COVID-19 as a Family Stressor: A Life Course Exploration of Family Stress Among Rural Grandparents and Their Adult Children in Upstate New York

12127 Background: Adult children caring for a parent with cancer comprise a significant segment of caregivers. Demographic trends indicate this caregiving population will grow as the baby boomer generation ages. Yet little is known about adult child caregivers’ needs and experiences and how they differ from the well-studied spousal caregiver. This knowledge gap may hinder efforts to ameliorate adult children’s caregiver burden and its impact on patients. Methods: We analyzed adult child and spousal/partner caregivers’ surveys from the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance consortium, a multi-regional population-based study of approximately 10,000 persons with newly diagnosed colorectal and lung cancer. We used t-tests and a series of multivariate regression models to assess whether adult child and spousal caregivers’ caregiving responsibilities, social/emotional burden, and financial burden (scaled 0-10) differed and examined patient and caregiver characteristics’ mediation of variation in burden. Results: Compared to spouses/partners (N=1029), adult children (N=230) completed similar levels of caregiving tasks but spent less time (14 vs. 24 hours/week; p<0.001). However, adult children experienced higher social/emotional burden (2.9 vs. 2.4; p<0.01). In baseline models controlling for patient clinical factors, caregiving characteristics, and caregiver demographics, adult children’s average social/emotional and financial burdens were statistically higher than spouses/partners. Additional adjustment for caregivers’ childcare responsibilities and employment eliminated social/emotional and financial burden disparities. Additional adjustment to the baseline model for caregiver-patient gender concordance eliminated the social/emotional burden gap. Communication quality was a large and statistically significant predictor of both burdens (p<0.001). Conclusions: Adult children spend less time caregiving than spouses/partners but experience higher caregiving burden. Adult children’s childcare and career responsibilities help explain this increased burden. Gender concordance between caregiver and patient may also contribute to social/emotional burden, adding important context to prior research indicating female caregivers experience the greatest burden. Interventions to improve communication between caregivers and patients have the potential to reduce both adult child and spouses/partners caregiver burden. Adjusted average caregiver burden for adult child and spousal caregivers. [Table: see text]

This paper investigated the relationship between living arrangements, caring for grandchildren and depressive symptoms among grandparents. Data came from the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2012) baseline data, a sample of those 45 and older. The analytic sample contained 5,473 grandparents with grandchildren aged under 16. The CESD-10 was used to measure depressive symptoms with a score from 10 to 40. We used Multiple Linear Regression. 42.69% rural and 48.01% urban grandparents provided care for their grandchildren. More grandparents provided care of high intensity (>=48weeks/year). After controlling demographic and socioeconomic variables, rural grandparents co-residing with grandchildren tended to have less depressive symptoms compared to rural grandparents not co-residing with grandchildren. And rural grandparents providing care tended to have less depressive symptoms compared to rural grandparents providing no care. But when co-residing with grandchildren and providing care of high intensity, rural grandparents were likely to have more depressive symptoms. For urban grandparents, co-residing with grandchildren compared to not co-residing with grandchildren contributed to their less depressive symptoms. But after controlling frequency of visiting from adult children and some other variables, the association between caregiving intensity, interaction term for caregiving intensity and co-residing living arrangements and depressive symptoms among grandparents were not statistically significant. But urban grandparents living in skipped generation households had more depressive symptoms. Grandchildren could be a critical emotion support to their grandparents. However, grandparents co-residing with grandchildren and providing care of high intensity or living in skipped generation households tend to have negative mental health.

Although the frequency of gay male parented families is increasing, little is known about child care responsibility in these families. A purposive and snowball-sampled, Internet-based survey of 76 gay male parented families who brought children into their families after the primary relationship had been formed were the study participants. A modified version of Cowan and Cowan's (1988) “Who Does What” measure was utilized to determine divisions of child care responsibility. It was determined that, to a statistically significant degree, fathers with greater child care responsibility made less money and had a greater desire to have a child before the arrival of the child. After the arrival of the child they also fulfill more of a “mothering role,” make less money, and have lower career importance after the arrival of the child than their partners. These findings build upon the qualitatively derived knowledge of parenting responsibilities in these families by providing a quantitative lens for understanding a number of associations between parenting responsibilities and other factors in these fathers’ lives.

