Decreasing mortality rates and increasing life
expectancy are contributing factors in a trend currently
referred to as the "graying" of America. Some members of
this aging population will require caregiving support from
their families. Because women tend to outlive men, adult
daughters generally assume this important role for their
widowed mothers.
As the health of the care recipient declines, the
caregiver often suffers from stress or frustration. Some
current research links health declines with decreases in
elders' abilities to reciprocate instrumentally for care
received. Other research suggests elders compensate for
their inabilities to give instrumental aid such as advice
and money by continuing to give socioemotional aid such as
support and love. It is not known how caregiver stress
levels relate to the exchange of socioemotional aid.
Thus, this study examined the association among care
given, perceived reciprocity, and frustration with
daughters' caregiving. The question asked was: Does
perceived socioemotional aid moderate the impact of the
level of caregiving on frustration with caregiving for
daughters? Social exchange theory was the perspective
utilized for this research. This theory posits that an
individual's desire to reciprocate is due to a general moral
norm of obligation and that when people can/do reciprocate,
the relationship costs decline.
The sample for this study consisted of 164 dependent-mother/caregiving-daughter pairs. Frequencies, means, and
standard deviations of background characteristics of all
study participants were reported. A correlation matrix
showed the relationships among variables. A series of
multiple regressions were performed to examine the
relationships among the variables as well as the predicted
interaction.
Results indicated that increased care given to mothers
was a significant predictor of increased frustration with
caregiving for daughters, and increased perceived
socioemotional aid to daughters was a significant predictor
of decreased frustration with caregiving for daughters.
There was no interaction effect, however. That is, the
effect of the amount of care given on frustration was not
moderated by socioemotional aid from care recipients.
Limitations, implications, and recommendations for further
research are discussed. These recommendations include the need for additional research in the area of lifespan or
generalized reciprocity and intergenerational
relationships. / Graduation date: 1997
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34112 |
| Date | 11 July 1996 |
| Creators | Alger, Georgina |
| Contributors | Walker, Alexis J. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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