Correlates of Emotional and Tangible Reciprocity in Adult Siblings of Individuals With Autism

Sibling relationships often involve exchanges of emotional and tangible support. When one sibling has a disability, the nature of the reciprocity of such support may differ from sibling pairs wherein no disability is present. Specifically, when an individual has autism, the nature of emotional and tangible reciprocity is unclear given the potential for a supportive or caregiving role of the sibling without autism. In this study, 256 adult siblings of autistic individuals completed a national survey. Analyses included descriptive statistics describing the nature of reciprocity and hierarchical regressions to identify the correlates of emotional and tangible reciprocity. Overall, participants often reported not giving or receiving much tangible support to/from their autistic sibling while they often gave and, to some extent received, emotional support from their autistic sibling. When the autistic sibling had more asocial behaviors, participants were more likely to provide emotional support than receive it. When participants engaged in more caregiving, they both gave and received more emotional and tangible support. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

"Nice You Share in Return": Informational Sharing, Reciprocal Sharing, and Life Satisfaction Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Social media become an important space where people receive and share up-to-date health-related information during the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). While information sharing in social media has been shown to improve relations, reduce stress, and enhance life satisfaction, little is known about reciprocal sharing. Situated in COVID-19 pandemic, this study conceptualizes information sharing as a communication process during which sharers expect the receivers to reciprocate, while receivers feel obligated to return the favor. Building upon social exchange theory and studies on social media sharing, the study tested a model of moderated mediation in which sharing of COVID-19 information was predicted to enhance life satisfaction by encouraging reciprocal sharing, i.e., information reciprocity. Subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived usefulness of the information was predicted to moderate the mediation. The hypothesized mediation was supported by data from a survey of 511 online participants in China. Furthermore, the indirect effect appeared stronger among the respondents who found the information more useful, reported more positive attitude, or perceived more subjective norms. The findings suggest that expected reciprocation may be an important incentive for social sharing, and received reciprocation may be a central part of the mechanism through which sharing benefits the sharer. Policymakers and communicators may need to take information reciprocity into consideration when designing health information campaign to confront communal threats.

Compound Caregiving: Toward a Research Agenda

Aging family caregivers of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have unique circumstances setting them apart from the general caregiving population. Such differences include the extensive duration of the caregiving, and health concerns that manifest in the caregiver and individuals with IDD over time. Because of increasing longevity, family caregivers are likely to become compound caregivers (i.e., individuals caregiving for multiple people). Almost 70% of family caregivers of individuals with IDD experience compound caregiving, yet we know very little about compound caregiving. In this article, we highlight the importance of supporting compound caregivers by identifying research issues that address current challenges and future directions. Implications for research are noted, including the need for multidimensional outcome measures and longitudinal studies.

'Cautiously optimistic': Older parent-carers of adults with intellectual disabilities - Responses to the Care Act 2014

This article discusses potential opportunities for best practice in the United Kingdom that may be brought about by the Care Act (2014). Carers in the United Kingdom were given new rights within this legislation with a focus on needs led assessment. The underpinning philosophy of the Care Act is to streamline the previous legislation and offers a framework for carers and people in receipt of care, to enable a more personalized approach to care and support. Offering a discussion of likely opportunities brought about by provisions of the Care Act, this article draws on a small study involving older parent/carers of sons or daughters with intellectual disabilities. Exploring the extent to which such parents of adults with intellectual disabilities were aware of the details of this legislation and the potential impact it may have on their lives highlighted other significant areas, some of which are discussed below. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five parents over the age of 60 of sons or daughters with intellectual disabilities in North West England. The study adds to the body of knowledge and understanding about parents of adults with intellectual disabilities and explores and provides a deeper understanding of parents' experiences of the implementation of this specific piece of legislation and their perception of the relevance of it to themselves. Findings include some awareness of the legislation and some feelings of optimism about its likely implications, although participants appeared less clear about the specificities and the impact of these upon them and/or their sons or daughters. Findings from the semi-structured interviews also showed parent's articulation of the extent of reciprocal care manifest between them and their son or daughter with an intellectual disability, as well as an awareness of the fragility of their own emotional well-being.

