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RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES

Applying theories of lifelong psycho-social growth and life course principles of human development, older couples generally possess rich and valuable resources from diverse aspects of life. However, empirical evidence, on whether these supports are fully transferred to benefit themselves as they age...

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Autor principal: Chow, Esther O
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6844701/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.3544
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author Chow, Esther O
author_facet Chow, Esther O
author_sort Chow, Esther O
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description Applying theories of lifelong psycho-social growth and life course principles of human development, older couples generally possess rich and valuable resources from diverse aspects of life. However, empirical evidence, on whether these supports are fully transferred to benefit themselves as they age, remains uncertain due to inevitable physiological decline and increasing caregiving strains. The present study explicated the underlying processes of the older Chinese couples in forming a dyadic resilience model as they age with chronic illnesses. Using in depth interviews, 15 pairs of older Chinese couples were interviewed twice through home visits. The conversations were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Eight themes related to resilience and challenges of spousal caregiving were identified: 1) insights and acceptance of the chronicity of illnesses, 2) a sense of purpose and commitment as being the spouse in providing care for each other, 3) mastering skills and resources to handle the duties, 4) mixed feelings when the spouse was functioning changes, 5) realizing the importance of self-care and life-management, 6) cultivating positive meanings amidst difficult circumstances, 7) accepting things that cannot change, and cherishing on those aspects which are still functioning well, 8) working closely with other formal and informal support for common good. Findings have both practice and policy implications to health and social care practitioners in understanding different patterns of resilience as experienced by older Chinese couples in mitigating the developmental challenges from individual, relational and societal levels, and research implications in examining actor-partner interdependence practice in addressing caregiving challenges.
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spelling pubmed-68447012019-11-18 RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES Chow, Esther O Innov Aging Session Lb3620 (Late Breaking Poster) Applying theories of lifelong psycho-social growth and life course principles of human development, older couples generally possess rich and valuable resources from diverse aspects of life. However, empirical evidence, on whether these supports are fully transferred to benefit themselves as they age, remains uncertain due to inevitable physiological decline and increasing caregiving strains. The present study explicated the underlying processes of the older Chinese couples in forming a dyadic resilience model as they age with chronic illnesses. Using in depth interviews, 15 pairs of older Chinese couples were interviewed twice through home visits. The conversations were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Eight themes related to resilience and challenges of spousal caregiving were identified: 1) insights and acceptance of the chronicity of illnesses, 2) a sense of purpose and commitment as being the spouse in providing care for each other, 3) mastering skills and resources to handle the duties, 4) mixed feelings when the spouse was functioning changes, 5) realizing the importance of self-care and life-management, 6) cultivating positive meanings amidst difficult circumstances, 7) accepting things that cannot change, and cherishing on those aspects which are still functioning well, 8) working closely with other formal and informal support for common good. Findings have both practice and policy implications to health and social care practitioners in understanding different patterns of resilience as experienced by older Chinese couples in mitigating the developmental challenges from individual, relational and societal levels, and research implications in examining actor-partner interdependence practice in addressing caregiving challenges. Oxford University Press 2019-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6844701/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.3544 Text en © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Session Lb3620 (Late Breaking Poster)
Chow, Esther O
RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
title RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
title_full RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
title_fullStr RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
title_full_unstemmed RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
title_short RESILIENCE OF CHINESE OLDER COUPLES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
title_sort resilience of chinese older couples living with chronic illnesses
topic Session Lb3620 (Late Breaking Poster)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6844701/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.3544
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