Involvement In Caregiving Research Articles

The Social Ecology of Parental Monitoring: Parent-Child Dynamics in a High-Risk Peruvian Neighborhood.

While parental monitoring is understood to protect adolescents from engaging in risk behaviors, little is known about how the family dynamics involved in parental monitoring differ across sociocultural contexts. We sought to gain an in-depth understanding of parent-child relationship dynamics and parental knowledge of adolescents' activities in an urban Peruvian neighborhood with high levels of crime and adolescent substance use. We conducted 15 in-depth interviews and two focus groups with adolescents and 12 in-depth interviews with mothers sampled from a secondary school in Callao, Peru. Our findings emphasize the importance of parent-child confianza (trust) as a foundation for parental awareness of adolescents' lives and activities. Participants in our sample characterized confianza as encouraging adolescent disclosure and shaping how parental solicitation and rules were interpreted by adolescents. Participants described how confianza was rooted in features of the parent-child relationship, including shared parent-child time, parental affection, adolescent perceptions of parents' ability to give good advice, and awareness of how parents would react to delicate topics. Participants linked these family dynamics, in turn, to economic hardship, parental feelings of sacrifice and stress, perceptions of neighborhood risk, and gender norms limiting fathers' involvement in caregiving. Results have implications for the planning and adaptation of family-based prevention programs for use in high-risk contexts in Latin America.

Support needs of Canadian adult siblings of brothers and sisters with intellectual/developmental disabilities

AbstractBackgroundIt is becoming more common for siblings to fulfill a caregiving role for their brother or sister, particularly because people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) are often living longer and outliving their parents. However, most of what we know about siblings of people with IDD is based on research with children, and limited studies on the adult sibling experiences in Canada have been published. To meet the support needs of Canadian adult siblings, “The Sibling Collaborative”, a grass‐roots initiative, conducted a needs assessment.Specific AimsThe purpose of this study was to better understand the current challenges siblings experience and how requested resources may differ across three age groups: adults between the ages of 20 and 29 years, 30 to 49 years, and 50 years of age and older.MethodA total of 260 siblings of individuals with IDD from across Ontario completed an online survey.FindingsSiblings endorsed a relatively low rating of intensity of support that they provided for their brothers or sisters with IDD at the time of survey completion; however, the majority indicated that they intended to take a greater caregiving role in the future. Ratings of support differed by sibling age groups, as did challenges related to supporting brothers or sisters with IDD. Overall, participants reported a range of desired resources and preferred methods of accessing resources.DiscussionSiblings' caregiving relationships with their brothers and sisters with IDD differed across age groups. Results from the current study indicate different supports may be needed for different age groups. As policies around the world continue to encourage continued family involvement in caregiving for adults with IDD, it is important to understand how systems can better support sibling caregivers.

Mothers Who Take Care of Children with Disabilities in Rural Areas of a Spanish Region.

The purpose of this research is to describe how the mothers of children with disabilities in rural areas of Extremadura perceive care tasks and the subjective impact that these tasks have on their daily life and health, as well as the subjective assessment that these mothers make of the benefits and services of the Spanish welfare policy. An interpretative paradigm was selected, using a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design. Twelve mothers were included. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. A discourse analysis of the narrative information was performed using open, axial, and selective coding processes and the constant comparative method. Three topics have been extracted from the findings of the analysis: (1) extensive care responsibilities, (2) impacts upon well-being and daily life, and (3) resources that “barely” help. The care tasks performed by mothers of children with disabilities in rural areas have an enormous impact on their daily life and health. This involvement in caregiving generates a significant occupational imbalance which has an impact on their mental health, and which causes economic and social problems.

Having it all – perceived coparenting quality and work-family balance in the context of parental leave

ABSTRACT The study aimed to explore associations between division of parental leave and perceived quality of coparenting in parents of infants and to compare parents’ work-family balance in terms of satisfaction with time on parental leave and time spent at work. Using survey data from 280 Swedish parents at 18 months after childbirth, we compared parents who shared parental leave equally with those who did not share equally. The primary outcome was parents’ perceived quality of coparenting, operationalised as parenting alliance and satisfaction with their partner’s involvement in caregiving. Satisfaction with time on parental leave and time spent at work was also measured. Both mothers and fathers who shared parental leave equally reported higher coparenting quality than those who did not share leave equally. Mothers who shared parental leave equally reported higher satisfaction with their partner’s involvement in caregiving than those who did not share equally. Our findings suggest that equal division of parental leave is associated with higher perceived quality of coparenting for both mothers and fathers, and higher satisfaction with their work-family balance at 18 months after childbirth.

