Caregiver Motivation Research Articles

Different Interpretations of "Honor Your Parents": Implications for Obligation of Parental Caregiving.

Many religious and cultural settings embrace the principle to "honor your parents." However, how individuals understand and enact this mandate varies by cultural context and community. The different understanding of "honor your parents" draws attention to motivations for parental caregiving across cultural contexts. This study investigates how individuals in 3 different cultural settings conceptualize "honoring your parents" and how these conceptualizations affect their perceptions of obligations to care for an older parent. Semistructured interviews with 153 individuals in the United States, Ghana, and Nigeria explored the concept of "honor your parents," how it is understood, and its relationship to the perceived obligation to care for one's parents. A content analysis was applied to all transcripts and analyzed for discussion. Among individuals in the United States, "honor your parents" is less likely to be conceived as providing material and instrumental care to a parent, and more in terms of emotional care. In contrast, individuals in Nigeria and Ghana closely associated "honor your parents" with providing material and instrumental care to a parent. Understanding how different conceptions of "honor your parents" translate to expectations for and modes of parental caregiving can illuminate how caregiving needs can be met for the aging populations of the United States, Ghana, and Nigeria.

The enrichment process for family caregivers of persons living with dementia: A grounded theory approach.

Many persons living with dementia (PLWD) reside in the community and are cared for by family members. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding the enrichment process for family caregivers of PLWD in Taiwan. A grounded theory approach with face-to-face semi-structured interviews was conducted with family caregivers of PLWD in Taiwan. Interview data from 30 family caregivers of PLWD recruited from dementia clinics or support groups in Taiwan were obtained from the first wave of a larger study conducted from January 2018 to September 2021. Glaser's grounded theory approach with theoretical sampling was used to understand the enrichment process of family caregivers of PLWD. Analysis indicated the core category that characterized the process of enrichment was 'holding together'. Caregivers were able to maintain their connection to the person with dementia through activities that deepened their relationship and strengthened their bond. 'Holding together' included four components: maintaining continuity, creative interactions, interacting with humour and sharing pleasurable activities. Through these components, family caregivers generated positive interactions and relationships with the person living with dementia and sustained their motivation for caregiving. Three modifying elements facilitated or impeded the process of holding together: 'previous daily interactions', 'caregiving beliefs' and 'filial piety'. Through the enrichment process of 'holding together', family caregivers used different strategies to conduct pleasurable and meaningful activities with the person living with dementia to maintain and improve their relationship and enhance their happiness in life. To facilitate the enrichment process, health care providers should encourage activities between family caregivers and PLWD that promote continuity, increase interactions, provide humour and foster pleasurable activities. This study adhered to the COREQ guideline checklist. No patient or public contribution.

Analyzing the Caregivers' behavioral patterns in managing their young Children's smartphone use in South Korea

PurposeAs the age of exposure to screen media has decreased, problematic smartphone usage is becoming more prevalent among younger children. As children's smartphone use is often determined by their caregivers, understanding their motivations for allowing young children to use smartphones is crucial. This study aimed to explore the behavioral patterns of main caregivers in South Korea related to their young children's smartphone usage and the underlying motivations. Design and methodsSemi-structured phone interviews were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. ResultsFifteen participants from South Korea, identifying as main caregivers of young children under six years of age and expressing concerns about their children's smartphone usage patterns, were recruited. A core category describing caregiver’ behaviors of managing children to use smartphones was identified as “Maintaining a vicious cycle to seek comfort in parenting.” Their behavioral patterns appeared to be cyclical, alternating between permitting and restricting their children's smartphone use. They permitted their children to use smartphones to decrease their parenting burdens. However, this led to discomfort as they perceived the negative impacts of smartphones on their children and felt guilty. Consequently, they limited smartphone use, which increased their parental burden again. ConclusionParental education and policy efforts are essential to prevent risks associated with children's problematic smartphone usage. Practice implicationsDuring regular health checkups for young children, nurses should assess potential smartphone overuse and related problems, considering caregiver motivations.