Men who have a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer may be offered a predictive genetic test to determine whether or not they carry the family specific BRCA1/2 mutation. Male carriers may be at increased risk of breast and prostate cancers. Relatively little is known about at-risk men's decision-making about BRCA1/2 testing. This qualitative study explores the influences on male patients' genetic test decisions. Twenty-nine in-depth interviews were undertaken with both carrier and noncarrier men and immediate family members (17 male patients, 8 female partners, and 4 adult children). These explored family members' experiences of cancer and genetic testing, decision-making about testing, family support, communication of test results within the family, risk perception and risk management. Implicit influences on men's testing decisions such as familial obligations are examined. The extent to which other family members--partners and adult children--were involved in testing decisions is also described. It is demonstrated that mothers of potential mutation carriers not only perceive themselves as having a right to be involved in making this decision, but also were perceived by their male partners as having a legitimate role to play in decision-making. There was evidence that (adult) children were excluded from the decision-making, and some expressed resentment about this. The implications of these findings for the practice of genetic counseling are discussed.

This presentation will explore the demands that may occur from family responsibilities as well as from the individual’s job, and compare a cohort of Australian working adults (male and female) with women’s employment situations in Europe. The Australian sample was divided on each participant’s parenting demands, ranging from none (participants without children), few (parents of adult children), some (parents of adolescents), more (parents of primary school-aged children) and most (parents of young children). The age of each group increased reflected by the increasing age of the children, although the non-parents were more varied in age. Compared to the European trends of women undertaking casual and part-time work, the Australian women were mostly employed in full-time, permanent jobs although a third of mothers of the youngest children (and mothers with more children) did take up part-time, casual positions. Compared to the Australian men, women on average worked fewer hours, although this difference was only significant amongst mothers of the youngest children and those with adult children. Within the Australian women, mothers of young children worked significantly fewer hours than the women in the other groups, particularly the mothers of adolescent children and those without children. Despite the differences in working hours, the women did not differ in their occupational role salience and all reported similar levels of work and life satisfaction and work-life balance, and were similar to the Australian men in these outcomes. Mothers of adult children showed the most robust outcomes. When compared: to women without children, they were more absorbed by their work, less exhausted, less cynical and with greater sense of professional efficacy; to the mothers of younger children (preschool and primary school), they also felt more vigorous, that their lives were less hectic, and with significantly less negative spillover between work and family roles. In particular, mothers of primary school-aged children were likely to report higher levels of emotional exhaustion, negative work-to-family spillover and being busy, possibly reflecting the challenges of returning to full-time work hours whilst caring for children who were not yet independent. The results indicate that for Australian women, adult children coincide with greater competence and engagement in work and a significant reduction in the problems associated with combining work and family roles, whereas this was more problematic with younger children. Unlike their European counterparts, most women were in full-time permanent positions, although the proportion in part-time work increased in the groups with more and younger children.