Birth of a Father: Fathering in the First 1,000Days.

As a result of societal changes, fathers participate more actively in child care than they used to. In this article, we propose a context‐dependent biobehavioral model of emergent fatherhood in which sociocultural, behavioral, hormonal, and neural factors develop and interact during the first 1,000 days of fatherhood. Sociocultural factors, including different expectations of fathers and varying opportunities for paternal caregiving through paid paternal leave, influence paternal involvement. Levels of hormones (e.g., testosterone, vasopressin, oxytocin, cortisol) predict fathers’ parenting behaviors, and involvement in caregiving in turn affects their hormones and brain responses to infant stimuli. The birth of the first child marks the transition to fatherhood and may be a critical period in men’s lives, with a smoother transition to fatherhood predicting more optimal involvement by fathers in subsequent years. A focus on prenatal and early postnatal fathering may pave the way for developing interventions that effectively support fathering during pregnancy and in the first years of their children’s lives.

Effects of reproductive coercion on young couples' parenting behaviors and child development: A dyadic perspective.

A growing number of studies have demonstrated a strong association between reproductive coercion and unintended pregnancy among adolescent and young adult females. However, few studies have examined how a pregnancy resulting from an experience of reproductive coercion affects parenting and the child's development. To address this gap in the current literature, the present study sought to examine the effect of reproductive coercion on parenting competence, caregiving involvement, and child development at 6- and 12-months postpartum using a dyadic perspective. The data were collected from a prospective cohort study of 296 pregnant adolescent females and their male partners (N = 592 participants), who were followed from pregnancy to 12-months postpartum. The Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to examine the effects of an individual's (actor) and their partner's (partner) experience of reproductive coercion on parenting competence, caregiving involvement, and child development. Generalized Estimating Equations were performed to test associations between reproductive coercion and parenting outcomes. An actor's experience of reproductive coercion was significantly associated with lower parenting sense of competence 12-months postpartum. Our findings suggest that reproductive coercion may interfere with adolescents' transition into parenthood. Programs should consider reproductive coercion as a possible form of trauma and adopt activities that aim to mitigate its effects on children of adolescent and young adult parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Testosterone and Fathers\u2019 Parenting Unraveled: Links with the Quantity and Quality of Father-Child Interactions

ObjectiveIndividual differences in quality of father involvement in caregiving might in part be explained by fathers’ testosterone (T) levels. We examined the links between fathers’ (n = 32) salivary T levels, amount of time spent with their child (12–30 months of age), type of father-child interaction, and fathers’ sensitivity.MethodsDuring two home visits, video observations of father-child interactions were conducted to measure fathers’ sensitivity during a challenging and harmonious interaction. Fathers’ saliva was collected several times throughout the day on a working day and on the home visit days, including right before and after each father-child interaction.ResultsFathers’ T secretion throughout the day was lower on home visit days (i.e., days with a higher amount of time spent with their child) than on a working day. For both challenging and harmonious father-child interactions, mean T levels did not differ before and after father-child interactions. However, individual changes in fathers’ T levels during the father-child interactions did predict fathers’ sensitivity. Specifically, the more T increased during the challenging interaction, or decreased during the harmonious interaction, the more sensitive the father was during that interaction as well as during a subsequent interaction.ConclusionsParenting quality is most optimal when fathers’ T system reacts in the expected direction given the context of the father-child interaction, i.e., a T decrease during a harmonious interaction and a T increase during a challenging interaction. Our study underscores the importance of examining the interplay between biology, behavior, and caregiving context in fathers’ parenting.

An exploratory cross-cultural study: fathers’ early involvement with infants

ABSTRACT This research study recruited 107 fathers from the United States (n = 31), Taiwan (n = 36), and Thailand (n = 37) to examine fathers’ involvement in daily caregiving and engagement tasks, as well as fathers’ accessibility to their infant(s) during weekdays and the weekend. Results indicated that the most influential demographic variables on father involvement were the interaction between fathers’ education and income, number of children in the household, as well as country between the U.S. and Thailand regardless of living area, fathers’ age, education and income alone. Additionally, fathers showed different involvement during weekdays and the weekend. Father’s education level, number of children in the household, and the interaction between education and income had a combined effect on father involvement during the week and on the weekend. Fathers in the United States showed higher involvement in infant caregiving during the weekend when compared to fathers in Taiwan and Thailand.

Caregiving Intensity and Mortality in Older Women, Accounting for Time-Varying and Lagged Caregiver Status: The Caregiver-Study of Osteoporotic Fractures Study.

