Personal authority in the family system (PAFS) is an intergenerational construct linking personal development and family interacton. Applied here to the notion of caregiver burden, PAFS was hypothesized to predict the degree of stress and strain experienced by adult sons and daughters giving care to their elderly disabled parents. Family variables related to the caregiver's marriage were also assumed to play a role. Caregivers completed the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-Q) and a measure of Caregiving Burden. Subscales of the PAFS-Q included intergenerational individuation, intergenerational intimacy, spousal individuation, spousal intimacy and intergenerational intimidation. Pearson's correlations showed that caregiving burden was significantly correlated to all intergenerational intimacy. Multiple regression analysis showed intergenerational individuation and intimidation to account for 21% of the variance in caregiver burden. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]