Role of Emotional Attachment and Reciprocity in Sons’ Perceived Care Motivation for Parental Figures

The collapse of the traditional Japanese household system and the subsequent social advancement of women has led supporting parents as a family matter, and led more men to assume caregiving roles; however, very few studies have focused on sons’ care motivation. This study aimed to understand adult sons’ perceived care motivation and to examine the respective related factors of emotional attachment and reciprocity. A total of 1322 men (M [age] = 44.5) participated in a web-based questionnaire survey. Perceived care motivation for providing five types of support (e.g., helping with daily activities and housework) to each parent and parent-in-law was assessed. Regression analyses revealed that emotional attachment with parents and parents-in-law predicted perceived care motivation for all types of support. Furthermore, the role of reciprocity was indicated by the association between rearing by mother-in-law and son-in-law’s motivation to provide assistance in financial matters, housework, and visiting a hospital.

Aspects of Grit Among Dementia Family Caregivers

Dementia family caregivers often show deep devotion and a strong sense of purpose and duty toward their relatives needing care. The concept of grit, which includes aspects of commitment, purpose, perseverance, and resilience, is a novel theoretical approach to expanding understanding of dementia family caregiver strengths amidst the challenges they face. Multiple psychosocial and contextual factors are likely to interact with and influence grit among these caregivers. This symposium addresses commitment to the family dementia caregiver role, willingness to embrace the stressful work of caregiving, and perseverance in finding ways to sustain caregiving roles under typical and adverse circumstances. Blieszner focuses on associations between grit and stressors and strains that challenge caregiver well-being and jeopardize continued caregiving. Wilks considers the impact of spiritual support on sustaining resilience among Caucasian and African American dementia caregivers. McCann explores caregivers’ responses to changes in informal support and social interactions available to assist with home care tasks over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Albers examines the strengths and resources caregivers draw upon to manage the challenges of caring for and supporting a relative in long-term residential care during the pandemic. Collectively, these presentations provide new insights into the range of influences on aspects of grit and circumstances in which grit sustains caregiving. Discussant Margrett considers the value of the concept of grit for furthering understanding of caregivers’ abilities to manage typical and unique challenges in their caregiver roles and offers suggestions for future research and interventions to enhance grit among dementia family caregivers.

As a Nurse in the Family: Three Women's Stories of What it Means for a Female Nurse to be a Caregiver to a Family Member Who is Ill, Elderly or with an Enduring Illness

<p>In this research three female registered nurses relived their experiences of being caregiver to a family member who was ill, elderly or with an enduring illness and explored whether they chose, or felt obligated, to assume the role of caregiver because they were nurses. This research was an exploratory descriptive study utilising narrative as inquiry and the method of story-telling. It is women-centered, taking into account the unpaid role of caregiving within families most often fulfilled by women, due to habitual gender bias. The stories of the participants Marie, Polly and Frances (pseudonyms) were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using core story creation and emplotment. At the end of each story emerging themes were identified and compared for similarities and uniqueness, then simplified through the use of diagrams. Four main themes were identified and renamed to highlight research findings - these were the culture of nursing, silence of the nurses, emotional cloudiness, and the natural role of the nurse. Through this study it is hoped that nurses will be more aware of the impact their caregiving roles have had on their lives. The importance in acknowledging the effects of caregiving, relevance of informing employers to promote supportiveness, implications for workforce development and recognising the loss of objectivity in caring when emotions are involved, are identified in this research. Further indepth research about these concepts would be a valuable contribution to the nursing profession and ideas for future research have been identified.</p>

As a Nurse in the Family: Three Women's Stories of What it Means for a Female Nurse to be a Caregiver to a Family Member Who is Ill, Elderly or with an Enduring Illness

<p>In this research three female registered nurses relived their experiences of being caregiver to a family member who was ill, elderly or with an enduring illness and explored whether they chose, or felt obligated, to assume the role of caregiver because they were nurses. This research was an exploratory descriptive study utilising narrative as inquiry and the method of story-telling. It is women-centered, taking into account the unpaid role of caregiving within families most often fulfilled by women, due to habitual gender bias. The stories of the participants Marie, Polly and Frances (pseudonyms) were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using core story creation and emplotment. At the end of each story emerging themes were identified and compared for similarities and uniqueness, then simplified through the use of diagrams. Four main themes were identified and renamed to highlight research findings - these were the culture of nursing, silence of the nurses, emotional cloudiness, and the natural role of the nurse. Through this study it is hoped that nurses will be more aware of the impact their caregiving roles have had on their lives. The importance in acknowledging the effects of caregiving, relevance of informing employers to promote supportiveness, implications for workforce development and recognising the loss of objectivity in caring when emotions are involved, are identified in this research. Further indepth research about these concepts would be a valuable contribution to the nursing profession and ideas for future research have been identified.</p>

Family functioning and stroke: Family members’ perspectives

Background: Stroke survivors often experience permanent or temporal physical and psychological stroke impairments. As a result, stroke survivors are often discharged to recover in their home environments and are cared for mostly by family members. Additionally, caregiving roles are often assumed without any formal training or preparation whatsoever. This can transform the family’s functional patterns due to adjustments that are made to accommodate the caregiving needs.Objectives: To explore the experiences and influence of stroke on families and on family functioning.Method: Explorative descriptive qualitative research design through the use of in-depth interviews were employed as the means of data collection. The sample size was eight (8) family members and was guided by the saturation point. Data was thematically analysed.Results: Four themes emerged from the analysis: 1) reduced interactions with family members due to communication barriers, 2) the influence of stroke on family relationships, 3) emotional engagement in caring for a family member with a stroke and 4) financial implications of stroke on family functioning. This study found that stroke can influence the family functioning negatively as family members may be forced to change their functional patterns. However, some family members reported positive experiences, they developed a supportive structure to accommodate the new life of the stroke survivor.Conclusion: Using the McMaster’s model of family functioning, this study found that stroke is a threat to the six dimensions of family functioning: 1) problem-solving, 2) communication, 3) roles, 4) affective responsiveness, 5) affective involvement, and 6) behaviour control.