We investigated involvement of adult children in planning long-term care for still-healthy parents, within four decision making activities. Respondents' age, personal authority, and family stressors had positive effects on considering parents' future needs. Daughters engaged in considering care arrangements and discussing possibilities with parents somewhat more than sons did. Discussion was influenced negatively by family stressors and positively by personal authority. Preliminary planning and making final decisions occurred rarely. Results suggest that these four activities (considering, discussing, planning, deciding) are sequential steps. Recognizing sampling method and homogeneity limitations, implications for professionals concerned with longterm care are identified. Key Words: adult children, independent parents, long-term care decision making, relationship quality. Planning For Long-Term Care: Filial Behavior and Relationship Quality of Adult Children With Independent Parents* Mark C. Bromley** and Rosemary Blieszner Gerontological research has established the role of adult children in the provision of long-term care, instrumental support, and health-crisis decision making for their elderly parents (Brody, 1977; Shanas, 1979; York & Calsyn, 1977). Research on the role of adult children with their independent parents, however, has been overshadowed by the plethora of studies on care giving, caregiver burden, and care receiver autonomy or psychological well-being. We do know that independent older adults are influenced by their children in major health matters (Pratt, Jones, Shin, & Walker, 1989), desire emotional support and advice from their children (Blieszner & Mancini, 1987; Hamon & Blieszner, 1990), and state a preference for remaining in their own homes and receiving assistance from paid helpers or relatives should the need for help arise (McAuley & Blieszner, 1985). Many adult children ponder the question of what they should do for their parents if, and when, a parent becomes dependent and the question may be contemplated while the parent is still healthy and independent. Because behavior varies across individuals and families, there is no sure way to determine what adult children should do (Brody, 1985). Only a few researchers have investigated the long-term care decision making with adult children that precedes the onset of dependency needs in older parents. Lieberman (1978) found that adult children who were older, female, or Black were more likely to endorse confronting issues that acknowledge a parent's dependency needs. Also, those in working-class families are more likely than those in middle-class families to feel that discussing dependency issues is appropriate. Hansson, Nelson, Carver, NeeSmith, Dowling, Fletcher, and Suhr (1990) found that 85% of the adult children they surveyed had begun to think about issues and concerns related to long-term care of elderly parents. Such thinking was most often stimulated by health crises, an increased awareness of the risks of aging for the parent, and disruptions to the parent's status and relationship network. Some researchers have considered parent caring along a continuum of needs and responses. Hansson and associates (1990) found that adult children's consciousness about their parent's needs progressed in an orderly fashion over time from thinking about the need, to learning about aging issues, and then to monitoring the parents in specific areas of concern. Gonyea (1987) used a process approach to examine the decision making of caregivers when considering institutionalization of elderly family members. The process consisted of recognition of the institutionalization option, discussion of the option with other people, and implementation of the option through planning activities. These stages led to the actual outcome of the decision, the placement of the older adult in an institution. Gonyea (1987) found that the perceived affective relationship was most predictive of the caregiver considering institutionalization, whereas the level of personal care needed by the parent influenced caregivers to discuss and implement plans for placement. …

When the Physician Becomes the Caregiver: A Review for Physicians Caring for Their Elder Relatives.

In this chapter, Martin Lecker shares his analysis of the COVID-19 crisis’s economic and psychological consequences for working mothers. With the advent of COVID-19, one global demographic, marginalized segment of the world’s population most highly affected by the economic and psychological consequences of this pandemic virus is working mothers. In a UK study conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, it was found that working mothers were one and a half times more likely than fathers to lose their jobs or quit; furthermore, the same study found that working mothers were to take on twice as much of their childcare responsibilities and housework responsibilities than their spouses (Charlton, World Economic Forum.org, 2020). In another study by the University of Southern California, it was reported that as a consequence of COVID-19, college-educated mothers reduced their working hours by 64% compared to 52% of the working college-educated women without any young children (Miller, USC New.edu., 2020). In the same study, it was found that there were higher levels of psychological distress among working mothers than among childless women who were working (Miller, USC New.edu., 2020). The purpose of this chapter is to examine the (1) economic consequences experienced globally by working mothers; (2) psychological stress that accompanies unemployment and additional childcare, parental care, and domestic responsibilities, as well as the increase in domestic abuse as a result of the lockdown or unemployment; (3) current benchmark practices or proposed future solutions recommended by various organizations or professionals studying these issues; and (4) recommendations for future research.

This study discusses the role of the family in fostering adolescent religious attitudes during the Covid 19 pandemic in North Kanna Village, Basse Sangtempe District, Luwu Regency. This study aims to determine the religious attitudes of adolescents, the role and strategies of families towards fostering religious attitudes, and family barriers in fostering adolescent religious attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Kanna Village, Basse Sangtempe District, Luwu Regency. This research is qualitative research using a descriptive approach. The subjects and objects of the study consisted of families/parents, adolescents aged 16-18 years, community leaders, religious leaders, and village heads. The data processing and data analysis techniques used data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing, namely: 1 ). The religious attitudes of adolescents in North Kanna Village believe in succession, believing with awareness, religious doubts, and disobeying in worship. 2). The roles and strategies of parents in fostering adolescent religious attitudes in North Kanna Village include educators, supervisors, and role models as motivators. 3). Family barriers to fostering adolescent religious attitudes in North Kanna Village are the parents' common understanding of religion, lack of time, and the development of telecommunication media. The results of this study indicate that the role of the family on the religious attitudes of adolescents during the covid-19 pandemic: Parents must understand religious knowledge well about obligations and responsibilities to children in Islam, and parents must take the time to equip religious knowledge in children properly

