Italian Adolescent Young Caregivers of Grandparents: Difficulties Experienced and Support Needed in Intergenerational Care-Giving: Qualitative Findings from a European Union Funded Project

The article aims to describe the experiences of 87 Italian adolescent young caregivers (AYCs) of grandparents (GrPs), with reference to the caregiving stress appraisal model (CSA) that provides a theoretical lens to explore the difficulties encountered and support needed in their caring role. Qualitative data were drawn from an online survey conducted within an EU Horizon 2020 funded project. An inductive thematic analysis was carried out, and the findings were critically interpreted within the conceptual framework of the CSA model. The analysis highlighted three categories of difficulties: material, communication and emotional/psychological. The most common material difficulty was the physical strain associated with moving “uncooperative” disabled older adults. The types of support needed concerned both emotional and material support. The study provides a deeper understanding of the under-studied experiences of AYCs of GrPs. Based on these findings, policies and support measures targeted at AYCs of GrPs should include early needs detection, emotional support and training on intergenerational caring in order to mitigate the stress drivers. Moreover, the study advances the conceptualisation of the CSA model by considering the above-mentioned aspects related to intergenerational caregiving.

Future Eldercare Planning Among Chinese Aging Families in Hong Kong

Increasing attention has been paid to the potential role of care planning in buffering future eldercare challenges. However, little is known about the characteristics of care planning among Chinese ageing families. It is also of interest to reflect how recent events such as COVID-19 pandemic may affect their views of the future care planning. From a family systems perspective, this study explored the extent, processes, and contents of intergenerational care planning of Chinese ageing families in Hong Kong. Dyadic interviews were conducted with 60 adult child-older parent pairs, and individual interviews were conducted with another 33 adult children. Intergenerational discrepancies in extent and processes of care planning, intergenerational congruence of care expectations and struggles, facilitating role of family capital and hindering role of cultural capital in care planning were primary themes. Although both generations demonstrated strong awareness of future eldercare needs, they were found engaged in different levels and processes of care planning. Adult children’s level of engagement in planning activities may influence parents’ extent and contents of care planning. Intergenerational transmission of eldercare values contributed to intergenerational congruence of care expectations but also led to similar struggles and ambivalent attitudes toward future care. Moreover, family capital was found to facilitate family care planning while Chinese cultural values that emphasize family care may hinder both generations’ efforts in care planning. The findings will deepen our understanding on characteristics of intergenerational care planning in Asian Chinese communities and inform services to improve adult children and ageing parents’ preparation for future eldercare.

Patterns of Intergenerational Care Planning Among Chinese Aging Families in Hong Kong

Care planning before the onset of intensive care needs can increase families’ ability to manage caregiving crises and cope with care transitions. However, future care planning has not been substantially examined in a family context. Drawing on the model of Preparation for Future Care Needs and a family systems perspective, this study investigated patterns of intergenerational care planning across multiple planning domains (awareness, avoidance, information gathering, decision making, and concrete planning) among Chinese intergenerational pairs. Quantitative data of 213 pairs of aging parents and adult children were collected in Hong Kong. Latent Profile Analysis was conducted to examine typological structure underlying care planning patterns. Three patterns were discovered: filial-maximal, dyadic-moderate, and filial-minimal. Profile 1 contained approximately 9.9% of pairs, which demonstrated a relatively higher level of avoidance on considering the need of care preparation and engaged less in concrete planning activities. Profile 2 contained 68.5% of intergenerational pairs that had a moderate preparation level. Profile 3 contained 21.6% of intergenerational pairs that were comparatively active in care planning. The findings also indicated that although older adults across three groups demonstrated a similar level of awareness to prepare for future care, their engagement in the concrete planning activities may be driven by their children’s awareness and preparation toward future care. The findings will enhance professionals’ and service providers’ awareness of diverse care planning patterns among Asian aging families, and inform targeted policies and programmes to alleviate unpreparedness for eldercare through intergenerational care planning which can be more effective than unilateral preparation.