Caregiving is associated with reduced mortality in recent studies. Investigations of caregiving intensity may reveal an underlying mechanism. However, studies of caregiving intensity and mortality have mixed results, perhaps due to imprecise measurement of caregiving intensity, not accounting for healthier persons likely having greater caregiving involvement, or temporal changes in intensity. We examined the relationship between caregiving intensity (based on tasks performed) and mortality, treating intensity and health status as time-varying, and lagging exposure. Caregiving tasks among 1,069 women in the Caregiver-Study of Osteoporotic Fractures study (35% caregivers) were assessed at 5 interviews conducted between 1999 and 2009. Caregivers were categorized as high intensity if they assisted a person with dressing, transferring, bathing, or toileting; or as low intensity if they assisted with other instrumental or basic activities of daily living (I/ADLs). Alternatively, high intensity was defined as assisting with more than the median number of I/ADL tasks (median-based measure). Mortality was assessed through 2011. Cox proportional hazards models estimated adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals based on concurrent intensity, and lagging exposure 2 years. High-intensity caregivers had significantly lower mortality using the median-based measure after lagging exposure (aHR = 0.55, 0.34-0.89). Similar, but not statistically significant associations were observed in non-lagged analyses (aHR = 0.54, 0.29-1.04) and task-specific intensity (aHRs were 0.61 and 0.51). Low-intensity caregivers had similar mortality rates to noncaregivers in all analyses. Among older women, high-intensity caregivers had lower mortality rates than noncaregivers. Whether this association extends to other populations merits investigation.

Not “My Territory:” How Gender Role Socialization Impacts Father Involvement in Caring for a Child with an Eating Disorder

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to explore the experiences of clinicians working with fathers caring for a child experiencing an eating disorder. A phenomenological qualitative method was used to answer the question: What do clinicians with experiences working with male caregivers perceive to be barriers to male caregiver involvement in effectively caring for someone experiencing an eating disorder? Ten participants were interviewed for this study, and multiple themes were uncovered that identified significant barriers and interventions for father involvement in caregiving. Interview excerpts, accompanied by a thick description of the clinician’s lived experiences with male caregivers, are presented to enliven the data.

Associations between father involvement and father-child attachment security: Variations based on timing and type of involvement.

This study examined associations between father involvement and father-child attachment security, and whether those associations differed as a function of timing (workday and nonworkday) and/or type (accessibility, caregiving, and play) of involvement. Eighty father-child dyads participated when children were approximately 3 years old. Fathers completed a time diary interview assessing the various forms of involvement, and attachment was assessed using the Attachment Q-Set (Waters, 1995) following 90 min of father-child observation in the home. On nonworkdays, father involvement in play predicted greater attachment security and involvement in caregiving was marginally associated with greater attachment security. On workdays, father involvement in caregiving was related to greater attachment security, whereas father involvement in play was related to less attachment security. Results were independent of observed paternal sensitivity and relevant demographic covariates. Findings highlight the differential impact of father involvement for the father-child attachment relationship depending on when involvement occurs and what types of activities fathers engage in. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing family-centred care in a neonatal intensive care unit: An action research study

AimTo develop, implement and evaluate family-centred interventions to promote parental involvement in caregiving in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. MethodologyA participatory action research approach was used to implement two changes in practice a) improved skin-to-skin contact b) unlimited parental presence at the cot-side. The changes were underpinned by a family-centred philosophy of care and education. Data were collected from staff using a questionnaire, focus groups and interviews, and from parents using focus groups and interviews. Qualitative data were analysed using Framework and quantitative data analysed using descriptive and t-test statistics. SettingA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in England. FindingsChanges in practice were successfully implemented. Nurses reported positively on improvements in Family Centred Care; most notably information-sharing with parents, providing family support, enabling parental participation in care and improved competence supporting parents in care-giving. These changes were reflected in parental feedback. ConclusionUnderstanding the context of the neonatal unit can support cultural change when change is actively facilitated and owned by the staff concerned. Acknowledging parents as the main caregiver can be challenging for nurses and they require support and education to enable them to manage the changes necessary to provide Family-Centred Care.

Reminders of cancer risk and pain catastrophizing: relationships with cancer worry and perceived risk in women with a first-degree relative with breast cancer.

