Hilary Schofield

A profile of Australian family caregivers: diversity of roles and circumstances

Abstract: Research on family caregiving has been based largely on small samples, often drawn from support organisations or services, and has tended to focus on particular disability groups. Our study was population–based and included all ages and disabilities. As the first stage in a longitudinal research and health promotion program for informal caregivers, a statewide random survey of over 26 000 households was conducted by telephone: 78 per cent of self–identified carers (N= 976) agreed to participate in a one–hour interview. This paper presents a sociodemographic profile of Australian caregivers. Four types of relationship between carers and care recipients (adult offspring, spouses, parents and other relatives and friends) provide the framework for results. Group differences were observed on most characteristics: for example, age, living arrangements, work status and duration of care. Care recipient characteristics, including difficult behaviours and need for assistance, are also reported, as well as use of and need for community services. What the findings reflected most was the heterogeneity of both caregivers and care recipients and the diversity of caregiving roles and circumstances.

Women with Multiple Roles: The Emotional Impact of Caring for Ageing Parents

As part of a wider study of family caregiving, a sample of 297 women caring for an ageing parent were identified through a random statewide telephone survey involving over 26,000 households in Victoria, Australia. In addition to elder care, half these women were in paid employment and a third had dependent children. Overload was highest for carers with multiple roles, particularly those of parent or worker. Resentment in the caring role was highest for those who had fewer roles apart from elder care, particularly those who had quit work, and those without a partner. Life satisfaction was higher for partnered and working carers. These findings highlight the need for structures to support carers to maintain multiple roles, including greater flexibility in the workplace and encouragement of greater reliance on informal networks and formal services, both of which require increased societal acknowledgment of the elder care role.

HOME‐BASED ASSESSMENT FOR FAMILY CARERS: A PREVENTATIVE STRATEGY TO IDENTIFY AND MEET SERVICE NEEDS

Objective. To identify unmet need for services among family carers and their frail or disabled relatives and to facilitate links to services.

Health and well-being of women family carers: a comparative study with a generic focus.

Objective: To examine differences between women family carers of people with chronic illnesses or disabilities and a group of women ‘non‐carers’ in self‐reported physical health, psychological well‐being, life satisfaction, social support and feelings of overload.

Sex, Grade Level, and the Relationship between Mathematics Attitude and Achievement in Children

AbstractData on the mathematics attitudes and achievement of elementary school children (TV = 1,896) were gathered twice during the school year. Relationships between attitude and achievement were considered in connection with sex of student, grade level, type of achievement test, and time during the school year at which the measurements were taken. Findings indicated that observed relationships between attitudes and achievement were significantly stronger in boys than girls; with the measurement of computational compared with conceptual skills; and late during the school year compared with early in the school year. Relationships between attitude and achievement appeared also to increase with successive grade levels: however, this trend failed to reach significance at the .05 level.

Caregiving: a common or uncommon experience?

The analysis reported here aims to establish the household prevalence of caregiving in Australia, drawing on a large scale, longitudinal survey conducted as part of the Victorian Carers Project. Comparisons are made with a national survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and with Canadian and U.K. findings. Three aspects of caregiving are investigated: reported household prevalence, taking account of differences in definitions used in various surveys; the extent of intergenerational exchanges involved in caregiving; and the time dimensions of caregiving, in terms of duration and patterns of cessation of caregiving over time. A high degree of consistency is found in prevalences of caregiving and implications for the development of policies and programs to support caregivers are raised concerning levels of caregiving, approaches to identifying carers, targeting of services and promotion of caregiving, and the spread of the experience of caregiving across the lifecycle and between generations.

Reading Attitude and Achievement: Teacher-Pupil Relationships

AbstractIn literature relating to elementary school reading it is commonly contended that attitudes toward reading influence achievement in reading and that teachers’ attitudes (and achievement) affect pupils’ attitudes and achievement. As yet there is little research support for this contention. In opposition is the view expressed in teacher effectiveness literature that there may be a degree of incompatibility between maximizing in pupils both desired cognitive (or achievement) outcomes and desired affective outcomes (for example, favorable attitudes). The validity of these two positions was assessed by administering reading attitude and achievement tests to 251 final-year student teachers and to the grade 4 through 6 pupils (approximately 900) of 48 of these teachers twice during the following year. One-way analyses of variance were used to investigate teacher-pupil relationships. Findings indicated that high achievement and high attitude in teachers were positively associated with high achievement and...

Family Care for Frail Elders and Norms of Caregiver Well-Being at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

While popular wisdom would have us believe that family caregiving for frail older people was more widespread in society at the turn of the twentieth century than the twenty-first, the case is otherwise in Australia, as in other countries of the New World and most of Europe. At the first census held in Australia, in the state of Victoria in 1901, only 4% of the population was aged 65 years and over. Being still a largely immigrant society, most young families did not have older members to care for, and extensive analyses of family formation and demographic processes made by Rowland (1986, 1994) points to three other factors that limited the potential for family support of older members of the community.