An Examination of the Trajectory of the Adult Child's Caregiving for an Elderly Parent

Study objective was to delineate stages irt filial role development from recognition of responsibility to provision of help. Fifty-three adult child-elderly parent pairs reported on parent health status and child,filial behaviors. Child concern was unrelated to parent health status; urging parent to modify health was moderately related to health status; child's action to provide help was related only to parent's functional adequacy (Q Key Words: action, adult child behaviors, concern; filial role development, health status, urging. Previous survey studies of adult children's caregiving and exchange of help with elderly parents typically report that a relatively small proportion of adult children are actually engaged in providing help to an elderly parent at a given time, although estimates of the actual proportion vary. For example, an analysis of data from the National Survey of Families and Households (Eggebeen, 1993; Eggebeen & Hogan, 1990) found that only one in five elderly parents received assistance with household chores, transportation, or household repairs from an adult child within the previous month. Emotional support and advice giving were the most common forms of support to parents, reported by 25% of adult children. Spitze and Logan (1990 found that approximately 11% of adult children were providing assistance to parents at a given time, whereas Scharlach and Fredricksen 1994) reported that 10-15% of adult children were giving care. Data from the National Long Term Care Study (Dwyer, 1996) indicated that 38% pf elders needing help with at least one ADL or IADL activity received caregiving help from an adult child. Looking at the likelihood of assuming a caregiving role, Himes (1994) estimated that roughly half of adult women aged 45-49 would provide care to an elderly parent at some point in their lives (most likely before age 55). Similarly, Moen, Robison, and Fields ( 1994) found that almost two-thirds of adult women aged 55 to 65 reported having been caregivers. Although the exact proportion of adult children assuming a caregiving role varies, it is clear that the proportion assuming the role at some time in their adult years is considerably greater than estimated from studies focusing on a given point in time. All researchers agree that daughters are more likely to assume a caregiving role than sons, but that sons do provide care in many cases (Lee, Dwyer, & Coward, 1993). At first inspection, such findings would seem at odds with Brody's ( 1985) view of parent care as a normative family stress, one that all adult children experience. A resolution of this apparent inconsistency is suggested by taking a view of the parentchild relationship over the life course. Shehan and Dwyer ( 1989) postulate a point in the life cycle where the norms of filial responsibility come into play and adult children see themselves as having some responsibility to provide care for their parents in old age. The life course studies cited above (Himes. 1994; Moen, et al., 1994) would seem to support this view. Such a position stems from Blenker's (1965) early conceptions of filial crisis and filial maturity: Filial crisis occurs at some point in midlife when adult children realize that parents can no longer be looked at as a "rock of support" for the children, but may themselves need comfort and support. This filial crisis is resolved by taking on a filial role, which involves being dependable with regard to the parent's needs. In contrast, Nydegger ( 1991 ) sees the filial role not as one that results from filial crisis, but rather one that comes about as a result of gradual change. According to this view, one can talk about the "role course" or life course of a role; such that certain roles are not stable and unchanging, but may develop over time as qualitative modifications in the role take place. …