"Tell me so that I can help you" : a turning point analysis of privacy in the development of parental caregiving relationships

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Family caregivers have become increasingly essential to the care of impaired older people (Wolff & Kasper, 2006). While much research as investigated family caregiving relationships, little research has explored how these caregiving relationships are renegotiated through communication (Hummert & Morgan, 2001) and even less is known about the more specific negotiation of privacy issues. This study utilized Communication Privacy Management theory to (a) explore how older parents and adult children recalibrate privacy boundaries to meet the care needs of aging parents, and (b) identify patterns of privacy management that occur when older parents and adult children transition into parental caregiving relationship. Thus, this project employed a turning point analysis to explore the changes in privacy in parental caregiving relationships from the perspective of 27 adult children who have cared for an older parent. Findings expand current research on parental caregiving by detailing how caregiving relationships manage privacy. Parental caregivers coped with ambiguity, uncertainty, and ambivalence related to the management of older parents� private information during the caregiving experience. Four boundary recalibration patterns emerged to negotiate boundary coordination: (a) crescendo, (b) oscillation, c) segmenting, and (d) relinquishment. Results also indicated turning points events, barriers and boundary linkages to parents� private information, and common patterns of boundary permeability associated with the development of parental caregiving relationships. The author argues several implications and directions for future research from these findings, including the need to investigate boundary recalibration processes into examinations of relational change and to explore the relationship between caregiver self-efficacy and perceived similarity of boundary coordination and permeability.