Adult Son (adult + son)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Being a parent of an adult son or daughter with severe mental illness receiving professional care: parents' narratives

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 4 2001
Anita Pejlert RNT PhD
Abstract The aim of this study was to illuminate the meaning of parental care-giving with reference to having an adult son or daughter with severe mental illness living in a care setting. The parents were asked to narrate their relationship to offspring in the past, in the present, and their thoughts and feelings concerning the future. The study was guided by a phenomenological hermeneutic perspective. The meaning of parental care was illuminated in the themes ,living with sorrow, anguish and constant worry', ,living with guilt and shame', ,relating with carer/care; comfort and hardships',coming to terms with difficulties' and ,hoping for a better life for the adult child'. Parental care-giving emerged as a life-long effort. The narratives revealed ongoing grief, sorrow and losses interpreted as chronic sorrow. The narratives disclosed a cultural conflict between the family system and the care system, which was interpreted as a threat to the parental role, but also experiences of receiving comfort and having confidence in the care given. Experiences of stigma were interpreted from the way of labelling illness, narrated experiences of shame and relations with the public and mental health professionals. Parents' persisting in the care-giving role, striving to look after themselves and expressing hopes for the future were interpreted as a process of coming to terms with difficulties. Results suggest that mental health professionals need to be aware of their own attitudes and treatment of families, improve their cooperation with, and support to families, and provide opportunities for family members to meet one another. [source]


"One able daughter is worth 10 illiterate sons": Reframing the patriarchal family

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 5 2004
Sania Sultan Ahmed
This research note reports on interviews with 120 mothers employed in garment factories in Bangladesh. These mothers express views on the necessity of being married, having sons, and educating daughters that challenge traditional patriarchal practices. They report that men of their families can no longer guarantee women and children lifetime support in the context of extreme poverty and landlessness. Many of them thus choose to assist their husbands, brothers, and parents through wage employment. Their employment creates a space in which these women can begin to make choices and decisions independent of the wishes of the men in their families. Their responses indicate a crack in the traditional patriarchal family system, which requires that a woman be dependent, first on her father, then on her husband, and then on her adult son. [source]


The Effect on Elderly Parents in Cambodia of Losing an Adult Child to AIDS

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 3 2007
John Knodel
Little systematic quantitative research is available on the parents of adults who become ill and die of AIDS despite their large number and the wide range of adverse consequences. This study, based on survey data from Cambodia, explores economic and social effects on parents in a country characterized by extreme poverty and a substantial AIDS epidemic. Results indicate that parents play a major role during the illness of an adult son or daughter, often sharing living quarters, providing care, and paying for illness-related expenses. These contributions to the societal response to AIDS come at considerable cost to parents at advanced ages. Multivariate analysis suggests lasting negative consequences for parents'economic well-being, and the consequences are more substantial if the adult child's death was from AIDS rather than from other causes. The study found little evidence of stigma associated with losing a grown child to AIDS: reactions from local community members are more likely to be sympathetic and supportive than negative. These results underscore the need for organizations dealing with AIDS to recognize the contributions older persons make in coping with the epidemic and to address the burden it imposes on them. [source]


To tell or not to tell: Men's disclosure of their HIV-positive status to their mothers,

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 2 2005
Constance L. Shehan
Abstract: Disclosing an HIV diagnosis to his mother may be the first step in a man's successful management of his illness, but it may also lead to added stress due to stigmatization. Analyzing data provided by 166 HIV-positive men who lived in the southeastern United States, we found that the most powerful correlate of disclosure was exposure to HIV through homosexual contact. Additionally, those who had AIDS rather than HIV and exhibited more severe symptoms were significantly more likely to have disclosed to their mothers; older and more highly educated men were significantly less likely to have done so. We discuss the implications of our findings for maternal caregiving to adult sons in middle and later life. [source]