Vicarious Family Stories of Turkish Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults: Are Family Stories Related to Well-Being?


Bakir-Demir T., Reese E., ŞAHİN ACAR B., Tursel E. G.

JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION, vol.10, no.3, pp.412-424, 2021 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 10 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.12.003
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, PASCAL, Psycinfo
  • Page Numbers: pp.412-424
  • Keywords: Vicarious family stories, Narrative characteristics, Well-being, Family climate generations, Turkish culture, INTERGENERATIONAL NARRATIVES, NEGATIVE AFFECT, LIFE-SPAN, IDENTITY, COHERENCE, MEMORIES, VALIDITY, MODEL
  • Bursa Uludag University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In the current study, we examined whether vicarious family stories are linked to family climate and well-being among young, middle-aged, and older adults across two different samples. In total, there were 168 triads of Turkish families (N = 504). Across Sample 1 (written narratives) and Sample 2 (spoken narratives), we found a significant link between family climate and well-being. In addition, participants from Sample 2 who experienced better family climate narrated more coherent family stories. The results also revealed that participants from Sample 1 who rated their stories as more emotionally positive and participants from Sample 2 who included more identity connections in their stories reported higher levels of well-being. Overall, our findings emphasise the links to well-being for family climate and family stories, and highlight the importance of capturing different characteristics of vicarious stories (elicited via different methods) across generations.