Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva seniora mammors upplevelse av att förlora ett vuxet barn i samband med cancersjukdom. Fem mammor intervjuades om deras upplevelse av sjukdomstiden och tiden efter dödsfallet. Barnens ålder vid dödsfallen varierade mellan 31 och 48 år. En explorativ och beskrivande analysmetod, med inspiration från Glaser och Strauss grounded theory, har använts. Kärnkategori som framträdde ur materialet var en oplanerad tidsresa, både bakåt och framåt i tiden, mot ett främmande mål med ett behov av ressällskap och guide. Tanken att hamna i en situation där ens vuxna barn drabbas av livshotande sjukdom och därefter dör fanns inte hos dessa mammor. Under sjukdomstiden återvände både mammor och barn till ett förhållningssätt med en vårdande mamma. I vissa fall uppstod en konflikt när barnet inte ville ta emot omvårdnaden. Efter dödsfallet befinner sig mamman i en helt ny situation som är svår att hantera emotionellt och praktiskt. Den förväntade framtiden med exempelvis barnbarn finns inte kvar och nya mål i livet måste ta form. Under resans gång är det viktigt för mamman att få stöd både inom familjen och från andra närstående. Vårdpersonalen har en viktig roll för att informera och stödja mamman. Ytterligare forskning behövs, både med mammor och pappor, för att kunna förstå deras situation i olika kontexter och därmed ge möjlighet för vårdpersonal att på bästa sätt ta hand om dessa föräldrar.

This study examined the effects of Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) on affection, communication, and relationship between elderly parents and their assisting adult children. Twenty-eight pairs of parents and children were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Subjects took Quinn's Family Life Questionnaire as pre-, post-, and follow-up tests. Parents and children in the treatment groups attended a four-session STEP workshop. No significant differences were found on the 2 x 2 analysis of variance for repeated measures for the parents or adult children. Quinn's affection and relationship variables approached significance for the parents over time. His variable affection approached significance for the children over time, irrespective of group. Agreement approached significance for children in the treatment group. The results for the parents regarding affection suggest that the study may have emphasized their feelings of trust. Although the data for relationship approached significance, it was negative, indicating that parents in the treatment group may have reduced their interaction with their assisting children perhaps because they were learning new communication skills. The data for the children regarding affection approached significance, but it was negative, suggesting they felt free to question their feelings about themselves and their parents. The results for children in the treatment group regarding agreement may suggest that the study increased their awareness of areas of agreement with their parents. When the data for parents and children were compared, communication approached significance for the parents; that is, they felt more comfortable with their communication with their children than did their children. The variables affection and perception showed significance. The elderly parents perceived their relationship with their children more positively than did their children. Absence of statistically significant data may be explained because Quinn's Family Life Questionnaire was not sensitive enough. Analysis of covariance might have identified significant findings. Increasing the number of participants and informing them of the purpose of the study might also affect a repeated study.

