Bao, Luoman. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-61). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Generalized Reciprocity --- p.7 / Altruistic Norm of Filial Piety --- p.9 / Affective Connection in Adult Child-Parent Relationship --- p.11 / Gender Disparity in Caregiving --- p.13 / THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.15 / METHOD --- p.20 / Data Sources --- p.20 / Dependent Variable --- p.21 / Independent Variables --- p.22 / Controls --- p.26 / Statistical Procedure --- p.28 / RESULTS --- p.34 / Intergenerational support and its gendered pattern in Taiwan families --- p.34 / Financial Support --- p.37 / Phone Contact and Face-to-face Contact --- p.40 / DISCUSSION --- p.48 / REFERENCES --- p.56 / Figure1. Three mechanisms of supporting elderly parents --- p.15 / Figure2. Mechanism of generalized reciprocity --- p.16 / Figure3. Mechanism of altruistic norm of filial piety --- p.18 / Figure4. Mechanism of affective connection --- p.19 / Table 1. Time Point of the Variables been Measured --- p.29 / Table2. Financial Support Provided from Child to Parents --- p.30 / Table3. Contact between Child and Parents --- p.31 / Table4. Distribution of Explanatory Variables --- p.32 / Table5. Children's and Parents' Characteristics in 2006 --- p.33 / Table6. Means and Percentage Distributions of Variable: Gendered Pattern in 2006 --- p.44 / Table7. Determinants of Financial Support from Children to Elderly Parents in 2006 --- p.45 / Table8. Determinants of Phone Contact between Children and Elderly Parents in 2006 --- p.46 / Table9. Determinants of Face-to-face Contact between Children and Elderly Parents in 2006 --- p.47 / Table 10. The Effectiveness of Three Mechanisms in Explaining Elderly Care --- p.48

Previous research has failed to identify a strong relationship between parental role involvement and self-esteem of parents despite theoretical and intuitive support for the prediction. An explanatory model of the interaction between role occupancy, psychological centrality of the role, and self-esteem among older parents was presented. Data from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) were used to test a path model examining the effects of the roles of parent, spouse, and worker, as well income, age, sex, and health on self-esteem. The data failed to support the model as presented. Role involvement did not affect self-esteem and psychological centrality had a direct effect instead of the proposed interactive effect. Health was the strongest predictor of self-esteem. In contrast to previous research, age negatively affected self-esteem in this sample. / Ph. D.

The intent of this study was to examine how perceived aid exchange patterns between mothers and adult children influence the mothers' perception of the quality of their relationship. We also examined how mothers’ characteristics (health, age, and marital status), children's characteristics (marital status and gender), and propinquity were associated with mothers' perceptions of giving and receiving of aid. The types of aid explored were Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Help With the House, Help During Sickness, Advice on Life's Problems, Advice on Decisions, Affection, and Overall Exchange of Aid. Aid patterns were classified as Mother Gave More, Child Gave More, About Equal Exchange, or No Exchange. Data were collected from interviews with 330 mothers, 65 years or older, using a six-stage sample selection process. Perceived relationship quality was significantly different for the four different aid pattern groups in regard to Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Advice on Life's Problems, and Overall Aid. Highest perceived relationship quality was found in those groups in which Child Gave More or in which there was About Equal Exchange. Lowest perceived relationship quality was found for the group Mother Gave More of these four types of aid. Mother's characteristics, child's characteristics, (except gender), and propinquity were not related to relationship quality. Differences in aid patterns were found between mother's health and Gifts Besides Money, Help When Sick, Affection, and Overall Aid; between mother's age and Advice on Life's Problems, Help When Sick, Help With House; between mother's marital status and Advice on Decisions, Help With House; between children's marital status and Financial Help, Gifts Besides Money, Help With House; between children's gender with Help With House; and between propinquity and Financial Help, Help When Sick, Help With House, Advice on Decisions. / Master of Science

In this study I proposed and tested a causal model between disruptions in childhood attachment, dimensions of adult attachment, and caregiving in later life. The research was intended to fill a void in both the attachment and the gerontological caregiving literatures. Like the construct of attachment, John Bowlby conceptualized caregiving as an expression of a specific underlying behavioral control system. He and subsequent attachment theorists proposed caregiving quality to be the most critical determinant of both attachment and subsequent personality and emotional development. Gerontologists have studied caregiving from an exchange, equity, and symbolic interactionist perspectives but in general, theory has been underutilized and underdeveloped. This study provides an alternative theoretical perspective. With it’s multidisciplinary origins, attachment theory provides a framework for integrating research on seemingly disparate topics. An interdisciplinary linkage is begun by placing caregiving within the perspective of the lifespan development of prosocial behavior. The sample (N=3,848) consisted of respondents aged 50 to 95 years, from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a national multistage probability sample. A series of regressions were used to test the explanatory model. Model variables included respondents’ psychosocial characteristics: sex, age, number of childhood separations from mother, current symbolic and physical proximity to mother, adult relationship with mother, emotional support, marital relationship, physical and mental disability, and income. In order to assess propensity for caregiving, the criterion variable was operationalized as number of care recipients per respondent. The variables that accounted for a statistically significant amount of variation in caregiving were maternal proximity, and respondent's age, in that order. Contrary to the predictions, sex, emotional support, marital status, income, and disability level, were not related to caregiving. These findings suggest people may be motivated to provide care not simply by structural factors but by developmental needs with some underlying and unknown physiological component. These results warrant further study of how the dimensions of proximity to multiple attachment figures, and developmental age affect caregiving and attachment behaviors. / Ph. D.

Attitudes toward the elderly were examined in three generations through analysis of media use, gender, contact with elderly, age, factual knowledge about aging, and parental influence on attitude formation. The results revealed that age, factual knowledge, perceived ageism in mass media and parental influence were significantly related to attitude toward the elderly.

Examing the antecedents and outcomes of elder care based work-family conflict, - presenting family interference with work and work interference with family as major components.

This investigation represents an initial attempt toward the construction of a general life cycle theory of parent-child relations. Emphasis was placed on the parent-adult child relationship with the onset of a filial crisis, e.g., due to illness. After the theory was described, two of the five propositions comprising this orientation (i.e., propositions four and five) were analyzed through a series of twenty-five hypotheses. The objectives of these hypotheses were (a) to analyze the relationship between the length of time involved in various patterns of filial responsibility and the likelihood that these patterns will become institutionalized as obligatory roles and (b) to determine how factors associated with these emergnt role obligations contribute to the cost of caregiving. A probability sample of 180 caregivers was obtained from within the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Multiple and partial correlation analyses and the use of Student's t revealed that the length of time involved as a caregiver was significantly related to the number of informal caregiving roles performed by adult children. In addition, results indicated that the length of involvement in each caregiving role examined (i.e., household care, transportation service, personal care, medical attention, meal preparation, financial management and mobility assistance) was significantly related to (a) the frequency of providing these services to an aged parent and (b) the level of responsibility in each service area except financial management (which tended to remain constant over time)• An adult child s level of obligation to ensure that caregiving services were provided was also significantly associated with the length of caregiving involvement. Furthermore, this study found tentative support for the contention that the social-psychological cost of providing care for a dependent parent was associated with (a) the frequency of providing transportation services and medical attention, (b) the number of informal caregiving activities performed and (c) the length of caregiver involvement. A set of three control variables (i.e., the household living arrangements and both the aged parent s and adult child's physical health status) were identified as significant contributors to the cost of caregiving. Based on the empirical results of this investigation, propositions four and five of the theoretical perspective presented in this dissertation were supported.