"She is My Work": Caregiving for Older Adults With Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus.

To explore the lived experiences of informal caregivers of older adults with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus in Kumasi, Ghana. A qualitative research approach was used to conduct the study using informal caregivers of older adults with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus at a teaching hospital in Ghana. In all, 20 participants were purposively sampled, interviewed, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three main themes emerged: "Experience with care demands," "Coping with care demands," and "Motivation for caregiving." Older adults with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus had needs that placed a burden on informal caregivers' work life, health, and social life. Informal caregivers of older adults with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus are under strain. Caregiving is a difficult task, requiring a lot of time, effort, attention, and devotion. Nurses should plan the care of older adults with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus in collaboration with their informal caregivers.

Hush little baby, don’t you cry: How aversion to infant distress calls drives caregiving

Historically associated with aversion, the lateral habenula has a poorly characterized role in parenting. In this issue of Neuron, Lecca and colleagues1 show that these seemingly opposing roles converge in a subnucleus where aversion to pup cries may drive motivation for caregiving.

Staying Healthy While Caregiving at Home? Risk and Protective Factors for Dysfunctional Coping in Family Caregivers

In Germany, 3.3 million people in need of care are cared for at home. More than half (54%) of informal caregivers estimate their own stress as high or very high [1]. Coping strategies, including dysfunctional ones, are used to cope with stress. These bear the risk of negative health consequences. The aim of this study is to assess the frequency of dysfunctional coping strategies among informal caregivers and to identify protective and risk factors for these unfavorable coping mechanisms. A cross-sectional study with N=961 interviewed informal caregivers in Bavaria was conducted in 2020. Dysfunctional coping strategies (substance use and abandonment/avoidance) were assessed. Additionally, subjective stress, positive aspects of caregiving, caregiving motives, characteristics of the caregiving situation as well as caregivers' cognitive evaluation of the care situation and their subjective assessment of available resources (based on the Transactional Stress Model) were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the frequency of dysfunctional coping behavior. Linear regressions were run, after statistical precondition testing, to investigate which predictors can be identified for dysfunctional coping. 14.7% of respondents reported using alcohol or other substances at least some of the time in difficult situations, and 47.4% of respondents had given up dealing with the care situation. Subjective caregiver burden (p<0.001), the motive to care out of obligation (p=0.035), and resources for manageability of the caregiving situation rated as insufficient (p=0.029) were identified as risk factors for dysfunctional coping in a significant overall model with medium fit (F (10)=16.776; p<0.001). Dysfunctional coping concerning the stress related to the caregiving situation is not uncommon. The most promising target for intervention is subjective caregiver burden. This is known to be reduced by the use of formal and informal help [2, 3]. However, this requires overcoming the problem of low rates of use of counseling and other support services [4]. Newer digital promising approaches to this are being developed [5, 6].

Qualitative study exploring heterogeneity in caregiving experiences post-stroke in Singapore

ObjectiveStroke, a common illness in older adults, accounts for up to 4% of direct medical costs in developed nations. Informal caregiving contributing a significant proportion of economic burden post-stroke warrants...