Emerging adulthood has been described as a distinctive stage of life between adolescence and young adulthood, in which the hallmark of development is signified by the achievement of intimacy in romantic relationships. From a family systems perspective, the degree to which parents have resolved their own emotional attachment contributes to the capacity of emerging adults to develop intimacy in romantic relationships without inhibition from fear of closeness. This study empirically examines the relationship between parental emotional attachment and the fear of intimacy of emerging adults by exploring the mediating role of differentiation of self. One of the most important and original contributions of this study is the development and validation of the Parental Emotional Attachment Scale (PEAS) which measures the intensity of parental emotional attachment. This study applies a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design with four samples of emerging adults in Hong Kong. First, interviews (N=24; Mage=23.6; 54% female) are conducted to explore the variations in subjective experiences with family of origin and fear of romantic intimacy. Building on the qualitative data from the interviews, the PEAS is developed through two pilot studies with two separate samples (combined N=551; Mage=20.6; 61% female). The PEAS is validated and then applied in the main study (N=755; Mage=21.8; 55.4% female). An exploratory factor analysis yields four factors with 34 items, including Parental Emotional Fusion, Parental Emotional Separateness, Parental Emotional Over-functioning and Parental Emotional Projection, which explain for 46.81% of the total variance. The four-factor structure is confirmed by using a confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicate substantial correlations between the PEAS and the Chinese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, which supports the convergent validity of the PEAS. The results also show that the PEAS has sufficient reliability (Cronbach's alpha= .89) and validity to support its application in the Hong Kong Chinese population. Concurrently, it is found that parental emotional attachment is negatively correlated with the level of differentiation of self, and positively correlated with the fear of intimacy. In addition, differentiation of self significantly mediates the relation between parental emotional attachment and fear of intimacy. Finally, a hierarchical regression analysis reveals that parental emotional over-functioning, emotional cutoff and emotional fusion with family are predictive of the fear of intimacy. The overall findings highlight differentiation of self as an underlying mechanism through which parental emotional attachment affects the level of fear of intimacy of emerging adults. Besides, emerging adults who experience greater parental emotional over-functioning, emotional cutoff and emotional fusion with family show higher levels of fear of intimacy. These findings jointly imply the importance for emerging adults to differentiate from their family of origin by balancing closeness and separateness, bridging emotional distance, reducing emotional cutoff and recognizing their own adaptive patterns in relationships, which serve as a practical framework for the future development of relationship education and counseling of emerging adults in Hong Kong.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role childhood sexual abuse (CSA), social support and a person's worldview (i.e., optimistic or pessimistic attitudes) had on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In Sweden as well as internationally, the demographic development is moving towards an increasingly older population. At the same time the risk for dementia increases with age. This implies a future increased need for care and support for the elderly and for those diagnosed with dementia. Currently, family members already take a substantial responsibility for their relatives´ care and support, which can impose both physical and psychological burdens on the caregivers. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the experience of informal caregiving. This is achieved through a thematic analysis of three authors´narratives of their relationship with a parent with dementia. The results indicating that informal caregiving is demanding and exhausting while the satisfaction with the relationship provides a sense of purpose, which influence the experience of caregiving. Furthermore, an effective communication and positive interactions with care professionals facilitate the process. Continued research is necessary to assess the specific support that adult children of parents with dementia require.

Though the phenomenon of young adults moving in with their parents is not a new one, it is one that has certainly become more common in recent decades. A new life stage of 'emerging adulthood' has become the norm, in which young adults delay marriage and career jobs in order to pursue other goals. This stage is, in part, marked by fluidity in residence. Yet even as a growing number of 'boomerang kids' move back in with their parents, there is a gap in the research regarding this phenomenon's effect on various parts of the family system. This study set out to address this gap by comparing separate interviews from young adult boomerangs and their parents. Findings suggest a disparity between parental and young adult opinions on a variety of topics, most notably: expected household responsibility, parent/child closeness, loss of autonomy, and appreciation. However, similarities emerged regarding the parental home as a safe haven, the arrangement as providing financial security, and the fact that all adult children reported being ready to move out. Ideally, the findings presented here will help illuminate both the similarities and disparities in the experiences of parents and their young adult children who return after launch, in order to increase empathy and promote a healthy family system. / 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.

Statistics for sexually abused children are high. When children do not receive therapy, they may develop marital problems later in life. Survivors of sexual abused have difficulty letting other people come close to them. Because emotional and sexual intimacy is important components of a marital relationship, survivors of sexual abused experience conflict within their marriages. Intimacy in the marital relationship reminds them of the abuse situation and they would try to escape from it. If couples do not go through therapeutic intervention, they would have difficulty understanding the changes in their relationship after the marriage. Within a therapeutic environment partners are able to recognise the effects of abuse and are able to learn how to handle it in order to achieve a successful marriage. The changes in intimacy levels after marriage will be investigated in this study. The study will make recommendations towards professional principles for social workers in practice. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Sciences)

Statistics for sexually abused children are high. When children do not receive therapy, they may develop marital problems later in life. Survivors of sexual abused have difficulty letting other people come close to them. Because emotional and sexual intimacy is important components of a marital relationship, survivors of sexual abused experience conflict within their marriages. Intimacy in the marital relationship reminds them of the abuse situation and they would try to escape from it. If couples do not go through therapeutic intervention, they would have difficulty understanding the changes in their relationship after the marriage. Within a therapeutic environment partners are able to recognise the effects of abuse and are able to learn how to handle it in order to achieve a successful marriage. The changes in intimacy levels after marriage will be investigated in this study. The study will make recommendations towards professional principles for social workers in practice. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Sciences)

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent, pattern and forms of child sexual abuse amongst university students / to investigate the degree of sexual coercion / to examine victim-perpetrator relationships / to determine the extent to which students are bothered by the event at the time of completing the Early Sexual Experiences Checklist / to establish the age of the student at the time the event occurred and also the age of the other person involved when the event occurred / and to determine the frequency of the coercive event.