Comparisons of African-American and White women in the parent care role

• Main Author: White, Tracela Michelle
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1998
• Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black studies; Clinical psychology; Gerontology; Psychotherapy
• ISBN: 0591994836; 9780591994834

It is increasingly important to examine the experiences of African American caregivers due to the rapid growth of the African American elderly population. To date, few studies have investigated the experiences of African American daughters and daughters-in-law who assume parent care responsibilities. The purpose of the present study was to compare the parent care experiences of middle generation African American and White women. The sample consisted of 261 White and 56 African American daughters and daughters-in-law who were providing interhousehold care for an impaired parent or parent-in-law while simultaneously occupying the roles of mother, wife, and employee. Cross-sectional data were collected through in-person interviews. The study hypothesized that African American caregivers would report better psychological well-being (i.e., fewer depressive symptoms), less parent care stress and more parent care rewards, more parent care mastery, and a more positive relationship with the impaired parent (i.e., more emotional support and less emotional undermining) than White caregivers. Also, an exploratory analysis was conducted for differences by race in parent care centrality (i.e., how important the parent care role is to the caregiver). A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), followed by univariate F-tests, was used to test the hypotheses regarding depression, stress, rewards, mastery, emotional support, and emotional undermining. Parent care centrality was analyzed separately using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Race of the caregiver (African American or White) was the sole independent variable for all analyses. Results revealed a significant difference by race on four out of seven study measures. As predicted, African American women reported less parent care stress, more parent care rewards and more emotional support from the parent than White women. African American women also reported greater parent care centrality. Contrary to expectations, no significant difference by race was found on depressive symptomatology, parent care mastery, or emotional undermining from the parent. The present study contributes to the limited knowledge about experiences of African American women in the parent care role. This research also highlights the importance of examining both negative and positive caregiving experiences. Lastly, the present study extends prior research by including role mastery, quality of the parent care relationship, and role centrality, which have received limited attention in prior literature on race and parent care.