Work-life and caregivers’ productivity in public preschools in Rivers state

The productivity of caregivers is the reason for children development and learning in school, the dearth of motivation of caregivers is suicidal to the overall performance of the caregiver in the school. Observation reveals that despite the efforts of government in ensuring that caregivers are motivated, it seems there is still more to do on the part of education stakeholders in ensuring that caregivers become productive in Rivers State. This study therefore investigated Work-life and caregivers’ productivity in public preschool in Rivers State. The correlational Research design was adopted. Two purposes were posed, two research questions were raised and answered and two hypotheses were tested in the study. 6,572 subjects (6000 caregivers and 572 head-teachers) found in 572 Public Preschool in Rivers State constitute the population for the study out of which 708 subjects (649 caregivers and 59 head-teacher) representing approximately 10.78% of the entire population was sampled for the study using Stratified Sampling Technique. Study employed the correlational research design. The research instruments used for data collection are the researcher-developed checklist and a questionnaire. Reliability index of 0.73 was determined through a test-retest method which was used to adjudge the instruments reliable. The instrument was administered to Caregivers in public preschool in Rivers State. Mean and Standard Deviation was used to answer the research questions, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding revealed thatthere is a significant relationship between professional development and productivity of caregivers in public preschool in Rivers State, there is a significant relationship between work load and productivity of caregivers in public preschool in Rivers State.

Motives for Assuming and Continuing Family Care: Family Caregivers’ Perspective

Studies have shown that the circumstances and motivation for becoming a caregiver are closely related to the caregiver’s well-being and the quality of care provided, which, in turn, affects the quality of life of the person receiving the care. This article aimed to reveal the motives behind decisions related to an aging relative’s care – motives to assume the caregiving duties and motives to remain in the caregiving role. In total, seven family caregivers participated in semi-structured interviews. Two main themes related to caregiving motivation were revealed: (1) motives to assume the caregiver role, and (2) motives to continue with family care. The results of the research were interpreted using the perspective of self-determination theory (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000; 2017). This study revealed that key motivational drivers of caregiving decisions were associated with the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs – autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Meeting these needs in the context of caregiving not only strengthened the caregivers’ motivation to take on the caregiving role but also motivated them to continue with family care, even after the autonomy of care recipients had increased significantly.

Informal caregiver motivations, values, challenges and gains: A photovoice and interpretative phenomenological analysis of interrelationships.

The adoption of a caregiving role in the context of illness and disability is often taken for granted. This study explores caregivers' motivations to provide care and how these relate to values, and to the challenges and gains of caregiving. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with caregivers and photographs were taken by caregivers to exemplify their caregiving experiences. This photo-elicitation method complemented the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis when applied to verbatim transcripts. Superordinate themes included: caregiver's life story; significance of family; caregiving obligations; caring relationship; challenges and gains associated with caregiver motivations. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were less distinct in caregivers' lived experiences than previously suggested, and were influenced by family values and specific challenges and gains of caregiving. The coexistence of different motivations and the nature of single complex motivations is discussed. The importance of caregiver assessment and support planning, and regular breaks from caregiving are highlighted.

Experience of Rural Family Caregivers for Older Adults in Co-Residential Family Care Arrangements in Central Ethiopia: Motives of Family Caregivers in Reciprocal Relationship

PurposeThis study aimed to describe the experience of rural family caregivers’ motive to care for older adults in rural Ethiopia.MethodsWe used a descriptive phenomenological study method. Data from semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled caregivers were inductively coded and developed into themes. Mechanisms were used to increase the trustworthiness of the study.ResultsThe main theme that emerged from the data as motives for caregiving for rural older adults are traditional norms of filial responsibility and indebtedness, religious values, quality of a relationship, and older adults’ reciprocity materially, in knowledge, work sharing, and emotional companionship.ConclusionThere is no single motive among family caregivers that initiate co-residential caregiving for older adults. Multiple motives of obligation, altruism, religious values, emotional attachment, economic motive, and reciprocity of care have contributed to co-residential family care.RecommendationStrengthening the capacity of family caregivers through training and economic support to care for older adults should be emphasized. Early child-parent relationships and religious values should get attention from family practitioners and policymakers.