First-degree relatives of women with breast cancer may experience increased worry or perceived risk when faced with reminders of their own cancer risk. Worry and risk reminders may include physical symptoms (e.g., persistent breast pain) and caregiving experiences. Women who engage in pain catastrophizing may be particularly likely to experience increased distress when risk reminders are present. We examined the degree to which persistent breast pain and experience as a cancer caregiver were related to cancer worry and perceived risk in first-degree relatives of women with breast cancer (N = 85) and how catastrophic thoughts about breast pain could impact these relationships. There was a significant interaction between persistent breast pain and pain catastrophizing in predicting cancer worry (p = .03); among women who engaged in pain catastrophizing, cancer worry remained high even in the absence of breast pain. Pain catastrophizing also moderated the relationships between caregiving involvement and cancer worry (p = .003) and perceived risk (p = .03). As the degree of caregiving responsibility increased, cancer worry and perceived risk increased for women who engaged in pain catastrophizing; levels of cancer worry and perceived risk remained low and stable for women who did not engage in pain catastrophizing regardless of caregiving experience. The results suggest that first-degree relatives of breast cancer survivors who engage in pain catastrophizing may experience greater cancer worry and perceived risk and may benefit from interventions aimed at reducing catastrophic thoughts about pain.

Mother-infant sleep patterns and parental functioning of room-sharing and solitary-sleeping families: a longitudinal study from 3 to 18 months.

To examine longitudinally differences in (1) objective and subjective sleep patterns and (2) parenting functioning (i.e. maternal emotional distress, maternal separation anxiety, and parental involvement in infant care) between room-sharing and solitary-sleeping mother-infant dyads. Maternal and infant sleep, sleeping arrangements, and parental functioning were assessed at 3 (N = 146), 6 (N = 141), 12 (N = 135), and 18 (N = 130) months postpartum. Maternal and infant sleep were assessed with actigraphy and sleep diaries for five nights. Questionnaires were used to assess sleeping arrangements, nighttime breastfeeding, and parental functioning. Persistent room-sharing mothers (i.e. sharing a room with the infant on at least three assessment points) had significantly lower actigraphy-based sleep percent, lower longest sleep periods, and more night-wakings than persistent solitary-sleeping mothers. For infants, differences in actigraphic sleep were found only in longest sleep period, although mothers of persistent room-sharing infants reported more infant night-wakings than mothers of persistent solitary-sleeping infants. The trajectories of maternal and infant sleep in both room-sharing and solitary-sleeping groups demonstrated that sleep became more consolidated with time. Group differences indicated higher maternal separation anxiety and lower paternal overall and nighttime involvement in infant caregiving in room-sharing families compared with solitary-sleeping families. The findings are discussed in light of the latest American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to share a room until 12 months postpartum. Although no causal effects can be inferred from this study, maternal sleep quality and certain parenting characteristics seem to be important factors to consider when parents consult about sleeping arrangements.

Adult children stepping in? Long-term care reforms and trends in children's provision of household support to impaired parents in the Netherlands

ABSTRACTRecent long-term care (LTC) reforms in the Netherlands are illustrative of those taking place in countries with a universalistic LTC model based on extensive provision of state-supported services. They entail a shift from de-familialisation, in which widely available state-supported LTC services relieve family members from the obligations to care for relatives in need, to supported familialism, in which family involvement in care-giving is fostered through support and recognition for families in keeping up their caring responsibilities. Using data from four waves of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 2,197), we show that between 2002 and 2014 the predicted probability that adult children provide occasional household support to impaired parents rose substantially. Daughters more often provided household support to parents than did sons, but no increase in the gender gap over time was found. We could not attribute the increase in children's provision of household support to drops in the use of state-supported household services. The finding that more and more adult children are stepping in to help their ageing parents fits a more general trend in the Netherlands of increasing interactions in intergenerational families.

The Longitudinal Association Between Early Childhood Obesity and Fathers' Involvement in Caregiving and Decision-Making.

Fathers have increased their involvement in child caregiving; however, their changing role in childhood obesity is understudied. This study assessed the longitudinal association between changes in obesity among children aged 2 to 4 years and changes in fathers' involvement with raising children. Longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort were used to conduct child fixed-effects linear and logistic regression analyses to assess the association between changes in childhood obesity-related outcomes (sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, screen time, BMI z score, overweight/obesity, obesity) and fathers' involvement with raising children (caregiving and influencing child-related decisions). Fixed-effects models control for all time-invariant characteristics. Analyses were controlled for time-varying confounders, including child age, maternal and paternal employment, and family poverty status. Children whose fathers increased their frequency of taking children outside and involvement with physical childcare experienced a decrease in their odds of obesity from age 2 to age 4. Obesity-related outcomes were not associated with fathers' decision-making influence. Increases in fathers' involvement with some aspects of caregiving may be associated with lower odds of childhood obesity. Encouraging fathers to increase their involvement with raising children and including fathers in childhood obesity prevention efforts may help reduce obesity risk among young children.

FATHER-CHILD INTERACTIONS AT 3 MONTHS AND 24 MONTHS: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AT 24 MONTHS.

