Center for Health and Research Transformation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Mar 4;78(3):520-531. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbac188.
Caring for a parent takes a greater psychological toll on daughters than sons. To minimize the psychological burden of parent care, it is important to understand what contributes to this gender disparity. Inspired by the caregiver stress process model and gender-as-relational perspective, we investigate how caregivers' gender, and the genders of their siblings, shape their risk of perceiving care-related criticism from siblings, a secondary stressor of caregiving with negative implications for psychological well-being.
Using data from 408 adult child caregivers nested within 231 families collected as part of the Within-Family Differences Study, we employ multilevel modeling to examine how caregivers' gender, as well as the gender composition of their sibship, interact to shape caregivers' probability of perceiving criticism from siblings regarding the care that they provide their mother. Qualitative data from the same caregivers are then analyzed to illuminate processes underlying these statistical associations.
Quantitative analyses reveal that daughters in predominantly-son sibships have a lower risk of perceiving care-related criticism than daughters in sibships with higher proportions of daughters. Qualitative analyses elucidate these findings. Daughters in predominantly-son sibships report that their siblings defer to them regarding their mother's care. Conversely, daughters in higher proportion-daughter sibships perceive care-related criticism because they and their sibling(s) hold conflicting views regarding care, and there is less consensus regarding who best understands their mother's care needs and preferences.
Findings demonstrate how characteristics of caregivers and their sibships interact to affect caregivers' risk of perceiving criticism regarding their care to their mothers.
照顾父母对女儿的心理影响大于儿子。为了最大限度地减轻父母照顾的心理负担，了解导致这种性别差异的原因很重要。受照顾者压力过程模型和性别关系视角的启发，我们研究了照顾者的性别以及其兄弟姐妹的性别如何影响他们感知来自兄弟姐妹的与照顾相关的批评的风险，这是照顾的次要压力源，对心理健康有负面影响。
使用作为家庭内差异研究一部分收集的来自 231 个家庭中 408 名成年子女照顾者的数据，我们采用多层次模型来检查照顾者的性别以及他们的兄弟姐妹的性别构成如何相互作用，以塑造照顾者感知来自兄弟姐妹对他们为母亲提供的照顾的批评的可能性。然后，对来自同一照顾者的定性数据进行分析，以阐明这些统计关联背后的过程。
定量分析表明，在主要是儿子的兄弟姐妹家庭中，女儿感知与照顾相关的批评的风险低于女儿在女儿比例较高的兄弟姐妹家庭中的风险。定性分析阐明了这些发现。在主要是儿子的兄弟姐妹家庭中，女儿报告说，他们的兄弟姐妹在母亲的照顾方面听从他们的意见。相反，在女儿比例较高的兄弟姐妹家庭中，女儿感知到与照顾相关的批评，因为他们和他们的兄弟姐妹对照顾有不同的看法，而且对于谁最了解母亲的照顾需求和偏好，共识较少。
研究结果表明，照顾者及其兄弟姐妹的特征如何相互作用，影响照顾者对他们照顾母亲的批评的感知风险。
