Adult child siblings caring for aging parents
Open Access
- Author:
- Mc Ginnis, Abigail
- Graduate Program:
- Nursing
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 18, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Judith E Hupcey, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Judith E Hupcey, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Lisa Ann Kitko, Committee Member
Barbara Ann Birriel, Committee Member
Jon F Nussbaum, Outside Member
Lisa Ann Kitko, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- adult child caregivers
family communication patterns
siblings
nursing - Abstract:
- PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to better understand how adult children caregivers (ACCs) interact with siblings with the common goal of caring for their aging parent care recipients with multimorbidity. This study specifically examined if there are any benefits or challenges ACCs face when working in a sibling care network, how responsibilities are divided, if there was any agreement or disagreement in sibling perspectives of caring for an aging parent, and the influence of Family Communication Pattern typologies. BACKGROUND: The population of the United States is experiencing a demographic shift and the aging population continues to grow. With this growth, there has been an increase in the number of ACCs offering informal care to their parents. Several ACCs have reported caregiving with the help of other informal caregivers. Previous evidence suggests caregiving support from family members and siblings. A gap in the current evidence exists describing the unique experience of ACCs working with siblings to care for aging parents. METHODS: A qualitative thematic analysis of 11 ACCs was conducted. Participants were recruited from a rural internal medicine practice or from the community by placement of information recruitment flyers. Demographic information was collected from each participant and they were asked to respond to adapted versions of both the Family Communication Patterns Typology (FCPT) survey and Norton’s Quality of Marriage Index (QMI). A semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant focusing on interaction with their siblings while caring for their aging parents with multimorbidity. Eight participants were recruited with corresponding siblings. Sibling dyad FCPT and QMI data were compared for alignment of responses. RESULTS: Eight themes emerged after analysis of interview and survey data. The ACC experience and interactions analyzed through interviews included why I provide care, why I can’t provide care, caregiving burden, decision assistance, role division, sibling appreciation, sibling discordance, and communication through the parental health trajectory. All 4 sibling dyads had discordant FCPT responses. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study provide a previously uninvestigated description of sibling communication while caring for an aging parent. Analyzing sibling dyads suggest that relationship quality may be more influential to communication that FCPT. Findings obtained from this study offer information for clinicians to improve interactions between ACCs which could lead to improved caregiving outcomes for caregivers and patients.