Offspring Caring for Their Elderly Parents: The Effect of Social Support and Gender-Role Orientation on these Caregivers' Well-Being

Abstract

The present study tried to explore coping processes of sons and daughters of elderly parents. The research also tried to confirm Pearlin and Schooler's stress coping model (1978). On the basis of the literature review, well-being was examined as a function of the following variables: demographic variables related to the caregiver role; stress related to the caregivers' role (The Burden Inventory Questionnaire: Zarit, Reever, & Bach-Peterson, 1980; Stress in Family Relationships: Pearlin & Schooler, 1978); and personality characteristics such as self-esteem (The Self-Esteem Variable: Rosenberg, 1965), and mastery (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). The two mediating variables in the research model were gender-role orientation, as an internal resource (Sex Role Orientation Inventory questionnaire (BSRI): Bem, 1975), and family support, as an external resource (Cohen, Mermelstein, Kamarck, & Hoberman, 1985). The well-being of the participants was examined using the mental health questionnaire (Veit & Ware, 1983). The study hypotheses were that the internal and the external resources will act as mediating factors such that offspring with masculine gender orientation caring for an elderly parent will report greater well-being than those with feminine or androgynous gender-orientations. Participants were 435 workers of the Israel Electric Company, 211 males and 224 females. The research findings indicated existing correlations between all of the components of the research model.