Women tend to ruminate more than men, and are generally more hypervigilant to the emotions of others in order to maintain positive social ties. Thus, compared to men, women may ruminate more when their social partners have greater life stresses. However, the literature on stressful events typically focuses on individuals' experiences and perceptions of stressors experienced by specific social ties such as spousal partners and adult children. The purpose of this study was to examine links between perceptions of a broad array of family and nonfamily social partner stresses and daily rumination among older men and women. Adults aged 65 and older (N = 293, 55% women) completed baseline assessments of family and nonfamily life stressors and 5-6 consecutive nightly assessments regarding rumination, interpersonal tensions, worries, and support provision. Multilevel structural equation models revealed that perceptions of greater family and nonfamily life stressors were associated with greater rumination. The links between family stress and rumination varied by gender: family stress was related to greater rumination among women and not men. Moreover, among women, family and nonfamily stress-rumination links were accounted for by greater daily worries about others, and among men, the nonfamily stress-rumination link was due to greater interpersonal tensions as well as daily worries. These findings may be due in part to gender role socialization and women's greater kin-keeping and investment in family ties.

PurposeThis paper aims to review the existing literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender and work roles to determine whether the pandemic has undermined the status, pay and advancement of women or has provided opportunities for reducing gender inequality.Design/methodology/approachThe author reviewed the literature on the effects of COVID-19 and past pandemics on gender equality, focusing on job loss, the effects of being in essential occupations on health and well-being, the increased domestic responsibilities of women and men due to closure of schools and other social services and the effects of telecommuting on gender roles.FindingsThe pandemic has generally created challenges for women’s advancement. More women than men have lost their jobs; more women than men are in essential jobs that expose them to infection and psychological stress, and women have had more work disruption than men have had because of increases in childcare and other responsibilities. On the other hand, telecommuting has increased men’s amount of childcare, and this does have the potential to increase men’s childcare responsibilities in the long term, thereby reducing the gender gap in domestic responsibilities and increasing gender equality.Research limitations/implicationsThe COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing and the research on the pandemic’s effects are new and ongoing.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first scholarly review of the literature on the potential effects of COVID-19 on the gender gap in pay and advancement.

Evidence has shown that the anticipation of providing care for a parent in the future can be anxiety-provoking for adult children, especially for one-child generations in China. Filial anxiety may influence adult children’s transition to the caregiver role and may bring about heightened caregiving stress. However, this phenomenon remains insufficiently studied among Chinese adult children. Drawing on the Stress Process Model and proactive coping theory, this study examined how primary stressors (i.e., parent’s declining health, adverse psychological health, and lack of eldercare resources), anticipatory stressor (i.e., anticipated parental care needs), and psychosocial resources (i.e., sibling number, the value of filial obligation, intergenerational relationship, work stress, and family stress) influenced the multiple domains of filial anxiety (i.e., Filial Anxiety-Ability, Filial Anxiety-Responsibility, and Filial Anxiety-Welfare). A face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted with 530 Chinese adult children aged between 26 and 40 years in Shenzhen, China. Descriptive analyses and regression analyses were conducted. Results demonstrated that Chinese adult children experienced a higher level of overall filial anxiety than their Western counterparts and reported a particularly high level of filial anxiety about their parent’s welfare. Adult children with higher work and family stress, with fewer siblings, and whose parents lack eldercare resources were more likely to experience a high level of filial anxiety. This study systematically investigated the multiple stressors of filial anxiety. The findings have implications for the development of effective interventions to reduce adult children’s future caregiving concerns and better prepare them for their older parents’ future care needs.

A theoretical framework that delineates the relationships between work and family roles and psychological well-being is derived from U.S. research and utilized to examine the relationships of work and family stress with psychological well-being in urban China. Data from a sample of 733 married and employed individuals in urban Shanghai confirm the general model of the link between work and family stress and psychological distress. Due to the centrality of work roles for the Chinese, work stress exerts a stronger relationship on psychological well-being than does family stress. Furthermore, the Chinese are more vulnerable to stress arising from interpersonal conflicts than from role demands. In addition, gender differences are found in the relationship between role stress and distress. Women tend to experience more family demands than men. Women's mental health status is tied similarly to stress arising from work and family roles, whereas men are more vulnerable to work stress than family stress. However, Chinese women do not report significantly greater generalized distress than men.

