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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Making choices
— a within-family study of caregiver selection | | Author(s) | Karl Pillemer, J Jill Suitor |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 46, no 4, August 2006 |
| Pages | pp 439-448 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Mother ; Personal relationships ; Family relationships ; Children [offspring] as carers ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | A within-family study identified factors that lead mothers to expect that a particular child will serve in the role of primary caregiver. Data for the analysis were collected by in-person interviews with a representative sample of 556 mothers aged 65-75 living in the Greater Boston area who provided detailed information regarding all of their adult children. Multivariate and qualitative data analyses were conducted. Emotional closeness and similarity of gender and attitudes were strongly associated with which children mother identified as probable caregivers. Findings regarding exchanges were mixed. Mothers were more likely to name adult children who had provided them with support; however, mothers' past provision of assistance to children was unrelated to expectations regarding care. No aspects of children's availability besides proximity and employment affected mothers' expectations. In selecting a primary caregiver, mothers emphasised expressive characteristics of intergenerational relationships, rather than instrumental and contextual factors associated with children's availability. The findings indicate a discrepancy between maternal preference for care and actual patterns of support from adult children. Family counselling in both the before caregiving and the actual care provision stages may be useful to clarify expected roles for children. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070926207 A |
| Classmark | SRM: DS: DS:SJ: P6:SS: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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