Parenting the Exceptional Social-Emotional Needs of Gifted and Talented Children: What Do We Know?

Parenting gifted and talented (G/T) children is a journey with unique experiences that can differ from the lived experiences of parents raising non-gifted and talented children. These unique experiences typically raise concerns, influence decisions, and exacerbate stress and anxiety regarding the children’s future development and education. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current literature in order to highlight the topic of parenting G/T children with a focus on their exceptional social-emotional needs. Studies support the conclusion that significant determinants of G/T children’s personal growth are authoritative parenting, which provides autonomy and self-motivation, and parents’ behaviors and attitudes toward the exceptional needs of G/T children. Conversely, authoritarian parenting negatively impacts children’s well-being and mental health, impeding the positive development of the child’s potential. Enhancing the caregiving capacity of family members—by reducing the stress associated with their parenting and caregiving roles—can have a powerful impact on the developmental trajectory of gifted children.

Employment of Young Adult Cancer Caregivers, Other Disease Caregivers, and Non-Caregiving Adults

Young adults are increasingly taking on caregiving roles in the United States, and cancer caregivers often experience a greater burden than other caregivers. An unexpected caregiving role may disrupt caregiver employment, leading to lost earning potential and workforce re-entry challenges. We examined caregiving employment among young adult caregivers (i.e., family or friends) using the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which included caregiving, employment, and sociodemographic variables. Respondents’ ages varied between 18 and 39, and they were categorized as non-caregivers (n = 16,009), other caregivers (n = 3512), and cancer caregivers (n = 325). Current employment was compared using Poisson regressions to estimate adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), including gender-stratified models. We estimated employment by cancer caregiving intensity (low, moderate, high). Cancer caregivers at all other income levels were more likely to be employed than those earning below USD 20,000 (aIRR ranged: 1.88–2.10, all p< 0.015). Female cancer caregivers who were 25–29 (aIRR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.51–1.00) and single (aIRR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.52–0.95) were less likely to be employed than their counterparts. College-educated males were 19% less likely to be employed than high school-educated caregivers (95% CI = 0.68–0.98). Evaluating caregiver employment goals and personal financial situations may help identify those at risk for employment detriments, especially among females, those with lower educational attainment, and those earning below USD 20,000 annually.

Understanding mental health outcomes related to compassion fatigue in parents of children diagnosed with intellectual disability

Background: Parenting a child diagnosed with intellectual disability includes a variety of stressors. The degree to which stress affects these parents has been given little emphasis. Compassion fatigue includes experiencing an emotional response to being unable to relieve the suffering of a loved one, burnout, strain and stress on the caregiver. Compassion fatigue develops in parents of children diagnosed with intellectual disability due to their caregiving roles. Method: A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted using 25 semi-structured interviews to understand the mental health outcomes of parents caring for a child diagnosed with intellectual disability. Results: The results showed that initial emotional reactions after receiving their child’s diagnosis was a combination of anxiety, depression and compassion satisfaction. This study’s findings suggest that parents of children diagnosed with intellectual disability experience moderate levels of compassion fatigue in the caring of their child. Conclusions: This research provides evidence that the caregiving of a child diagnosed with intellectual disability comes with a myriad of stressors that can lead to compassion fatigue.

The Relationship Between Children’s Gender Composition and Parents’ All-Cause Mortality Among Older Adults in Korea

Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging ( N = 3,356 participants aged 65 or older) and estimating Cox proportional hazard regression models, this study investigated the association between gender composition of children and parents’ mortality risk. This study showed that compared with having both daughters and sons, having exclusively daughters (but not exclusively sons) was associated with higher mortality risk. This association, however, was significant for mothers, but not for fathers. To shed light on source of this association, this study distinguished between mothers with only daughters who receive and do not receive regular financial support from children. Results showed that mothers had elevated mortality risk only if they do not receive regular financial support from their children. Traditional caregiving roles of sons for older parents in Korea may lead to a mortality disadvantage among mothers of daughters vis-à-vis a reduction in financial assistance from children.

The Relations Among Types of Parentification, School Achievement, and Quality of Life in Early Adolescence: An Exploratory Study

Children who experience parentification may have trouble performing developmental tasks due to being overwhelmed by their family caregiving roles and responsibilities. Past studies have found that parentification is negatively associated with academic achievement. However, most of these studies are limited in that they are retrospective and examine the association but not the mechanisms shaping them. The aim of the study was to explore to what extent diverse types of parentification relate to academic achievement and to what extent these relations are mediated by self-reported quality of life among adolescents. The study sample was composed of Polish early adolescents (N = 191; age: M = 14.61; SD = 1.26). Types of parentification were measured with the Parentification Questionnaire for Youth, and quality of life was assessed with KidScreen27. School achievement was measured based on mean semester grade. We explored the associations among study variables and performed six mediation models in the planned analyses. Overall, bivariate relations were significant in a theoretically expected way, although the effect sizes for these associations were rather small. In the mediation analyses, the results showed that four of the six models were not significant. Different from previous studies, instrumental parentification was positively related to school achievement. Additionally, this positive association was mediated by adolescents’ general quality of life. Taken together, the findings were similar and different from the empirical literature base on types of parentification and select outcomes.