The Impact of Adult Children Caring for a Frail Older Parent: an Exploratory Study

Abel (1990), Braithwaite (1996) and Szmukler (1996) suggest that the family relationship (family functioning or family dynamics) be incorporated in the stress paradigm. The modified model will have the chance to understand how the culture and history of a family may influence the caregiving outcomes. In this study, caregiving tasks, caregiving resources (including coping strategies) as well as dimensions of family relationship will be examined to see how these concepts influence caregiving outcomes.Questions that will be answered are as follows: 1.

What are the positive and negative outcomes of adult children caring for a frail older parent? 2. What are the differences of coping strategies used by sons and daughters? 3. What are the differences of resources used by sons and daughters? 4.

How does the family relationship affect the caregiving outcomes ? 5. How does the social resources affect the caregiving outcomes? 6. How does the stressor (caregiving tasks ) affect the caregiving outcomes? 7.

Are caregiving impacts mainly accounted for by stressor, resources or family relationship? Survey research with face to face interview was employed. Feelings and experiences of 353 adult-children using structured questionnaires were collected.

The findings indicated that some personal resources in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and coping strategies, social resources, stressors (caregiving tasks and hassels), and family relationships do have influences on caregiving impacts. Finally practice implication is discussed.