Janssen T
Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen, Vakgroep Sociologie.
Tijdschr Gerontol Geriatr. 1988 Sep;19(4):185-91.
This study focuses on the experiences of the primary care-giver of somatically impaired older people and intends to get a better understanding of the social conditions, difficulties and limitations of family care. Data come from qualitative in depth interviews with 52 primary care-givers: 24 spouses, 21 children (mostly daughters) and seven other women. In this article special attention is given to the importance of other people (mostly members of the family) to the primary care-giver. Fifty % of the primary care-givers experienced their situation as not so burdensome, 25% as rather and also 25% as very burdensome. Support turns out to be very important for the primary care-giver but lots of support does not always prevent a situation from becoming very burdensome. Three kinds of stress have been distinguished: care-stress, relation-stress and network-stress. Particularly network-stress turns out to be indicative for very burdensome situations. Pre-eminently one is experiencing this kind of stress if one is also experiencing care- and relation-stress. In spite of much stress and feelings of burden however, people tend to continue with caring. A strong sense of duty plays a mayor part here. Finally, the current political trend to effect a shift to more informal care, is critically evaluated in the light of the results of the research.
本研究聚焦于身体有残障的老年人的主要照料者的经历，旨在更好地了解家庭照料的社会状况、困难和局限。数据来自对52名主要照料者的定性深入访谈：24名配偶、21名子女（大多是女儿）以及7名其他女性。在本文中，特别关注其他人（大多是家庭成员）对主要照料者的重要性。50%的主要照料者认为自己的处境负担不那么重，25%认为负担较重，还有25%认为负担非常重。事实证明，支持对主要照料者非常重要，但大量的支持并不总能防止情况变得负担过重。已区分出三种压力：照料压力、关系压力和人际网络压力。尤其是人际网络压力被证明是负担非常重的情况的一个指标。如果一个人同时也经历照料压力和关系压力，那么他尤其会经历这种压力。然而，尽管有很大压力和负担感，人们往往还是会继续照料。强烈的责任感在其中起了主要作用。最后，根据研究结果对当前向更多非正式照料转变的政治趋势进行了批判性评估。
