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Elderly Parents’ Filial Expectation, Expectation Gap and Depressive Reactions
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Lu, Yi-Feng
Abstract
Background & Objective: Depressive reactions are an important indicator of mental health of the elderly. Children’s filial behaviors are important sources of parents’ health and well-being. But, what is meant by “children’s filial behaviors” shall consider parents’ subjective expectations and perceptions. This thesis consists of two studies: the Study one used quantitative analysis to explore the relationships among the elderly parents’ filial expectations, perceived children’s filial behaviors, the degree of fit between filial expectations and behaviors, and their own depressive reactions. The Study two used qualitative interviews to explore when the elderly parents confront a gap of filial expectation, what their regulating processes and adjustment mechanism are. Methods: The Study one adopted self-report scales, as “shot form of CES-D in the TLSA”, “filial expectation and perceived children’s filial behaviors scales” adapted from “dual filial piety scale”. And we collected one hundred elderly parents’ data in Taipei area and its immediate vicinity. The Study two adopted semi-structured interview and thematic analysis to analyze the data. And we totally interview eleven elderly parents, six in high-depression and five in low-depression groups. Results: The Study one showed that (1) elderly parents now more emphasis on the reciprocal filial expectations, less on the authoritarian filial expectations; (2) their own depressive reactions positively correlated with excessive emphasis on authoritarian filial expectations, negatively correlated with the degree of children’s reciprocal filial behaviors and with the degree of fitness between parent’s reciprocal filial expectations and children’s behaviors. The Study two showed that: when elderly parents confront filial expectation gap, which may experience cognitive appraisal, negative emotions, adjustment mode of negative emotions and the outcomes, thereby affecting the frequency of their depressive reactions; when elderly parents use the less adaptable adjustment mode of negative emotions, may therefore maintain or increase their original generated negative emotions, and may also add additional stressors or reduce the available resources; social support systems, personal character and personality, adjustment flexibility, may affect elderly parents’ depressive reactions as well. Discussion: This thesis helps us to understand elderly parents’ filial expectations and needs, and to enhance the fitness among filial expectations, needs and children’s filial behaviors; the dual filial piety model might seem a more promising starting point in understanding the depressive reactions and welfare of the elderly; psychological adjustment model of filial expectation gap helps clinical practitioners to establish case formulation and intervention programs; a variety of factors can affect depressive reactions of elderly parents, be sure to adopt biopsychosocial model in the clinical works.
Subjects
elderly parents
filial expectation
filial expectation gap
depressive reactions
psychological adjustment model
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)
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Name
ntu-105-R01227206-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):0bc05cbd60ee45a0b65df97bf4e3f349