Working and caring: The relationship between women's work situations and caregiving for elderly family members
Abstract
Several societal changes are related to the heightened importance of understanding work-caregiving relationships. Yet, the studies that examine the relationship between women's involvement in work and in caregiving reveal conflicting results. In order to better understand the issue, the role of intervening variables was examined. Thirty-nine women who were working full-time and caring for elderly family members who lived in the community completed detailed questionnaires about work and caregiving. First, three contextual variables were tested for their role as moderators: care receiver's functional status, women's job flexibility and occupational role salience. Care recipient's functional status did not moderate the relationship between the number of hours women worked and the extent or the quality of the care they provided. Care receiver's difficulty with IADL, however, moderated the relationship between the number of hours women worked and the work interference they experienced. In addition, job flexibility moderated the association between temporal involvement in care and job interference due to care responsibilities. Next, Kohn's theory of work socialization was applied to caregiving for elderly family members. The relationship between work conditions that encourage self-direction and women's belief in paternalism in caregiving situations was studied using authoritarian conservatism as a mediating factor. An unexpected curvilinear relationship between self-directive work conditions and authoritarian conservative orientations was observed. Although authoritarian conservatism was found to be related to women's belief in paternalism, its role as a mediating factor was not established. The strengths and limitations of the study and the implications of its findings for future research and practice are discussed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
MacDermid, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Gerontology|Social psychology|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
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