Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 53, Issue 4 S188-S197, Copyright © 1998 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

In the middle: parental caregiving in the context of other roles

MJ Penning
Centre on Aging, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. [email protected]

OBJECTIVES: Parental caregiving has been conceptualized as both a source of role strain and of role enhancement. To assess support for each of these perspectives, this article examines the relationship between concurrent multiple roles (as spouse, parent, and employed worker) and the perceived stress and physical and emotional ill health of parental caregivers. METHODS: Multivariate regression analyses (OLS) are conducted using data drawn from a Canadian probability sample of 687 caregivers to parents and parents-in-law. RESULTS: Although the vast majority of parental caregivers are confronted with multiple roles, only weak and inconsistent relationships are evident between particular roles or combinations of roles and caregivers' perceptions of stress and physical and emotional health. DISCUSSION: Little support is found for either a role strain or role enhancement hypothesis. Inconsistencies in the findings point to a need to go beyond simplified expectations of either role strain or role enhancement and examine the meanings assigned to particular roles and the contexts within which they are enacted.

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