Siblings

Paper Summary:

This paper presents research on sibling care-giving to ailing parents. The paper gives voice to the experiences of both primary and secondary sibling caregivers. The author conducted focus group discussions on inequity in the sibling caregiver relationship, which indicated that the siblings who provide less care are highly sensitized to imbalanced care giving relationships. The author theorizes that siblings who provide less actual care try to redress inequitable care giving by using cognitive strategies to justify their under involvement, whereas those who provide more care use both behavioral and cognitive strategies to redress such inequities. This paper is intended to serve as a first step in identifying some of the rationalizations used by secondary as well as primary caregivers. The paper provides the author's own research, as well as a review of the field's literature. The paper analyzes the findings of her focus groups and then offers suggestions to bring equity into the sibling care giving relationship.

Outline
Introduction
Literature Review
Distress is Observed As A Result of Inequity
Efforts Are Made To Restore Equity As A Result of Distress
Forging Actual Equity
Forging Psychological Equity
Methodology
Sample
Analysis
Results
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Siblings may move apart both geographically and emotionally during their young adult years. However, the illness of an aging parent can signal a new phase in the relationships among adult siblings who must confront the issue of providing parent care (Connidis, 2001). Unfortunately, many siblings do not assume a fair share of the care giving tasks, and instead, one sibling typically provides more care than the others (Cicirelli, 1992; Suitor & Pillemer, 1996). More-involved siblings may experience frustration and anger toward those who are less involved in care giving (Strawbridge & Wallhagen, 1991), whereas the less-involved siblings may feel guilty about not assuming their fair share of responsibility (Brody, 1990). Both those who are more involved and those who are less involved may feel distressed and take steps to change the situation. In this paper, we examine inequalities in parent care responsibilities and illuminate ways in which siblings seek to redress this imbalance."

More papers on Siblings:

• Research Proposal # 149836 : "Differences among Siblings and the Consequences of Divorce"
• Essay # 85841 : "Siblings of Children with Disabilities"
• Book Review # 433 : "Review of "Siblings Without Rivalry"

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