UNDERSTANDING DECISION MAKING IN THE CAREGIVING EXPERIENCE OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS.
Contributors: University of Virginia.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 203
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: Caregiving is a significant women's issue of the 1990's. This interpretive study focused on women who are bound together in the special relationship of mother and daughter. The purpose of the study was to understand the meaning of decision making to mothers and daughters in the caregiving situation. Decision making, a common activity among caregivers, care recipients, and other family members, is the means by which issues of daily living are resolved given the constraints and opportunities of the moment. A subtle part of everyday life that is contextual and intersubjective in nature, decision making realizes one's intentions, desires, and wishes. However, ego defenses obscure one's motives through a process of self-deception.

A purposive sample of ten mother-daughter dyads living in rural Virginia was obtained from health agencies. Mothers were widowed or divorced Caucasians ranging in age from 67 to 97 years old, who experienced physical disability but were not cognitively impaired. Most of the mothers had more than one child but all received care from at least one daughter. The daughters, who ranged in age from 33 to 69 years, had no more than a technical school education, and, if employed, held blue collar jobs. All dyads had other family members living within 150 miles, and only two of the ten dyads did not live together. Each mother and daughter was interviewed separately for approximately one hour. The interviews were tape recorded, transcribed, and interpreted using a hermeneutic approach.

The transcripts of mothers and daughters were analyzed separately using gender and family development concepts. Three themes were found in all transcripts: Managing the Transitions, Conducting the Day to Day Business of Life, and Affiliating. Coding categories differed for mothers' and daughters' transcripts.

A major characteristic of the data, a complex relationship between nurturance and autonomy, unified the discussion of findings, which was structured around seven principles. These principles were subsumed under three major themes: mothers' activity, conflict management, and power issues. The significant conclusion of this study was that decision making by mothers and daughters reflected their subconscious desire for nurturance and autonomy.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: B, page: 3548.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 1993.

School code: 0246.