Department of Sociology, Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2021 Sep 13;76(8):1593-1604. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa099.
Although siblings represent central members of the networks of caregivers and their parents, there has been limited attention to how siblings affect one another's well-being during caregiving. In this article, we draw from theories of identity and stress to examine the impact that siblings have on caregivers' psychological well-being. Specifically, we employ a mixed-methods approach to explore whether caregivers' perceptions that their siblings are critical of the care they provide their mother are associated with higher depressive symptoms and the mechanisms underlying this association.
Using quantitative data collected from 404 caregivers nested within 231 families as part of the Within-Family Differences Study, we conduct mediation analyses to examine whether perceived sibling criticisms are associated with caregivers' depressive symptoms (a) directly and/or (b) indirectly through sibling tension. We then analyze qualitative data collected from the same caregivers to gain insight into the processes underlying statistical associations.
Quantitative analyses revealed that there was no direct relationship between perceived sibling criticisms and depressive symptoms; there was, however, an indirect relationship such that perceived sibling criticisms were associated with greater sibling tension, which in turn was associated with higher depressive symptoms. These quantitative findings were corroborated by qualitative analyses, which demonstrated that, in an effort to mitigate the negative impact of sibling criticisms, caregivers often employed strategies that may have fueled sibling tension.
These findings demonstrate how identity processes, as well as the family networks in which caregiving takes place, shape the experiences and consequences of parent care.
尽管兄弟姐妹是照顾者及其父母的关系网络中的核心成员，但对于兄弟姐妹在照顾过程中如何相互影响照顾者的幸福感，关注有限。在本文中，我们借鉴身份和压力理论，探讨兄弟姐妹对照顾者心理健康的影响。具体而言，我们采用混合方法来探索照顾者是否认为他们的兄弟姐妹对他们为母亲提供的照顾持批评态度，这是否与更高的抑郁症状相关，以及这种关联的潜在机制。
利用作为“家庭内差异研究”一部分从 231 个家庭中的 404 名照顾者中收集的定量数据，我们进行中介分析，以检验照顾者对兄弟姐妹批评的看法是否与他们的抑郁症状（a）直接相关，以及/或（b）通过兄弟姐妹之间的紧张关系间接相关。然后，我们分析从同一照顾者收集的定性数据，以深入了解统计关联背后的过程。
定量分析表明，感知到的兄弟姐妹批评与抑郁症状之间没有直接关系；但是存在间接关系，即感知到的兄弟姐妹批评与更大的兄弟姐妹紧张关系相关，而这种紧张关系又与更高的抑郁症状相关。这些定量发现得到了定性分析的证实，这些分析表明，为了减轻兄弟姐妹批评的负面影响，照顾者通常采用可能加剧兄弟姐妹紧张关系的策略。
这些发现表明，身份过程以及照顾发生的家庭网络如何塑造父母照顾的经历和后果。