Lineage difference in grandmothers’ childcare help and mothers’ parenting stress in urban China

ABSTRACT Grandparents are an important source of social support for parents’ adjustment to parenthood. In this study, we examine how urban Chinese mothers experience grandmother support in relation to their parenting stress, based on the interview and survey data of a sample of 352 first-time mothers with 14-month-old children living in Nanjing, China. We find a lineage-based difference in mothers’ experiences of maternal versus paternal grandmothers’ help with childcare in the context of parenting stress. Maternal grandmothers’ support tends to alleviate mother’s parenting stress, while paternal grandmothers co-living with mothers is positively associated with maternal stress. Differences in caregiving motivations and conflict resolution in maternal versus paternal grandmother care (greater consideration of mother’s needs and more effective communication with mother in maternal grandmother care) may contribute to mothers’ differential experiences of parenting stress. Our study suggests that mothers’ subjective experiences of grandmother support (beyond the mere availability of the support) play an important role in shaping maternal stress and highlights the changing significance of family lineage in shaping intergenerational care support and its implication for co-parenting experiences of parents and grandparents.

Experiences, Motivations, and Perceived Impact of Participation in a Facebook-Based Support Group for Caregivers of Children and Youth With Complex Care Needs: Qualitative Descriptive Study.

BackgroundCaregivers of children and youth with complex care needs (CCNs) often require considerable support to ensure the well-being of their families. Social media present an opportunity to better support caregivers through computer-mediated communication for social support. Peer-to-peer (P2P) support groups are a way in which caregivers are accessing needed support; however, the experiences of caregivers who use these groups and the perceived impact that participation has on caregivers of children and youth with CCNs are not known.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the experiences of caregivers of children and youth with CCNs who use a Facebook-based P2P support group to communicate, understand their motivations to use the group, and investigate its perceived impact on knowledge of programs and services and sense of community belonging among caregivers.MethodsA qualitative descriptive design was used to explore the experiences and perceived impact of a Facebook-based (Meta Platforms) P2P support group for caregivers of children and youth with CCNs in New Brunswick, Canada. The group was launched on the web in October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and resulted in 108 caregivers joining the group. A web-based survey was distributed, and semistructured interviews were conducted in February 2021 with a subsample of members. Thematic analysis was used to identify and report patterns related to caregivers’ experiences and perceived impacts of participation.ResultsA subsample of members in the Facebook group completed the web-based survey (39/108, 36.1%) and interviews (14/108, 12.9%). A total of 5 themes emerged from the interviews: safe space, informational support and direction, web-based connection with peers, impact on knowledge of programs and services, and degree of community belonging. Participants reported joining the group to obtain geography-specific information support and connect with peers. Many participants reported an improvement in their knowledge of programs and services and felt connected to the community; however, the short observation period and diversity among the caregiver population were cited as barriers to community belonging.ConclusionsSocial media present an important opportunity to facilitate the exchange of support between patients and caregivers in an accessible and curated environment. Findings from this study suggest that involvement in web-based, geography-specific P2P support groups can influence perceived knowledge of services and resources and sense of community belonging among caregivers of children and youth with CCNs. Furthermore, this study provides insight into the experiences and motivations of caregivers of children and youth with CCNs who participate in a private social media environment.

How Culture Shapes Informal Caregiver Motivations: A Meta-Ethnographic Review.

The provision of informal care presents a significant global challenge. To better understand how cultural factors underpin and shape motivations and willingness to provide informal care for adults, an in-depth qualitative synthesis was conducted. Six electronic databases and a wide range of additional sources were searched. Following meta-ethnographic guidelines, 37 qualitative studies were synthesised. Six main concepts were identified: cultural self-identity, which appeared as an overarching explanatory concept; cultural duty and obligations; cultural values; love and emotional attachments; repayment and reciprocity; and competing demands and roles. These concepts informed a model of cultural caregiving motivations, offering an inductive-based exploration of key cultural motivators and highlighting implications for theory development, future research, policy and practice. The model holds implications for the actual exchange of care. Caregiver motivations should not be taken for granted by healthcare or social care professionals involved in assessment and support planning, educational endeavours at a population level may support caregiving, and support should be sensitive to cultural caregiving motivations.