Intergenerational care in corona times: Practices of care in Swedish families during the pandemic

Objective: This paper analyses intergenerational relationships in Sweden during the corona pandemic, with a special focus on practices of care. The research question is: How is care between generations – between grandparents, adult children and grandchildren – done during pandemic conditions? Background: In Sweden, where an extensive welfare state provides affordable child- and eldercare, the corona strategy of generational separation has still affected family practices of care between generations. In this article we analyse narratives of intergenerational care, taking our point of departure in theories of personal life (Smart 2007), relationality (Mason 2004), and care as sentient activity (Mason 1996). Method: The paper draws on a qualitative interview study with grandparents (n=30), adult children (n=12) and grandchildren (n=12), with data collection taking place shortly before and during the coronavirus pandemic. Results: The study detects the reciprocal and complex ways in which care between generations takes place. When people relate their experiences, strategies for new ways of doing care are at the centre, involving creative ways of negotiating distance and risk, all marked by both worry and relief. Conclusion: The pandemic condition becomes a "filter" affecting and leading to a reformulation of practices of care, from taken-for-granted co-presence narratives, into narratives of relational participation resulting in an overall heightened awareness of the importance and difficulties of intergenerational care practices. The study concludes that a strong welfare state does not translate into complete autonomy or independence; rather, people continue to live "linked lives".

Digitised caring intimacies: More-than-human intergenerational care in Japan

Popular media and policy discussions of digital health for supporting older people in the ‘super-aged’ context of Japan often focus on novel technologies in development, such as service robots, AI devices or automated vehicles. Very little research exists on how Japanese people are engaging with these technologies for self-care or the care of others. In this article, we draw on our ethnographic research with Japanese families engaging in digitised self-care and intergenerational care to show how more mundane and well-established digital media and devices – such as the LINE message app, digital games and self-tracking apps – are contributing to digital kinship, mediated co-presences and care relations. We argue that these practices involve enactments of care that are benevolent and intimate forms of datafication and dataveillance that have emerged in response to the recent disruption of traditional face-to-face forms of health care and family relationships in Japan.

Reviewing Guidelines on Facilities and Practices of Intergenerational Care in Australia and Malaysia

Developed countries like Australia have guidelines to support intergenerational care development for aged citizen. In Malaysia, the current facilities for aged care are single-user facilities and lack intergenerational interaction conducted with the other generations. The study reviewed the care facilities guidelines to support intergenerational interaction in the Malaysian context based on the Australian intergenerational care practice perspective. The qualitative method is employed through a comparative and content analysis of the guidelines. The finding showed that the childcare visitation model had been identified as a promising alternative intergenerational care to enhance intergenerational interaction in the Malaysian context. Keywords: Intergenerational care facilities; Aged Care; Childcare; Guidelines eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i16.2720

Asset or Burden: The Ethical Calculus of Care in Ulaanbaatar’s Urban Margins

How do family relations change in the move from rural to urban living? What are the impacts of ur­banisation on the domestic? Drawing on the ethnography of two families on the outskirts of Mongo­lia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, this chapter tackles the intersections of urbanisation and intergenerational care, charting the effects of rural-urban migration on family lives. Although their family structures differ, Tuya and Duya each find themselves shouldering the burden of being urban female breadwin­ners. To navigate conditions of profound economic precarity, they approach their families through a lens of economic-cum-moral strategizing, which we term a form of ‘ethical calculus’. In the city, money becomes synonymous with care and family members are categorised according to a scale of asset-to-burden based on their capacity to support or increase the breadwinner’s load. A focus on the work involved in such forms of care reveals a qualitatively different approach to family ties in ur­ban Mongolia that pulls people in two directions. The first is the reconfiguration of marginal popu­lations’ relationship with the state to one that equates care with money. The second is the atomising pressure that life on Ulaanbaatar’s margins puts on the hopes and capacities of household members.

The Impact of Disability on Intergenerational Care Needs of the Elderly in China

This paper discussed the influence of disability and the degree of disability on the intergenerational needs of the elderly in terms of time and economy. The data is from the CLHLS in 2018. And the study discussed from 3 dimensions: nursing time, economic support, and medical cost support provided by children. The results showed that disability had a significant impact on the care time and medical expenses provided by adult children (care time: β = 45.631, P < .001; medical expenses: β = 2017.664, P < .01). Compared with the elderly with low degree of disability, the economic intergenerational care needs of the elderly with severe disability increased significantly (β = 2108.078, P < .01). The results of sub sample regression show that the intergenerational care needs of the elderly in China are restricted by objective factors and have not been met. These findings revealed the current situation of intergenerational support for the disabled in China, and emphasized that the government should establish and improve the social formal care, gradually reduce the burden of care for children with disabled elderly families, and improve the quality of life of the disabled elderly.