This paper compared the personal space of middle-aged and elderly individuals toward family members, from a developmental standpoint, and considered the influence of personal space on people living with their families. Personal space was measured as thedistance from another person when engaged in conversation. Middle-aged (n=285) and elderly (over age 65, n=219) participants took part in a simulation by imagining themselves in conversation before being asked to mark the closest point to various people at which they felt comfortable. Interpersonal distances from their children were closer for the middle-aged group than for the elderly group. For both the middle-aged and elderly groups, distances between mothers and daughters were closer than that between mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, or between fathers and sons. There was no difference between the middle-aged and elderly group in the comfortable distances between husbands and wives. Both groups reportedly maintained closer space proximity to their daughters and sons than to their daughters-or sons-in-law. Finally, middle-aged females who lived with their parents were relatively more remote from their spouses.