Sociocultural insights on dementia care-giving in Arab and Muslim communities: the perspectives of family care-givers

AbstractLittle is known about the experiences of informal family care-giving for persons with ADRD in the context of Arab and Muslim communities. This paper offers fresh insight into the less-studied private sphere of the home, showing how families respond to the onset and long-term care of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). It considers the extent to which sociocultural and religious influences are appropriated by family care-givers as coping mechanisms and motivators for care. Drawing upon interviews with 32 family care-givers for older persons living with ADRD in Qatar, findings reveal the intersectionality of the care-giving experience with various sociocultural, religious and emotional influences through seven emergent themes: (a) reasons and motivations for care-giving; (b) role of the extended family; (c) socio-demographic attributes of care-givers, their allocated responsibilities and how these intersect; (d) socio-religious attitudes towards care-giving of older persons; (e) social stigma; (f) personal knowledge of ADRD; and (g) coping mechanisms. The paper is concluded with key implications of these sociocultural insights for theory, policy and practice, which could inform Qatar's health and social care provision sector as well as other Arab and Muslim communities that share similar cultural and religious belief systems.

Relationship Between Parent's Motivation And Compliance In Giving Anti-Virus Medicines To HIV Patients

HIV attacks the sufferer's immune system and if coupled with prolonged psychosocial spiritual stress will accelerate the occurrence of AIDS, and even increase the mortality rate. AIDS is incurable. Giving ARV is to suppress the amount of virus (viral load). The purpose of the study was to motivate parents with parental compliance in giving their children anti-HIV drugs. This research is a quantitative method with used purposive sampling, cross sectional technique, 41 respondents were parents or caregivers of children with HIV patients who were taking ARV treatment. The results showed that the level of motivation of parents or caregivers in giving ARV drugs was sufficient 60.98% and Parental Compliance with HIV Drugs was compliant with 73.17%. Based on the Spearman Rank statistical test, the correlation value (r) is 0.372 and the p value is 0.017. P value &lt; (0.05. It is hoped that the officers will improve the provision of health education about treatment and the impact of stopping treatment for patients with the method of giving leaflets to each respondent who comes to take medication so that it can be spread evenly.

Cultural and societal motivations for being informal caregivers: a qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis

ABSTRACT Informal caregiving constitutes the mainstay of a society’s care supply. Motivations for caring and continuing to provide care are crucial to understanding the nature of caregiver experiences and their relationship with the person/people they support. This systematic review of qualitative evidence examines determinants of motivations and willingness to provide informal care. One hundred and five qualitative studies published before August 2019 and fitting the inclusion criteria were identified, 84 of them pertaining to cultural and societal motivations for caregiving. Grounded theory-based, thematic synthesis was conducted. Cultural and societal factors strongly underpinned motivations and willingness for informal caregiving. The main cultural motives for caregiving were cultural values and beliefs encompassing the ethnocultural context of the caregiving role, culture-specific norms, cultural and spiritual beliefs, illness beliefs and socialisation. Societal norms and perceived expectations, such as gendered roles, norms and expectations of caregiving, and perceptions of health and social care services further shaped caregiver motivations and willingness to provide care. These meta-synthesis findings contribute towards novel understandings about the cultural and societal aspects shaping informal care provision. These findings bear important implications for theory, research, policy and practice; all of which contributing to the issue of the sustainability of informal care from a ‘macro’ perspective.

Exploring the Motivations of Family Caregivers Caring for Older Persons in Urban Poor Accra, Ghana

ABSTRACT There is a general paucity of studies on family caregivers’ motivations for providing care to older persons in the urban poor context in Ghana. This study seeks to explore family caregivers’ motivations for providing care to older persons in urban poor Accra, Ghana. A qualitative descriptive design was used and in-depth interviews were conducted with thirty-one family caregivers. The QSR NVivo 10 software was used to analyze the data thematically. We found that autonomous motivation inspired family caregivers to provide care. Empathy and affection intrinsically motivated some caregivers to provide care to their care recipients, while others were extrinsically motivated by filial responsibility, reciprocity, and obligation to provide care. These findings showed that family caregivers were autonomously motivated to provide care to older persons. We recommend the need for future studies to explore changes in family caregivers’ motivations to provide care over time.