Carer-related research and knowledge: Findings from a scoping review

The review discussed in this paper provides a unique synthesis of evidence and knowledge about carers. The authors adopted a scoping review methodology drawing on a wide range of material from many different sources published between 2000 and 2016. It offers key insights into what we know and how we know it; reinforces and expands evidence about carers' profile; shows knowledge is uneven, e.g. much is known about working carers, young carers and carers of people with dementia but far less is about older carers or caring for someone with multiple needs. A striking feature of much research is a focus on caring as a set of tasks, rather than a dimension of an, often dyadic, relationship. While there is substantive evidence about the negative impact of caring, the review suggests that links between caring and carer outcomes are neither linear nor inevitable and vary in depth and nature. A reliance on cross-sectional studies using standardised measures is a major weakness of existing research: this approach fails to capture the multidimensionality of the caring role, and the lived experience of the carer. Although research relating to formal support suggests that specific interventions for particular groups of carers may be effective, overall the evidence base is weak. There is a tension between cost-effectiveness and what is valued by carers. Developing robust evaluative models that accommodate this tension, and take account of the dyadic context of caring is a critical challenge. A fundamental deficit of carer-related research is its location in one of two, largely separate, paradigmatic frameworks: the "Gatherers and Evaluators" and the "Conceptualisers and Theorisers." The authors suggest that developing an integrated paradigm that draws on the strengths and methods of existing paradigms, has considerable potential to generate new knowledge and new evidence and extend understanding of care and caring.

The Experience of Parenting a Child With Disability in Old Age

BACKGROUND

There are growing numbers of older parents providing ongoing care for adults with disabilities. A parent's aging calls for a redefinition of parental care practices and roles in light of his or her own changing needs.

PURPOSE

The current study aims to highlight the ways in which aging parents perceive and construct their parental role to adult children with disabilities at this point in their lives.

METHODS

An interpretive phenomenological analysis perspective was used. Data collection was performed through in-depth, semistructured interviews with 20 aging parents of children with developmental disabilities, followed by a content analysis.

RESULTS

Four patterns of parental identity emerged: "Being happy is his responsibility; I did my part," embracing aging needs; "I can do part-time worrying," a gradual letting go of parental roles; "I'm worn out, but I keep going. What choice do I have?" bearing the brunt; "I'm an old woman changing diapers," full-time parents.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings enable a deeper understanding of the various ways in which parents cope with aging alongside caring for an adult child with disability. Hence, this study can serve as a framework for developing tailored and differential intervention methods for these families.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

As the world's people experience longer life expectancy, of both individuals with disabilities and their parents, nurses' education and practice should be challenged by the double sensitivities of elder's caregiving and address the unique needs of this unique population.

Aging in Place in Every Community: Social Exclusion Experiences of Parents of Adult children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

This article offers an examination of aging processes of lifelong caregivers and the possibilities for social exclusion place experienced by parents of adult children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study of parental caregivers ( n = 51) sheds light on how enduring caregiving roles can lead to social exclusion in three ways: misunderstanding of ASD and stigma, the complexity of the caregiving roles, and impact on daily routines including challenges with long-term planning for both the adult children and the parental caregivers. Implications for practice to address social exclusion include education and building greater communication ties among family member for family members and advocacy for more and higher quality services including respite care. This article concludes with discussion of the impact of this aging, yet caregiving population and the need for knowledge about aging processes and anticipating aging for these caregivers.

Reciprocity in therapeutic relationships: A conceptual review

Reciprocity has generally been understood as a process of giving and taking, within an exchange of emotions or services, and has long been recognized as a central part of human life. However, an understanding of reciprocity in professional helping relationships has seldom received attention, despite movements in mental health care towards more collaborative approaches between service users and professionals. In this review, a systematic search of the published papers was conducted in order to explore how reciprocity is conceptualized and understood as part of the dyadic therapeutic relationship between professionals and service users. Eleven papers met our inclusion criteria and a narrative synthesis was used to synthesize the key concepts of reciprocity. The concepts of: 'dynamic equilibrium', 'shared affect', 'asymmetric alliance', and 'recognition as a fellow human being' were recurrent in understandings of reciprocity in professional contexts. These conceptualizations of reciprocity were also linked to specific behavioural and psychological processes. The findings suggest that reciprocity may be conceptualized and incorporated as a component of mental health care, with recurrent and observable processes which may be harnessed to promote positive outcomes for service users. To this end, we make recommendations for further research to progress and develop reciprocal processes in mental health care.