Motivations to Care: Daughters- and Sons-in-Law Caring for Relatives with Alzheimer's Disease

Few studies have focused on caregiving daughters- and sons-in-law. In an exploratory, qualitative study of 16 daughters- and sons-in-law and their 16 spouses, 4 patterns emerged that highlighted differences in their motivation for involvement in caregiving. Differences related to notions of reactive versus pro-active involvement, managerial roles in family, and differences in impact of involvement for daughters- and sons-in-law. Caregiving for frail elderly relatives falls predominantly to women in family. Research has repeatedly shown that wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law provide bulk of care (Coward Stone, Cafferata, Matthews Montgomery Matthews Stoller, 1990; Stone, Cafferata, Coward, 1987; Horowitz, 1985b; Matthews Blieszner Walker, Pratt, Shin, however, their actions were different. They also found that affection motivated daughters more than it did sons to feel obligated to care for their parents and mothers-in-law (but not fathers-in-law). However, these researchers called for expanded work on in-laws, because variables that explained children's involvement rarely explained children-in-law involvement. There are few studies that have examined in-law relationships and notions of obligation and affection. In a rare study on daughters-in-law, Kivett (1989) focused on associational solidarity. A1though she found attachment between daughters-in-law and their mothers-inlaw, it was not driving motivation behind caregiving; rather, notions of obligation were emphasized. Caregiver burden has also been studied extensively in sons and daughters, with contradictory findings. Montgomery and Kamo (1989) found that sons and daughters did not report different levels of burden, which is not consistent with other studies that found that sons experienced less burden than daughters (Horowitz, 1985b). …