Adolescent prairie voles practice parenting

For many organisms, it takes a village to raise the young – individuals other than the youngsters’ parents will provide care and help them to survive. In prairie voles, both adults and adolescents will care for babies, or pups, that are not their own. Recent work published by Caitlyn Finton and colleagues at Cornell University and Emory University, USA, suggests that adolescent prairie voles take care of pups to practice their parenting skills. But the hormones that drive adolescent caregiving behaviors are not the same as those that drive normal, adult parenting behaviors.Finton and colleagues first tested why adolescent prairie voles would care for pups. The team thought that adolescents would either care for their siblings to pass on some of their related genes, or care for any pups that were around to learn how to become more competent parents in the future. The researchers raised families of prairie voles in the lab and chose adolescent males for their fostering experiments, as females tend to be more aggressive towards pups.To test the adolescents’ caregiving motivations, the researchers put the prairie voles in cages with a sibling of the same age, a sibling pup or an unrelated pup. They then recorded how the animals behaved toward each other using a video camera and counted the amount of time that the adolescents spent grooming, sniffing or huddling near the other voles.As expected, the ​​adolescent prairie voles spent a lot of time around the younger voles. The adolescents also spent more time grooming and cuddling the pups than they spent caring for siblings of the same age, which aligns with the idea that prairie vole teens help care for young.However, the team found no difference in the amount of time adolescents spent grooming, cuddling or smelling related and unrelated pups. This suggests that adolescent male prairie voles are practicing their parenting skills on unrelated pups rather than caring only for siblings to pass on some of their genes.Next, Finton and colleagues tested whether the brain activity that drives teenage caregiving is similar to the activity that drives adult parenting. They looked at the expression of genes in brain cells of adolescents to understand how changes in brain activity relate to differences in behavior, predicting that cells that produce the parenting hormones oxytocin and vasopressin would change their activity after caring for pups, but not after interacting with siblings or an inanimate object.Surprisingly, the researchers found that cells that produce oxytocin and vasopressin had the same activity regardless of whether the adolescents interacted with the pups or their same-age siblings. This might be because the area of the brain they looked at, the hypothalamus, is not involved in adolescent caregiving, or it could be that other hormones, such as estrogen, drive the adolescents’ behaviors towards pups.Taken together, these results suggest that adolescent prairie voles raise pups to become better parents in the future, even if their teenage brains are not working like a parent’s brain.

Exclusive Breastfeeding Protects Young Children from Stunting in a Low-Income Population: A Study from Eastern Indonesia.

The prevalence of stunting in young Indonesian children is the highest among countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Breastfed children are reported to grow better than non-breastfed. The present study examined the protective effect of exclusive breastfeeding against stunting in children under two years old (CU2) and its interaction with monthly household expenditure. Secondary analyses were conducted based on a 2012 cross-sectional study including 408 children aged 6–24 months and their caregivers from 14 villages in rural Eastern Indonesia. Data on breastfeeding history, childcare, and household expenditures were collected using structured questionnaires. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted in each village (n = 14). Nearly two-thirds (61%) of caregivers who identified as the biological mother exclusively breastfed their child at 6 months. Exclusively-breastfed CU2 from poorer households were 20% less likely to be stunted than their non-exclusively-breastfed peers. Further, exclusively-breastfed CU2 from wealthier households were 50% less likely to be stunted than non-exclusively-breastfed CU2 from poorer households. FGDs revealed that some mothers were unaware of the importance of recommended breastfeeding practices. Exclusive breastfeeding may protect low-income children against stunting. Health promotion to improve caregiver motivation to exclusively breastfeed is critical in the present setting and beyond.