This article explores whether childhood living arrangements (living with single or remarried parents, exposure to extended households) impact attitudes toward and implementation of parental coresidence. The results indicate that positive attitudes toward parental coresidence are less common among those raised by single fathers and more common among women exposed to traditional extended households. Parental coresidence is more prevalent among men and women raised by single or remarried mothers, as well as men living with single fathers, and less common among individuals living with remarried fathers. Key Words: childhood living arrangements, coresidence, extended family, grandparents, intergenerational solidarity. Little is known about whether and how early childhood living arrangements affect adult children's propensity to take aging parents into their homes. Past research on caregiving has focused on the characteristics of current family structure such as sibling composition, the marital status of parent or child, or competing roles (Coward & Dwyer, 1990; Matthews, 1987; Soldo, Wolf, & Agree, 1990; Stoller & Pugliesi, 1989). Studies devoted to parent-adult child coresidence often do not differentiate between arrangements where adult children coreside with parents and arangements where the parent or parents coreside with the adult child. Consequently, they confound factors related to adult children's dependency on their parents with variables associated with children's willingness to care for their parents. Most of these investigations also fail to include detailed indicators of childhood living arrangements as predictors of coresidence (Aquilino, 1990; Brody, Litvin, Hoffman, & Kleban, 1995; Crimmins & Ingegneri, 1990; Ward & Spitze, 1994; Ward, Logan, & Spitze, 1992). In contrast, research dealing with the effects of childhood living arrangements has focused on outcomes such as personal adjustment, socioeconomic attainment, and interactions and supports between the parent and the adult child (Amato, 1991; Amato & Keith, 1991; Aquilino, 1994a, 1994b; Rossi & Rossi, 1990; Whitbeck, Hoyt, & Huck, 1994; Whitbeck, Simons, & Conger, 1991). These latter studies provide considerable evidence of the long-range effects of childhood living arrangements on later kin relationships, but they do not address how such living arrangements may influence children's propensity to take older parents into their homes. This study expands earlier research on parentadult child coresidence by exploring whether childhood living arrangements influence adult children's attitudes toward taking a parent into their home and whether adult children ever did have a parent live with them. MODELS OF INTERGENERATIONAL SOLIDARITY Taking parents into one's home and attitudes about parental coresidence constitute dimensions of intergenerational solidarity (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991). Parental coresidence is a special case of functional solidarity (exchange of supports or resources), and attitudes about parental coresidence represent an example of normative solidarity (strength of commitment to performance of family roles and to meeting familial obligations, Bengtson & Roberts, 1991, p. 857). Several authors have proposed theoretical models of intergenerational solidarity. Bengtson and his colleagues (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991; Silverstein, Parrott, & Bengtson, 1995) view functional solidarity foremost as an outcome of normative and affectional solidarity (positive sentiments about family members; Bengtson & Roberts, 1991, p. 857) and of opportunity structures. Relying on exchange theory as well as Tonnies' concept of Gemeinschaft, these authors argue that exchanges of supports between generations reflect, on the one hand, feelings of obligation about the provision of specific supports and, on the other hand, affection between parents and (adult) children. …

ABSTRACTObjectiveThis study investigates within‐family inequalities among adult children regarding their likelihood of receiving childcare support from older parents in South Korea.BackgroundOlder parents' childcare support is widespread and serves as a crucial resource for adult children with childcare responsibilities. Despite its importance, there has been limited research on the distribution of such parental time resources among adult children within a family, especially in East Asian contexts. This contrasts sharply with extensive studies on financial transfers.MethodThis study leverages data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) and employs linear family fixed effects models. It investigates how differential support from older parents among adult children varies by older parents' education, adult children's education, and gender.ResultsThe analyses reveal substantial heterogeneity based on older parents' education. Less educated parents tend to favor sons, especially among less educated children, with selective support based on education primarily affecting daughters. In contrast, more educated parents show a preference for daughters and do not differentiate based on their children's education.ConclusionThe study highlights the enduring influence of traditional gender norms amidst contemporary societal changes in South Korea. It also reveals that class and gender intersect in both the provision of support and its subsequent effects. Therefore, policies encouraging kin support for childcare should consider the potential negative impacts on class and gender inequality that it entails.