Adult Children's Perceptions of Their Responsibility to Provide Care for Dependent Elderly Parents

Abstract

We examined how adult children in Canada whose parents were hospitalized in an acute care setting perceived responsibility for their parents' care. Using a visual analogue scale, adult children rated the amount of financial, emotional, and physical support families "should" and "could" give to elderly persons described in four vignettes. All scores were high, with "should" consistently higher than "could" for every vignette and for each of the three types of support. For daughters, the more aggressive the parent, the lower the "should" score for financial support. The same relationship was observed for incontinence and these findings were consistent over all four vignettes.

Institution-Based Caregiving as a Container for Leisure

“…The caregiving role comes with a set of responsibilities, expectations, activities, and challenges. Further, a strong moral obligation and the sense of lial responsibility have been found to be motivating factors in providing care to an elderly parent (Hamon & Blieszner, 1990;Wolfson, Hand eld-Jones, Cranley Glass, McClaran, & Keyserlingk, 1993). Feminist theorists (e.g., Baines, Evans, & Neysmith, 1991;Dalley, 1988;Gilligan, 1982;Larrabee, 1993), in fact, have argued that women are socialized into an ethic of care, that is, women are culturally conditioned to feel a sense of obligation to care for others.…”

Vignette Methodology and Culture-Relevance: Lessons Learned through a Project on Successful Aging with Iranian Immigrants to Sweden

“…This is one of the reasons it was chosen as the point of departure for the project described here even though over forty years have passed since it was first launched. 9 With regard to recent research that uses this theory one could mention Miranda and Castro (1980), who have adapted their theory for use in psychotherapeutic encounters; Inclan (1985), who has used it in mental health work; Carter (1990) who has used it to study cultural differences between African American values and White American values; Wolfson et al (1993) who have studied adult children's perceptions of their responsibility to care for dependent older parent; Mattiasson (1995) who has studied autonomy in nursing homes; Rahman (1996) who has focused on caregivers' sensitivity to conflict; Becket and Dungee-Anderson (1996) who have adapted it for usage in agency-based multicultural training in social work, and Mariño et al (2000) who have used it to study immigrants' acculturation of values and behaviours. Thus, although advances have been made in the study of cultural values, the Kluckhohnian model of cultural variation continues to be used when trying to shed light on differences in value orientations and/or on the relationship between value orientations and other understandings.…”

Perceptions of Stepfathers’ Obligations to Financially Support Stepchildren

“…Obligations of family members are often considered moral responsibilities, although some are also formalised through legislation (Wolfson et al 1993). Social trends such as increased rates of divorce and repartnering through marriage or cohabitation have reduced the likelihood a child will grow up in a household with both biological parents.…”