ABSTRACTThe quality of father–child interactions has become a focus of increasing research in the field of child development. We examined the potential contribution of father–child interactions at both 3 months and 24 months to children's cognitive development at 24 months. Observational measures of father–child interactions at 3 and 24 months were used to assess the quality of fathers’ parenting (n = 192). At 24 months, the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition (N. Bayley, 1993) measured cognitive functioning. The association between interactions and cognitive development was examined using multiple linear regression analyses, adjusting for paternal age, education and depression, infant age, and maternal sensitivity. Children whose fathers displayed more withdrawn and depressive behaviors in father–infant interactions at 3 months scored lower on the MDI at 24 months. At 24 months, children whose fathers were more engaged and sensitive as well as those whose fathers were less controlling in their interactions scored higher on the MDI. These findings were independent of the effects of maternal sensitivity. Results indicate that father–child interactions, even from a very young age (i.e., 3 months) may influence children's cognitive development. They highlight the potential significance of interventions to promote positive parenting by fathers and policies that encourage fathers to spend more time with their young children.

Breadwinning as care? The meaning of paid work in mothers’ and fathers’ constructions of parenting

ABSTRACTAs some scholars have argued for a distinct conceptualisation of breadwinning and for understanding breadwinning as a form of care, this study addresses parents’ constructions of breadwinning and its connections to care. It is based on an in-depth interpretive analysis of multiple-perspective, qualitative longitudinal interviews with 22 Austrian mothers and fathers from three points in time during their transition to parenthood. The analysis revealed four different types of breadwinning concepts by considering the jointly constructed meaning of mothers’ and fathers’ paid work within a parental couple and further relied on Tronto’s [(1993). Moral boundaries. A political argument for an ethic of care. New York, NY: Routledge] conceptualisation of care as a four-step process. The results indicate that respondents construct a clear difference between earning money and breadwinning. Additionally, a difference is made between breadwinning and taking care of the family’s subsistence, predominantly so for mothers. In conclusion, breadwinning can definitely be considered a form of care and thus a form of involvement in parenting, but it cannot be regarded a form of involvement in caregiving. The holistic picture of parents’ joint constructions enabled us to contribute to the existing conceptualisations of breadwinning and of parental involvement, thus providing a novel perspective on matters of gender equality.

Intranasal oxytocin, but not vasopressin, augments neural responses to toddlers in human fathers

This study investigates paternal brain function with the hope of better understanding the neural basis for variation in caregiving involvement among men. The neuropeptides oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are implicated in paternal caregiving in humans and other species. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject pharmaco-functional MRI experiment, we randomized 30 fathers of 1–2year old children to receive either 24IU intranasal OT before one scan and placebo before the other scan (n=15) or 20IU intranasal AVP before one scan and placebo before the other scan (n=15). Brain function was measured with fMRI as the fathers viewed pictures of their children, unknown children and unknown adults, and as they listened to unknown infant cry stimuli. Intranasal OT, but not AVP, significantly increased the BOLD fMRI response to viewing pictures of own children within the caudate nucleus, a target of midbrain dopamine projections, as well as the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and visual cortex, suggesting that intranasal oxytocin augments activation in brain regions involved in reward, empathy and attention in human fathers. OT effects also varied as a function of order of administration such that when OT was given before placebo, it increased activation within several reward-related structures (substantia nigra, ventral tegmental area, putamen) more than when it was given after placebo. Neither OT nor AVP had significant main effects on the neural response to cries. Our findings suggest that the hormonal changes associated with the transition to fatherhood are likely to facilitate increased approach motivation and empathy for children, and call for future research that evaluates the potential of OT to normalize deficits in paternal motivation, as might be found among men suffering from post-partum depression.

“Like a drawing of breath”: leisure-based art-making as a source of respite and identity among older women caring for loved ones with dementia

Background: Caring for a family member with dementia is stressful. This study explores carers’ experiences of leisure-based art-making, and its contribution to psychological well-being.Method: This study interviewed six women (>60 years old) with lengthy experience of caring for a relative with dementia. All engaged regularly in art-making. Findings were inferred through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.Results: Participation in art-making promoted positive identity, and resilience for care-giving. It offered temporary respite from care-giving demands, helping participants maintain contact with the richness of the external world, and freedom from confinement. Art-making facilitated meaningful connections with others, including the person with dementia, and enabled positive feedback. Participants whose loved ones had recently died or moved to residential care, processed, in oblique, possibly symbolic ways, the end of their intense involvement in care-giving.Conclusions: The findings suggest that meaningful creative leisure occupations may help to protect the psychological well-being of care-givers, promoting resilience.