Sibling Influences, Sibling Similarities, and Parent Care in Late Life

手足影響、手足相似性及對年老父母的照顧

10.7015/JEAS.201903_49(1).0002

林一芬(I-Fen Lin)；吳學聖(Hsueh-Sheng Wu)；黃敏雄

care hours ； caregiving ； diffusion of responsibility ； social comparison ； social learning ； 照顧時數 ； 老年照顧 ； 責任分攤 ； 社會比較理論 ； 社會學習理論

歐美研究

49卷1期（2019 / 03 / 01）

45 - 73

英文

Researchers have extensively examined why some particular adult children provide care to their aged parents, but rarely considered sibling similarities and influences in their examinations. Guided by social learning theory and diffusion of responsibility theory, we investigate whether sibling similarities are associated with adult children's care hours, net of the parent's and child's characteristics. Based on social comparison theory, we further examine whether such associations differ across adult children, depending on whether adult children share the same characteristics as their siblings. Using Round 5 data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, we find that adult children provide more care hours when siblings are close in age, supporting social learning theory. In contrast, adult children provide fewer care hours in the presence of a greater share of siblings who are unpartnered or close to the parents, supporting diffusion of responsibility theory. Consistent with social comparison theory, social learning is stronger for younger adult children, and diffusion of responsibility is weaker when adult children are unpartnered or close to the parents. Findings from this study highlight the importance for future research of going beyond parent-child dyads and incorporate sibling influences when studying the caregiving behavior of adult children.

對於哪些成年子女會對年邁的父母提供照顧，已經有相當廣泛的研究。不過，這一些研究甚少考量到成年子女的兄弟姊妹及其相似性對提供照顧的影響。我們在統計上控制父母與成年子女的特質之後，分析子女與其手足的相似性對提供年邁父母照顧時數的影響，檢視研究結果是否呼應社會學習理論與責任分攤理論的論述。另外，我們進一步分析，子女與其兄弟姊妹之間共同特質的存在，是否改變了前兩項理論所預期會有的影響，並藉此驗證社會比較理論。我們使用「美國健康與老齡化趨勢調查」的第五波資料做分析，發現手足之間年齡差距較小時，提供的照顧時數較多，合乎社會學習理論所預期。如果手足之中有較高比例是單身或是與年邁父母的關係較為親密的話，則會提供父母較少的照顧時數，符合責任分攤理論的論點。在較年輕的成年子女之中，社會學習理論所預期的影響較強；當成年子女都是單身或是與父母的關係較為親密時，責任分攤理論所預期的影響較弱。因此，研究結果也支持社會比較理論。本研究的發現有重要意涵，在研究成年子女對年邁父母的照顧行為時，不應該只考慮父母與子女的雙邊關係，還應該考量子女的兄弟姊妹及其相似性對照顧老年父母的影響。

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