with parents, written by participants in middle and later adulthood. Empirical material was submitted in writing as responses to the cue “Tell me about your parents.” The material was subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis, taking into account the following dimensions: themes, type of text, temporal extension, and decentration (different characters perspective). Each age group displayed a characteristic pattern of themes. The narratives of middle-aged adults typically focused on the narrators’ childhood, including the high intensity and variety of emotion associated with it and multidimensional, equivocal evaluations of parents. The narratives of participants in later adulthood were characterized by wider temporal and historical contexts, idealization of childhood, and predominantly positive evaluation of memories.