Individual Differences in Caregiving: Application of a Stress Process Model

Stress process models propose individual differences in caregiver outcomes depending on background characteristics and primary caregiving stressors, and resilience factors including stress appraisals, and internal and external resources. This paper will examine individual differences in the effects of the transition to caregiving on indicators of well-being and biomarkers of inflammation. Completed analyses show that, contrary to previous findings from cross-sectional studies, changes in well-being after caregiving generally do not differ by caregiver race, gender, age, or relationship category (spouse, adult child, others). Additional analyses examine the relationship of primary caregiving stressors (e.g. ADL and behavioral problems), stress appraisals (e.g., perceived stressfulness of ADL and IADL problems, perceived benefits of caregiving), and personality with changes in well-being and inflammation after the transition to caregiving. The lack of differences on most biomarker measures suggests that caregivers show substantial resilience in the face of significant, chronic caregiving stress.

Australian news media constructions and categorisations of primary caregiving fathers

Increasing cultural and academic attention is being paid to fathers who assume the primary caregiving role, stemming from interest into whether contemporary masculinity is evolving away from traditional, hegemonic ideals. This study utilises a Discourse Analysis informed by Membership Categorisation Analysis to explore how this relatively new category – primary caregiving father – is discursively constructed in 193 Australian newsprint media articles. The analysis identified that the category of ‘primary caregiving father’ was defended and discursively managed so as to remain consistent with the activities and predicates typically associated with the category ‘normative man’. This was routinely achieved in two ways. First, descriptions of traditional uninvolved fathers were contrasted unfavourably against the ‘new’ primary caregiving father, working to position primary caregiving fathers as the new norm. Second, accounts of men’s decision to take on the primary caregiving role routinely relied on the category-tied predicates of rationality and stoicism, thereby working to position primary caregiving fathers as normatively masculine. Overall, this article concludes that, despite fathers taking on roles inconsistent with normative gendered categorisation, constructions of fatherhood in news media routinely work to align (or re-align) primary caregiving fathers within hegemonic ideals. Therefore, while masculinity is evolving and shifting, it remains within the bounds of what is considered hegemonic.

The Wages of Worship, Religious Education, and Human Capital Development in the Black Church: Voices From Rural African American Primary Caregiving Grandmothers

Grandmothers are often referred to as the spiritual learners and leaders within families and often pass their religious teachings on to their children and grandchildren. This qualitative study investigated learning and human capital development among rural African American grandmothers ( n = 10) caring for their grandchildren. The findings revealed the participants’ perception of the Black Church, an agency for learning. The findings further revealed the benefits of religious education in learning communities and how the skills the participants acquired through such engagements contributed to their human capital development, thereby indicating the wages of worship. Finally, findings indicated how the participants utilized religious teachings to support the development of the children in their care.

Constructions of Primary Caregiving Fathers in Popular Parenting Texts

Expectations and norms of fatherhood are evolving, with fathers now expected to be more involved in childcare. These changes have made it possible for a growing number of fathers to assume a primary caregiving role. Catering to these fathers, a growing number of books have been published focusing on primary caregiving fathers. The present article reports on a discourse analysis of nine such books. Four interpretative repertoires were identified, suggesting very specific ways in which it is deemed appropriate for men to take on primary caregiving. The findings emphasize the need to pay ongoing attention to popular parenting texts since, despite claims they encourage and support involved models of fathering, the books present and reproduce potentially limited accounts of fathers who are primary caregivers. As such, the findings highlight the importance of being critical of claims that fatherhood is evolving, given such evolution may be mitigated by ongoing normativity with regard to fathering.

Maternal imprisonment: a family sentence

This chapter critiques the ways in which penal arrangements remain prisoner-centric and fail to acknowledge a women's maternal status and familial responsibilities. Viewing these women in isolation from their maternal status fails to recognise how they are embedded in social and familial networks, relationships, and responsibilities, and generally perform a primary caregiving role to their dependent children. Not only does this have implications for female prisoners as they attempt to remain connected to motherhood, but it also has a substantial effect on the large number of innocent children and family members left behind during maternal imprisonment. Prisoners' children have been called the ‘hidden victims of imprisonment’ and the ‘orphans of justice’ because they, and their family members, are continually disregarded within the political and policy sphere, academic studies, and society more generally.