成年子女照顧者照顧失能父母之影響與因應經驗

Abstract

本研究的目的主要在探討成年子女照顧者照顧失能老年父母時，對生活受到影響的主觀看法；並試圖了解除了負面的壓力外，是不是也會有正面的經驗？另外也探討成年子、女處理壓力的方法或途徑。資料蒐集的方法為深度訪談法，共訪談十二位成年子女照顧者。資料分析的方式為內容分析。研究結果發現，主要照顧者負向影響中包括照顧者「身體變差」、「外出限制」、「沒有替手」、「工作、生涯計劃中斷」、「社交減少」，以及必須「承受受照顧者的情緒」。本研究中也同樣發現一些正向的感受。例如「學習到照顧的技術」、「照顧者得到生命的體會」、「因為照顧體會到相互的關愛」、「成就感」、以及「對子女有教化作用」。照顧者處理照顧壓力的方法，在本深度訪談的研究中，發現照顧者也是主要以「以問題為焦點的因應」和「以情緒為焦點的因應」這兩種方式來處理問題。且照顧者會混合的使用這兩種方式，來面對照顧的壓力。子與女在照顧影響上經驗大致相似，在因應方法上差異也不大。唯一看到的不同是女兒比較會從精神層面尋求安慰並會主動尋求社會支持與資源，而兒子則較會用直接面對問題來處理。

The purpose of this study is to explore the subjective experiences of care impacts and coping strategies among adult-child caregivers. In-depth interviews were employed with 12 adult children actively involved as primary caregivers in caring for a parent with disability.Caregiving impacts were identified as negative and positive. Detailed processes were identified. They were more dynamic and informational.Content analysis revealed six negative impacts that emerged from narratives-worsen health, confinement, no-substitutive person, interrupted career plan, diminished social activities, and suffering of emotions from care recipients. Not all impacts are negative. This study also found positive impacts such as learning new caring skills, experiencing meaning of life, feeling the caring love between each other, feeling achieving, and teaching filial duty to offspring. In terms of coping with caring stress, two strategies were identified. They were emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies. Most of the time, these two strategies were used inter­changeably.Gender differences were not significant in impacts and coping strategies, except that daughters were more likely to look for spiritual consolation and more actively to look for social support and social resources. On the contrary, sons were more likely to face the problem directly in stead.Although meaningful findings were recognized, some limitations were also identified. Finally, practice and research implications were discussed.