Caring Together for Elderly Mothers: A Qualitative Study of Relations Between Adult Daughters and Supportive Home Care Workers

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examines relationships between adult daughters caring for elderly disabled mothers and the mothers' personal care workers (PCWs) paid directly by the Wisconsin Community Options Program (COP). A subset of a larger study, in these five cases PCWs provide substantial hands on care without substituting for the heavy care also provided by the daughters. Direct payment offers the daughters and workers freedom to schedule around their family obligations and other limits and tailor care to the abilities of all three participants. It also allows the daughter to be the paid provider when she chooses. Expansion of such supportive services could benefit many more low and middle income families.     

Predictors of perceived benefits and drawbacks of using paid service among daughter and daughter-in-law caregivers of people with dementia

ABSTRACT

This study examines the types of benefits and drawbacks of a sample of daughter and daughter-in-law caregivers (CG) of people with dementia and explores the predictors associated with the identified benefits and drawbacks. The current study used a secondary analysis of a purposive sample of 102 daughters or daughters-in-law living in Northeast Ohio who were required to be using at least 8 hours of paid services per week to help in caring for their care recipient (CR) with Alzheimer’s disease or other memory problems. Logistic regression was used. All respondents answered that there were benefits of having the paid help, but 51% of them reported drawbacks as well. The analyses revealed that predictors of each identified benefit and drawback were different. Information about benefits and drawbacks of paid help is useful for service providers to design better services for CGs of people with dementia.     

儿童照料、劳动参与和中国已婚男女身心健康——基于城镇居民和外来务工人员的对比研究

本研究采用2008年国家统计局针对城镇居民和外来务工人员进行的调查数据，研究劳动参与、儿童照料双重责任对于城镇和移民已婚男女身心健康的影响。研究结果表明：在承担工作和儿童照料双重责任过程中城镇已婚男女几乎不存在性别差异，只工作就会增加其精神压力，工作、并且家中有7—12岁儿童对女性精神压力的边际影响最大，而男性则是工作、并且家中有0-6岁儿童对其影响最大：外来务工人员在承担工作和儿童照料双重责任过程中仍存在引人注目的性别差异，妇女仍然是儿童照料责任的主承担者，参与市场劳动并未减少其家庭责任。     

Aging children and their older parents: the coming generation of caregiving

This study uses a data set of older children and their older parents to examine caregiving relationships. Using the 1993 Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1993 Health Care Burden file, we examine help given by children to their parents. We distinguish between daughters who are household heads and daughters who are wives. We find parents receive substantially more care from daughters than from sons. The caregiving role of daughters who are household heads differs notably from that of wives. An analysis of caregiving, employment, and house-work shows that children who are caregivers devote more combined hours to these activities than children who do not provide care.     

Aging Children and Their Older Parents: The Coming Generation of Caregiving

ABSTRACT

This study uses a data set of older children and their older parents to examine caregiving relationships. Using the 1993 Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1993 Health Care Burden file, we examine help given by children to their parents. We distinguish between daughters who are household heads and daughters who are wives. We find parents receive substantially more care from daughters than from sons. The caregiving role of daughters who are household heads differs notably from that of wives. An analysis of caregiving, employment, and housework shows that children who are caregivers devote more combined hours to these activities than children who do not provide care.     

Can concern for the long-term care of older parents explain son preference at birth in India?

This study examines whether concern for the long-term care of older parents is the primary reason for son preference in India. Controlling for important socioeconomic factors that are believed to affect son preference, we find that concern for long-term care is the principal cause of son preference in India. Sons serve as the primary caregivers to elderly parents, while daughters are mostly engaged in caring for parents-in-law. This trend is more acute in rural than in urban areas. Our study also finds a strong implication of the filial relationship for the long-term care of elderly parents.     

The Gendered Division of Labor in Parental Caretaking:

Public ideology dictates that families take responsibility for the care of their frail and vulnerable members. Women more than men are the unpaid, informal caregivers of family members. This gendered division of labor is examined by using the U.S. Survey of Income and Program Participation. Differences between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan sons' and daughters' parental caregiving activities are examined in order to contrast areas having more traditional, conventional or conservative values with those adopting more feminist values. Results show that in addition to daughters performing the vast majority of tasks, there is a difference between the types of care provided by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan daughters. Nonmetropolitan daughters tend to perform more caregiving tasks considered to be traditional "women's work" while metropolitan daughters perform significantly more tasks considered to be nontraditional for women. The fmdings suggest that providing care is due more to socialization to gender roles than to women's supposed natural or biological tendencies for "nurturing."     

