Accommodation and nonaccommodation as predictors of instrumental caregiving intentions and expectations in grandparent-grandchild relationships

Abstract

This dyadic study examined how grandparents’ and grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving accommodation, overaccommodation, and underaccommodation were indirectly associated with grandchildren’s intentions to provide instrumental care and grandparents’ expectations that they would receive instrumental care, via both parties’ communication satisfaction. For grandchildren, a series of indirect associations emerged: Grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving accommodation positively predicted grandchildren’s communication satisfaction; grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving overaccommodation and underaccommodation negatively predicted grandchildren’s communication satisfaction. Grandchildren’s communication satisfaction then positively predicted grandchildren’s intentions to provide instrumental care. In contrast, no indirect associations emerged involving the grandparent versions of the variables. Rather, for grandparents, a direct association was observed: Grandparents’ perceptions of receiving accommodation directly and positively predicted grandparents’ expectations to receive instrumental care. This discrepancy in results (indirect associations for grandchildren, a direct association for grandparents) is discussed in terms of the mediating mechanism phase of communication accommodation theory scholarship.

Keywords

Accommodation communication accommodation theory instrumental caregiving overaccommodation underaccommodation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barker

(2007). Young adults’ reactions to grandparent painful self-disclosure: The influence of grandparent sex and overall motives for communicating. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 64, 195–215. https://doi.org/10.2190/ktnu-0373-20w7-4781

Bernhold

Q. S.

Giles

(2018). Ethnic differences in grandparent-grandchild affectionate communication. Communication Reports, 31, 188–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2018.1488984

Blanton

P. W.

(2013). Family caregiving to frail elders: Experiences of young adult grandchildren as auxiliary caregivers. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 11, 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2013.755076

Brussoni

M. J.

Boon

S. D.

(1998). Grandparental impact in young adults’ relationships with their closest grandparents: The role of relationship strength and emotional closeness. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 46, 267–286. https://doi.org/10.2190/2B7B-E3LH-74JJ-UJRY

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009, December 11). QuickStats: Percentage of adults with activity limitations, by age group and type of limitation—National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2008. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5848a6.htm

Conger

R. D.

Conger

K. J.

Martin

M. J.

(2010). Socioeconomic status, family processes, and individual development. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 685–704. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00725.x

Coupland

Giles

Henwood

(1988). Accommodating the elderly: Invoking and extending a theory. Language in Society, 17, 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500012574

Dragojevic

Gasiorek

Giles

(2016). Accommodative strategies as core of the theory. In Giles

(Ed.), Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal and social identities across contexts (pp. 36–59). Cambridge University Press.

Flinn

(2018). Millennials: The emerging generation of family caregivers. https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2018/05/millennial-family-caregivers.pdf

10.

Forsythe

K. E.

Ledbetter

A. M.

(2015). Relational uncertainty, self-other inclusion, and communication satisfaction as predictors of friendship relational maintenance, and how equity changes the story. Communication Studies, 66, 321–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2015.1018444

11.

Fowler

(2015). The role of shared family identity and future time perspective in shaping the outcomes of grandparents’ positive and negative social behaviors. Journal of Family Communication, 15, 20–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2014.980822

12.

Fowler

Soliz

(2010). Responses of young adult grandchildren to grandparents’ painful self-disclosures. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29, 75–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09351680

13.

Fruhauf

C. A.

Jarrott

S. E.

Allen

K. R.

(2006). Grandchildren’s perceptions of caring for grandparents. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 887–911. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X05286019

14.

Gasiorek

(2013). “I was impolite to her because that’s how she was to me”: Perceptions of motive and young adults’ communicative responses to underaccommodation. Western Journal of Communication, 77, 604–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2013.778421

15.

Gasiorek

(2015). Perspective-taking, inferred motive, and perceived accommodation in nonaccommodative conversations. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 34, 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X15584681

16.

Gasiorek

(2016). The “dark side” of CAT: Nonaccommodation. In Giles

(Ed.), Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts (pp. 85–104). Cambridge University Press.

17.

Gasiorek

Giles

(2012). Effects of inferred motive on evaluations of nonaccommodative communication. Human Communication Research, 38, 309–331. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2012.01426.x

18.

Gasiorek

Giles

(2015). The role of inferred motive in processing nonaccommodation: Evaluations of communication and speakers. Western Journal of Communication, 79, 456–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2015.1066030

19.

Giles

(Ed.). (2016a). Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts. Cambridge University Press.

20.

