Would Long-ill Parent Hardly Yield Filial Children? Interpersonal Suffering and Its Transformation of Child Caregivers

• Main Authors: Hsiang-Chun Peng, 彭湘鈞
• Other Authors: Sue-Huei Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/05115654450746828310

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 心理學研究所 === 104 === Background & Objective: The saying “long-ill parent could hardly yield filial children” implies the dilemma, i.e., whether or not to fulfill filial piety, which child caregivers would face if they have cared their ill parent for a long time. Past studies have showed that caregiving would be a chronic stress, which would bring caregivers many negative physical and psychological outcomes. Yet, most of these studies took “symptoms” as dependent variables, and most of them only focused on the relationships of caregiver-recipient or caregiver-family, hence failed to explore the whole interpersonal context of caregiving. On the other hand, most of these studies adopted quantitative research paradigms, and only investigated the relationships between caregiving and outcome variables. Therefore, we could hardly imagine what their everyday interpersonal interactions might be. When both elders and caregivers have lots of stress, it is very easy for them to encounter conflicts. As a result, child caregivers would be very likely to face the challenge of filial piety. However, past studies about filial piety which emphasized the reciprocity between parents and children might not be able to account for the situations lacking reciprocity. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the interpersonal suffering and its potential transformation of child caregivers. Method: Semi-structured interview was adopted to explore the interpersonal suffering experiences in 18 child caregivers of ill elders. Result: With thematic analysis, the data showed: 1) The interpersonal suffering experiences included the source of interpersonal conflicts, features of the narratives, and frequently-used coping strategies. 2) The transformation of child caregivers included some cognitive processes and healing factors encountered in their liveworlds. 3) Some child caregivers even transcended their suffering into the well-being of their children, welfare of the whole society, or their own growth and plan for the future. Discussion & Conclusion: First, it is hard to understand caregiving experiences without considering their interpersonal context. The interpersonal suffering often arises from the ethical experience other than interpersonal reciprocity, hence to do with the prior relationships between elders and their child caregivers before the elders became ill. Moreover, people other than the caregiver-recipient dyads also play a role in their suffering. Second, the discussion takes “the ethical experience other than interpersonal reciprocity”, defined by Yee et al. (2004) to reconstruct the narratives and transformation processes of interpersonal suffering. Meanwhile, the situations of daughters-in-law as caregivers will be specially discussed. Last, clinical implications are suggested.