The study investigated whether both mothers' and daughters'
paternalism beliefs influenced the daughters' paternalistic caregiving
decision making. Fifty mother-daughter dyads (mothers' age was 82.6,
daughters' age was 54.9), where daughters provided at least 10 hours of
caregiving help weekly and mothers retained their cognitive functioning, were
interviewed individually. Each was assessed on paternalism beliefs, instrumental
activities of daily living, the number of paternalistic caregiving decisions made by
the daughter, conflict over caregiving decisions, and satisfaction with the
decisions. Both mother's and daughter's paternalism beliefs
were related to the number of the daughter's paternalistic decisions, as
was the degree of the mother's dependency (p < .05).
Daughters'reports of conflict over decisions were related to differences
in mothers' and daughters' paternalism beliefs, whereas
mothers' reports of conflict were related only to the
daughters' paternalism beliefs. Decision satisfaction was unrelated to
beliefs. Implications for practitioners are suggested.
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