Giles

(2016b). The social origins of CAT. In Giles

(Ed.), Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts (pp. 1–12). Cambridge University Press.

21.

Giles

Soliz

(2015). Communication accommodation theory: A situated framework for relational, family, and intergroup dynamics. In Braithwaite

D. O.

Schrodt

(Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 161–174). SAGE.

22.

Gold

D. A.

(2012). An examination of instrumental activities of daily living assessment in older adults and mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 34, 11–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2011.614598

23.

Harwood

(2000). Communicative predictors of solidarity in the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 743–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407500176003

24.

Hecht

M. L.

(1978). Measures of communication satisfaction. Human Communication Research, 4, 350–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1978.tb00721.x

25.

Hecht

M. L.

(1993). A research odyssey: Toward the development of a communication theory of identity. Communication Monographs, 60, 76–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759309376297

26.

Ihara

E. S.

Horio

B. M.

Tompkins

C. J.

(2012). Grandchildren caring for grandparents: Modeling the complexity of family caregiving. Journal of Social Service Research, 38, 619–636. https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2012.711684

27.

Karney

B. R.

Bradbury

T. N.

(2005). Contextual influences on marriage: Implications for policy and intervention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 171–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00358.x

28.

Kenny

D. A.

Kashy

D. A.

Cook

W. L.

(2006). Dyadic data analysis. Guilford.

29.

Kincade Norburn

J. E.

Bernard

S. L.

Konrad

T. R.

Woomert

DeFriese

G. H.

Kalsbeek

W. D.

Koch

G. G.

Ory

M. G.

(1995). Self-care and assistance from others in coping with functional status limitations among a national sample of older adults. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 50B, S101–S109. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/50b.2.s101

30.

Lai

D. W. L.

(2012). Effect of financial costs on caregiving burden of family caregivers of older adults. SAGE Open, 2, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012470467

31.

Lin

M. C.

Harwood

(2003). Accommodation predictors of grandparent-grandchild relational solidarity in Taiwan. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 537–563. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075030204006

32.

Muthén

B. O.

(2016, February 5). Path analysis (direct, indirect, and total effects). http://www.statmodel.com/discussion/messages/11/8245.html?1454722789

33.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

(2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.).

34.

National Alliance for Caregiving. (2015, June). Caregivers of older adults: A focused look at those caring for someone age 50+. https://www.caregiving.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2015_CaregivingintheUS_Care-Recipients-Over-50_WEB.pdf

35.

Piercy

K. W.

Chapman

J. G.

(2001). Adopting the caregiver role: A family legacy. Family Relations, 50, 386–393. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2001.00386.x

36.

Pusateri

K. B.

Roaché

D. J.

Kam

J. A.

(2016). Grandparents’ and young adult grandchildren’s identity gaps and perceived caregiving intentions: An actor-partner interdependence model. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 33, 191–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407514568750

37.

Rittenour

Soliz

(2009). Communicative and relational dimensions of shared family identity and relational intentions in mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships: Developing a conceptual model for mother-in-law/daughter-in-law research. Western Journal of Communication, 73, 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310802636334

38.

Ryan

E. B.

Giles

Bartolucci

Henwood

(1986). Psycholinguistic and social psychological components of communication by and with the elderly. Language and Communication, 6, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/0271-5309(86)90002-9

39.

Sass

J. S.

(2000). Emotional labor as cultural performance: The communication of caregiving in a nonprofit nursing home. Western Journal of Communication, 64, 330–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310009374679

40.

Soliz

Colaner

(2018). Communication accommodation theory and communication theory of identity: Theories of communication and identity. In Braithwaite

D. O.

Suter

E. A.

Floyd

(Eds.), Engaging theories in family communication: Multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 75–86). Routledge.

41.

Soliz

Giles

(2014). Relational and identity processes in communication: A contextual and meta-analytical review of communication accommodation theory. In Cohen

(Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 38, pp. 108–143). SAGE.

42.

Speer

R. B.

Giles

Denes

(2013). Investigating stepparent-stepchild interactions: The role of communication accommodation. Journal of Family Communication, 13, 218–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2013.768248

43.

Watson

B. M.

Gallois

(1999). Communication accommodation between patients and health professionals: Themes and strategies in satisfying and unsatisfying encounters. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9, 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1999.tb00170.x

44.

Yzer

(2013). Reasoned action theory: Persuasion as belief-based behavior change. In Dillard

J. P.

Shen

(Eds.), The Sage handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (2nd ed., pp. 120–136). SAGE.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.11 MB