The problem examined in this study was the lack of policy in New York State regarding the provision of prioritized residential services for intellectually disabled individuals who are being cared for by an aging caregiver. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and document the needs experienced by aging parents regarding securing the future of their intellectually disabled adult child. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Sabatier’s advocacy coalition framework. The research questions examined the lived experiences of aging parents caring for an adult child with an intellectual disability what parents perceive their needs are in order to secure their adult intellectually disabled child’s future. Data were retrieved from 5 parents who resided in New York State. The findings from this study confirmed existing literature indicating that aging parents will need to secure residential placement or alternative living arrangements before they can no longer care for their adult intellectually disabled child. Another finding from this study was that the pertinent service delivery program does not provide direct assistance to these families. Therefore, advocacy was a necessary action in order to obtain services. The voices of the parents could influence policy makers to make aging parents with an adult intellectually disabled child a higher priority when seeking residential placement, provide direct representation from OPWDD, and provide residential placement that fits the ID adult’s needs. These programmatic changes may result in positive social change for this population

The current study is an investigation of filial responsibility expectations endorsed by a randomly selected sample of 144 elderly parent-adult child pairs from the Harrisburg area of Pennsylvania. Descriptive statistics suggested that most older parents and adult children interpreted the filial role to include a great deal of emotional support and discussion of important matters and available resources. Both generations perceived living close and writing letters to parents on a weekly basis as less important. Parents were more likely to disapprove of receiving financial assistance from children, living with children, and having children adjust their work schedules to help them than were their offspring. Robinson's statistical measure of agreement, which examined the amount of consensus between generations, revealed that there was a moderate level of agreement between parents and their children on filial responsibility expectations. Multiple regression analyses indicated that amount of agreement on filial norms did not have an impact on parental well-being, however. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

Many mid-life daughters are primary caregivers to their elderly mothers. However, in most research studies daughters have been grouped with other caregivers; thus, the daughters' experiences have not been specifically identified. Without this information nurses will be unable to adequately assist mid-life caregiving daughters to attain their optimal levels of health. The phenomenological research method was the methodology used to elicit the experiences of the mid-life daughters. The phenomenological method was congruent with the feminist perspective -- the conceptual framework -- which guided the study. The feminist perspective elucidated the importance of eliciting not only the visible caregiving experiences of the mid-life daughters, but also their internal experiences -- their feelings -- and the meanings they gave to their experiences. The researcher recruited subjects for the study through a daughters-of-aging-parents program which was held at the Women's Resource Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. In order to collect the data, the researcher interviewed the subjects. Congruent with the phenomenological method, data collection and data analysis ran concurrently throughout the study. The conclusions that the researcher drew from the findings of this study include the following: at the start of a caregiving daughter-mother relationship, a daughter is very responsive to the needs of her mother; when a daughter realizes that she is self-sacrificing herself in order to care for her mother, she becomes less responsive to her mother's needs and focuses, instead, on caring for herself; a daughter who is able to identify her own needs and then act on them Is able to care for her mother and herself in a manner that meets both their needs; a daughter experiences a number of emotions while providing care for her mother; a daughter uses the logical process of working towards healthy differentiation in order to counterbalance her emotional reactivity, and a daughter who successfully counterbalances her emotions with logic discovers her basic self and becomes an entity distinct from, yet interdependent with, her mother. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The aim of this dissertation is to study the effect of adult children's education on the health and economic wellbeing of their parents in old age. This dissertation contributes to the field of human capital theory through enhancing the understanding of the connections between adult children and parents in old age. It studies large nationally representative data sets in the US and China. The findings highlight the potential importance of pathways through which children’s human capital affects parents in later life and suggest that offspring’s human capital (education) is important for parental health and old-age support. This research has important implications for the amelioration of health disparities related to intergenerational inequality in both the U.S and China.

Graduation date: 1997

The purpose of this study was to test Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theoretical framework of stress and coping as it applied to daughters who have parents living in care facilities. Specifically, the effects of personal and environmental influences, cognitive appraisals, and coping on positive affect and depression were examined in two subsamples of daughters: daughters with parents with dementia (n=100) and daughters with parents with other health difficulties (n=89). The data were collected from a volunteer sample of 189 daughters (M age 51.3) in the Greater Vancouver region. Daughters completed three parts of a questionnaire over a six-week period. Specific variables of interest included prior communal behaviors, support satisfaction, care satisfaction, appraisals (perceived control and perceived stress), coping strategies (relationship-focused, problem-focused, emotionfocused), positive affect, and depression. Negative affectivity (NA) was examined as a confounding variable. Path analysis using LISREL VIII (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993) was undertaken to examine the hypothesized relationships between antecedent, mediating, and outcome variables that are central to Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theoretical framework. Initial results revealed a poor fitting model for both the dementia and other health groups. However, a revised model, taking into account theoretical and empirical support for a direct relationship between support satisfaction and emotion-focused coping, provided an acceptable fit for both groups. The overall pattern of relationships for the variables in the model offer some support for the hypothesized model and for Lazarus and Folkman's theoretical assumptions. For both groups, greater control over the stressful aspect of facility care was related to more problem-focused coping, which in turn was related to more positive affect. For the other health group, greater appraised stress was related to more emotion-focused coping, which was in turn was related to greater depression. Among daughters with parents with dementia, low levels of care satisfaction and high communal behaviors were associated with greater perceived control. The hypothesized mediational role of appraisals and coping was not supported. The results point to the importance of understanding caregiving in the context of chronic stress and the unique contribution of personality, health type, and positive aspects of caregiving to a daughter's stress process.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the Asian perspective in regard to the intergenerational solidarity framework developed by Bengtson and his colleagues. Focusing on normative solidarity and functional solidarity within Asian families, adult children's provision of assistance to elderly relatives was investigated in relation to norms of filial responsibility. A subsample of 109 employed Asian immigrants in Canada was selected from a national survey of Work and Family conducted by CARNET (The Canadian Aging Research Network). The study tested three hypotheses: 1) stronger norms of filial responsibility (normative solidarity) are positively associated with higher levels and more hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives (functional solidarity); 2) older age at immigration and/or shorter length of residence (immigrant status) are positively associated with higher levels and more hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives (functional solidarity); and 3) there is an interaction effect of norms of filial responsibility and immigrant status on levels and hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives. The results showed that there was no relationship between norms of filial responsibility and the provision of assistance to elderly relatives; nor was there a relationship between immigrant status and the provision of assistance to elderly relatives. Coresidence with the elderly relative, as an alternative measure of norms of filial responsibility in Asian families, was investigated with regard to the provision of assistance to the elderly relative in the post hoc analysis. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between coresidence and higher levels and more hours of assistance provided to elderly relatives.

This thesis explores the experiences of aging parents caring for adult children with acquired brain injury regarding future care needs. Seven parents representing four adult disabled children, were individually interviewed using the Family Support and Coping Interview. The parents then participated in three groups sessions to discuss the commonality of 'never-ending' parenthood. The parents, who average 70.9 years of age, have been sole caregivers for middle-aged children. Their displaced life cycle responsibilities, their vision of a solution and the need to socially publicize their predicament were major themes requiring advocacy with policy makers and government funders. Research into the care of those who cannot manage independent living is imperative, particularly as social thinking and fiscal policies espouse the benefits of the autonomous family.