Aging mothers and aging daughters: life-long caring and intellectual disability

While aging and caring are well-discussed in academic literature, the association among aging, caring and intellectual disability is less well documented. This paper draws on a recently completed Australian study which focuses on such mother/daughter relationships and whose narratives form the framework for an argument for a re-imagining of the concept of care for aged people with intellectual disability. Specifically, using a genealogical approach, the paper describes how powerful discourses at the time of the daughter's birth (1940s and 1950s)--associated with eugenics, institutional care and motherhood--are framing the way in which aging mothers are now contemplating the future care for their adult (and also aging) daughters.     

Preparedness for taking care of elderly parents:"first, you get ready to cry"

The results reported in this article are from a larger, mixed-methods study of the factors influencing the preparedness of adult daughters for taking care of elderly parents. This article focuses on findings surfacing in unstructured interviews with daughters revealing an area of caregiving not addressed in survey items, that of daughters' emotional reactions to multiple losses. Actual and anticipatory losses clustered into two categories: loss of the parent and loss of one's own youth. Implications for health care providers are detailed, including: recognizing each daughter's unique life situation; providing anticipatory and long-term emotional support and counseling; and assisting with problem solving, grief work, and making meaning of losses.     

照料留守孙子女对农村老年人养老支持的影响研究

利用西安交通大学人口与发展研究所"安徽省老年人生活福利状况"调查数据,采用随机效应模型,研究农村老年人提供孙子女照料对家庭代际支持的影响。研究发现不管对儿子还是对女儿,提供孙子女照料都会加强其对老年父母的代际支持。但是子女与老年父母居住距离的差别,造成照料孙子女作为结合家庭的中心资源所起到的作用有所不同。其中由于儿子被寄予养老的主要责任,与老年父母代际交换关系受居住距离的影响更大。老年父母与儿子之间的服务性(生活照料)互惠关系随居住距离的增加而增强,但情感回馈则被削弱,且老年母亲通过向儿子提供孙子女照料得到经济回报的互惠关系强于老年父亲与儿子的互惠关系。老年父母向其子女提供孙子女照料帮助符合合作群体模式下交换的目的是增强回报能力的原则。     

Being “easy”: Women’s desire to accept help in later life

ABSTRACT

This article examines the concept of being “easy” as a quality that female caregivers aspire to as they envision their potential care in later life. It draws on data from a qualitative study exploring the significance of caregiving to adult daughters’ perspectives and plans for their own aging. Caregivers’ experiences differ based upon their perception of how easy or difficult it was to care for their loved one. The former exemplifies a positive way to approach aging and the receiving of care. Being easy describes an attitude that these caregivers desired for their own later life.     

Paperbark and pinard: A historical account of maternity care in one remote Australian Aboriginal town

Background and aimMaternity care in remote areas of the Australian Northern Territory is restricted to antenatal and postnatal care only, with women routinely evacuated to give birth in hospital. Using one remote Aboriginal community as a case study, our aim with this research was to document and explore the major changes to the provision of remote maternity care over the period spanning pre-European colonisation to 1996.MethodsOur research methods included historical ethnographic fieldwork (2007–2013); interviews with Aboriginal women, Aboriginal health workers, religious and non-religious non-Aboriginal health workers and past residents; and archival review of historical documents.FindingsWe identified four distinct eras of maternity care. Maternity care staffed by nuns who were trained in nursing and midwifery serviced childbirth in the local community. Support for community childbirth was incrementally withdrawn over a period, until the government eventually assumed responsibility for all health care.ConclusionsThe introduction of Western maternity care colonised Aboriginal birth practices and midwifery practice. Historical population statistics suggest that access to local Western maternity care may have contributed to a significant population increase. Despite population growth and higher demand for maternity services, local maternity services declined significantly. The rationale for removing childbirth services from the community was never explicitly addressed in any known written policy directive. Declining maternity services led to the de-skilling of many Aboriginal health workers and the significant community loss of future career pathways for Aboriginal midwives. This has contributed to the current status quo, with very few female Aboriginal health workers actively providing remote maternity care.     

Gender differences in caregiving: a case in Chinese Canadian caregivers

This study examines the gender differences in Chinese- Canadian family caregivers providing care to elderly Chinese care receivers. A random sample of 339 Chinese-Canadian caregivers for elderly care receivers completed a telephone survey. Most of the Chinese family caregivers were females. No major gender differences were reported in the amount and types of caregiving tasks. The level of caregiving burden and predictors were generally similar for both gender groups. Contrary to common belief that sons and daughters-in-law are the key family caregivers in the Chinese culture, the daughters played a more important role in family caregiving. In addition to providing support and services to Chinese female caregivers, strategies to enhance Chinese males' involvement in family caregiving are needed and discussed in the paper.     

