Caring For Frail Elderly Parents: A Comparison of Adult Sons and Daughters

Abstract

This research examines the impact of various factors on perceived emotional strain of adult son and daughter caregivers of frail elderly parents. Daughters experienced higher levels of emotional strain than did sons. Perceived interference between caregiving and the caregiver's personal and social life predicted emotional strain for both sons and daughters. For daughters the most important predictors of emotional strain were interference with work and quality of relationship with the parent. For sons the most important predictors were behavioral problems of the parent and few informal helpers.

Does Informal Care from Adult Children Reduce Nursing Home Admissions for the Elderly?

“…In addition, we expected that the presence of children with few competing time demands, such as those without children of their own, would increase the chances that parents received informal care. We expected that the effects would be especially large for daughters, because daughters are more likely to care for their parents than sons (Mui 1995). After experimenting with several alternative measures of child characteristics, we included in our final specification a variable measuring the total number of adult children and an indicator for the presence of a daughter who has no minor children of her own still living at home or who never had any children of her own.…”

Männer, die ihre Ehefrauen pflegen – Zwei phänomenologische Studien zum Erleben männlicher Hauptpflegepersonen in häuslichen Pflegearrangements. Teil I: Pflegende Männer pflegebedürftiger Ehefrauen nach einem Schlaganfall

“…In mehreren englischsprachigen Veröf-fentlichungen wird die Notwendigkeit der Entwicklung von «gender-sensitiven» Schulungs-und Unterstützungs-programmen betont (vgl. Russell, 2001;Kirsi, Hervonen & Jylhä, 2004;Mui, 1995 (Jungbauer, Döll & Wilz, 2008;145). Ausgehend von diesen Befunden formulieren die Autoren die Forderung nach Berücksichtigung der Alters-und Geschlechtsspezifik bei der Konzeption von Unterstützungsangeboten, um auch männliche Angehörige zu gewinnen, «da diese durch die Betreuung und Pflege ebenfalls gesundheitlich stark beeinträchtigt sind» (Jungbauer, Döll & Wilz, 2008;148 ( Diekelmann, 1992).…”

The Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision Volume 3, Number 1

“…Brody, Litvin, Hoffman, and Kleban (1995) stated that in 1982, 83% of caregivers were women. Daughters seemed to provide 70 to 80% of caregiving (Mui, 1995;Smith, 2004). Women assume the caregiving role because they view caregiving as their family role, or because siblings and other family members are unwilling to provide care (Brazil, 2008;Brody et al, 1995).…”

“…Females seem to feel more responsible for caregiving than males, and are more likely than men to provide transportation, check on the care recipient by phone, visit, give emotional support, provide housekeeping, and bring meals (Brazil, 2008;Miller, 2008;Mui, 1995;Neal, Ingersoll-Dayton, & Starrels, 1997). Although women provide most of the care for older relatives, men do provide some care (Miller, 2008;Stoller, 2002).…”

“…A commonly examined variable of depression and strain is gender, as women are expected to provide care and maintain family obligations (Pinquart & Sorensen 2006;Suitor & Pillemer, 1994). Gender differences can be viewed as related to caregiver strain, and these differences are related to social and emotional characteristics such as day-to-day life management, resource availability, and impairment between caregiving and the other parts of one's life (Mui, 1995;Pinquart & Sorensen, 2006).…”