African American Professional and Managerial Women’s Journeys Through Caregiving for Elderly Parents

Abstract

This study explored caregiving among African American women baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, who are caring for older parents and who are working in professional and managerial positions. The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of these caregivers including their perceptions of caregiving, the impact of caregiving on their professional lives, the accommodations they make to balance professional roles and responsibilities, and the supports that are available to them. Utilizing a phenomenological research design approach, this research study explores and describes the intricacies of the lived experience of a purposefully selected sample of 20 African American professional women caring for older parents. The knowledge generated from this research study will provide new insights into caregiving among African American professional women to inform social work practice and to influence the development of culturally appropriate workplace policies to support caregivers. This research study explicates the meaning, structure, and essence of caregiving for African American professional women caring for older family members. The study emerges from the intersection of the life course perspective, stress process perspective, and role theory to create a conceptual framework describing the caregiving experiences of African American professional women baby boomers. The study generates a caregiving perspective for professional African American women and adds to the strength-based and empowerment perspectives of culturally relevant caregiving research.