The Influence of Local Price and Availability on Parents’ Choice of Child Care

The striking variation in patterns of child care usage across states reflects differences in family characteristics, but may also reflect exogenous differences in local child care markets. Type of care selected will be influenced by the availability, cost, and accessibility of supply in the child care market as well as by family and child characteristics and cultural preferences. This study contributes to the growing literature on parental demand for child care by using a recent detailed data set from the state of Minnesota. We link household-level data on child care usage and family characteristics with county-level data on average provider rates and availability by type of care in order to estimate multinomial logit models analyzing the family, child, and market characteristics that predict type of care. Our analysis shows that using a relative or friend to care for a child is largely determined by availability, and choice of family care providers is most responsive to price for employed mothers. The types of care chosen by mothers who are not in the paid labor force differ substantially from the choices of employed mothers, and their use of center care is influenced by the prices of both center and family providers. Attitudes towards relative care are also shown to influence type of care chosen.     

我国非正规就业的性别特征分析

基于第二次中国妇女地位抽样调查数据 ,本文分析非正规就业的性别特征及相应的收入和就业环境的性别差异。研究发现 ,非正规就业中的行业和职业性别隔离是我国非正规就业的最重要性别特征 ,它不仅在很大程度上导致了收入方面的性别差异 ,而且也为非正规就业的劳动权益保障和就业服务提出了具有性别特征的要求     

How Women in Late Midlife Become Caregivers for Their Aging Parents

Approximately 52 million Americans provide informal (unpaid) care to a family member or friend who is disabled or ill. The most common informal caregiving relationship is that of an adult child providing assistance to an aging parent. This article describes a qualitative study examining how adult daughters between the ages of 50 and 65 become caregivers to their parent or parent-in-law. Data were collected through in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 15 female caregivers. Analysis revealed that assistance provided to parents was initiated by one or more triggering event, after which participants became caregivers in either an emergent or deliberate manner.     

Child care workers' wages: New evidence on returns to education, experience, job tenure and auspice

Child care workers receive low hourly pay, modest returns to education, experience and job tenure, and have high rates of turnover. These stylized facts have caused analysts to characterize child care workers as secondary labour market participants. We use Canadian data to challenge this characterization and to examine the disputed effects of auspice (non-profit vs. for-profit status) on wages. In contrast to Mocan and Viola (1997), improved controls for the differential availability of resources and firm size do not make the positive wage effects experienced by workers in non-profit day care centres disappear. Received: 7 February 2000/Accepted: 1 August 2001     

Gender Differences in Caregiving: A Case in Chinese Canadian Caregivers

ABSTRACT

This study examines the gender differences in Chinese-Canadian family caregivers providing care to elderly Chinese care receivers. A random sample of 339 Chinese-Canadian caregivers for elderly care receivers completed a telephone survey. Most of the Chinese family care-givers were females. No major gender differences were reported in the amount and types of caregiving tasks. The level of caregiving burden and predictors were generally similar for both gender groups. Contrary to common belief that sons and daughters-in-law are the key family caregivers in the Chinese culture, the daughters played a more important role in family caregiving. In addition to providing support and services to Chinese female caregivers, strategies to enhance Chinese males' involvement in family caregiving are needed and discussed in the paper.     

论女儿养老与隔代养老的可能性——来自武汉市的调查

在城市家庭养老的研究中 ,有人提出了女儿养老与隔代养老的问题。本文从探寻孙辈与祖辈的相互理解程度、孙辈的养老责任感来研究隔代养老在多大程度上是可能的 ,并从女性与男性在理解父母的养老需求、他们的养老责任感等方面来探讨女性在养老意识方面的特点 ,由此提出对女性养老的看法。     

Competition, substitution, or discretion: an analysis of Palestinian and foreign guest workers in the Israeli labor market

This paper investigates the effects of foreign workers on labor market outcomes for Palestinian workers in the Israeli labor market. The paper utilizes a micro-dataset on the Palestinian labor force combined with time-series data on foreign workers in Israel. The data covers the period 1999–2003, a period in which Israel enforced a strict closure on labor (and goods) movement, particularly in 2001 and 2002. The evidence suggests that foreign workers in Israel do not affect Palestinian employment; however, an increase in the number of foreign workers in Israel tends to reduce Israeli wages paid to Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli closure policy appears to be the main cause for the substantial reduction in long-run Palestinian employment levels in Israel, not the presence of foreign workers.