Karin Lindstrom Bremer

Discourse-derived Perspectives: Differentiating Among Spouses' Experiences of Caregiving

A method of constant comparative analysis was used to code open-ended interviews with 132 spouse caregivers regarding their experiences in caregiving. Results of this analysis yielded 69 qualitative code categories. We used these categories to compare the caregivers on several groupings that the literature has identified as providing meaningful ways to differentiate among caregivers. We used the qualitative responses to compare the caregivers by caregiver gender, care-recipient dementia severity, and duration of caregiving. Results partly confirmed previous findings that wife caregivers are more distressed than husbands, but the results also indicated these caregivers were more similar than dissimilar. The other analyses likewise indicated greater similarities than dissimilarities in the caregiving experience. We next continued the analysis and, using the coding categories as a springboard, identified four distinct patterns for construction of the meaning of the caregiving experience in the caregivers’ discourse. These discourse-derived framing categories, applicable in about three-quarters of the caregivers, offered other ways to distinguish among caregivers. Further analysis of these robust groupings showed important differences among the groups. These framing categories suggest ways to differentiate among caregivers, based on their perception of their role in the caregiving situation, ways that might point the way to intervention strategies for each of the groupings.

Alienation Among College Students and Attitudes Toward Face-to-Face and Online Counseling: Implications for Student Learning

This study examined the relationship between 3 aspects of alienation: powerlessness, meaninglessness, and social estrangement, and attitudes toward face-to-face and online counseling among college students. Participants included 180 undergraduate students at a Midwestern university. Correlations indicated a significant relationship between discomfort with face-to-face counseling and powerlessness (r = .20, p = .008) and meaninglessness (r = .22, p = .003). There were no significant relationships between attitudes toward online counseling and any aspect of alienation. Significant gender differences in value toward face-to-face counseling were found. Higher education should examine the use of online counseling among college students.