Flying in a V formation: themes of (in)equity, reality, and togetherness in adult siblings’ narrative explanations of shared parental caregiving

Halliwell, Danielle; Egan, Kristina A. Wenzel; Howard, Erica

doi:10.1080/00909882.2017.1320574

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…According to Life Course Theory (Bengston et al, 2005;Elder et al, 2003), the transitions mid to later life adults experience, including the launching of their grown children (Siordia et al, 2017), retirement (Munnell, 2015), and caring for aging parents (Halliwell, Wenzel Egan, & Howard, 2017) impact development and well-being. For example, current literature suggests that these adults are at greater risk for low well-being than at younger ages (Gray, 2009;Litwin, & Stoeckel, 2013) and social contact is critical to promoting well-being among mid-to later-life adults (Pinquart & Sorensen, 2000).…”

Section: Links With Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Longest-Lasting Relationship: Patterns of Contact and Well-Being Among Mid- to Later-Life Siblings

Jensen¹,

Nielson

Yorgason

2019

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

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Objectives Adults in mid to later life experience shrinking social networks, which may hinder well-being. Siblings may be important sources of social contact. Yet, little is known about adults’ patterns of contact with siblings and how contact is linked to well-being. Method Participants included 491 adults from across the United States (M age = 58.96, SD = 6.25; 68% female) recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk; they reported on their contact with their sibling in person, over the phone, via email, texting, and social media. Results Latent class analysis found evidence for four patterns of contact (classes) among siblings: low, medium, high, and traditional. Those with high contact reported greater life satisfaction than those in the other groups. Those in the high group reported lower self-rated health when they recalled being treated less favorably, relative to their sibling, by their mother as children. Discussion These findings suggest that differing patterns of sibling contact exist among older adults. In some cases, contact may promote well-being. In other cases, more contact may serve as a reminder of hurtful or painful past family experiences related to mothers’ differential treatment, in which case more contact may be linked to poorer health.

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Section: Links With Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Longest-Lasting Relationship: Patterns of Contact and Well-Being Among Mid- to Later-Life Siblings

Jensen¹,

Nielson

Yorgason

2019

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

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“…Although adult children share care responsibilities with siblings, there is often one sibling who takes on more care and becomes the primary caregiver (11–14). As there are higher percentages of women in the caregiving role (15, 16), the majority of primary caregivers to parents are daughters (5, 12, 17–19).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daughters’ experiences of shared caregiving to a parent with dementia

Kokorelias

Nguyen

Elane

et al. 2020

Scandinavian Caring Sciences

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Background Siblings often share in the care of parents with dementia, but little is known about how care is shared. Research suggests that in comparison with their brothers, sisters provide the majority of care to a parent with dementia and this can contribute to the sisters experiencing poorer health outcomes. There is limited knowledge about how to guide siblings who share in the care of a parent with dementia. Aim Our qualitative descriptive study sought to explore the experiences of adult daughters sharing care responsibilities with their siblings. The study protocol was approved by institutional (University of Toronto and Baycrest Health Sciences) research ethics boards. Materials & methods Thirty‐four daughters participated in an online qualitative survey. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 2006, 77) 6‐step process. Results In an overarching theme, daughters expected shared caregiving with their siblings. They conceptualised this to be a practice of being equitable in dividing care responsibilities and fulfilling a supportive role for a parent with dementia; however, this expectation was not met by most daughters. Two subthemes were identified: (a) factors facilitating/constraining shared caregiving and (b) consequences of sharing care. The findings highlight the importance of understanding shared caregiving among siblings when caring for a parent with dementia. Discussion Results from this study suggest that although shared caregiving is often the goal, factors such as gender roles, geographical proximity, caregiver expertise/skill set and work schedules affect caregivers’ abilities to share caregiving. These factors affected whether daughters viewed the caregiving situation as being shared equitably or inequitably, and this led to feelings of acceptance or resentment of their sibling’s contribution to the care of their parent. Conclusions Healthcare providers can utilise these findings to better support adult–child caregivers negotiating care with their siblings.

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“…All participants resided in the U.S. At the time of data collection, most participants were currently serving as caregivers ( n = 159; 28 no longer provided care). Current caregivers for an aging family member as well as those who are not currently caregivers but provided care within the past year were included in the sample due to the similarities between how these two groups assign meaning to their care experiences up to three years after caregiving ceases (Halliwell et al, 2017; Robinson-Whelen et al, 2001). Results of independent samples t -tests indicated no significant differences between these two groups on the main study variables.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Romantic Partner Interference and Psychological Reactance in the Context of Caregiving for an Aging Family Member

Ball

Bevan

Urbanovich³

et al. 2021

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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Negotiating romantic relational dynamics is inherent to family caregiving situations, which continue to be on the rise in the United States. However, despite evidence that family caregiving duties are linked to a variety of negative relational outcomes, limited research examines communication processes that contribute to or alleviate the burden of caregiver duties on romantic relationships. Guided by psychological reactance theory (PRT), this study examined the link between romantic partner interference with family caregiving duties and the reactance process, as well as directness of communication about irritation as a type of freedom restoration behavior associated with reactance. Adults caring for aging family members recruited from MTurk ( N = 187) completed an online survey as part of a larger study of romantic partner communication surrounding family caregiving. Results using PROCESS serial mediation indicated that greater partner interference was related to heightened perceptions of freedom threat, which was positively associated with the experience of reactance, which in turn was associated with communication about irritation. However, the association between reactance and directness of communication about irritation was negative, the opposite direction of what was hypothesized. Implications for PRT and interventions with caregivers and their romantic partners are discussed.

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Flying in a V formation: themes of (in)equity, reality, and togetherness in adult siblings’ narrative explanations of shared parental caregiving

Cited by 8 publications

References 34 publications

The Longest-Lasting Relationship: Patterns of Contact and Well-Being Among Mid- to Later-Life Siblings

The Longest-Lasting Relationship: Patterns of Contact and Well-Being Among Mid- to Later-Life Siblings

Daughters’ experiences of shared caregiving to a parent with dementia

Romantic Partner Interference and Psychological Reactance in the Context of Caregiving for an Aging Family Member

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