Based on 50 in-depth interviews, this article describes how family caregivers to a spouse, parent, child, or sibling suffering from depression, manic-depression, or schizophrenia negotiate their involvement with the ill person. The central research question asks: ‘what features of the situation do family members take into account as they try to operationalize boundaries of obligation between themselves and the mentally ill person in their lives?’ Data analysis of the joint experience of caregivers and family members reveals four interpretive junctures that mark transitions in the way caregivers assess their obligations. They are: hoping and learning, revising expectations, assessing responsibility, and preserving oneself. These categories capture clear regularities in the way respondents re-interpret their obligations to care over time. Our analysis suggests the need for a research agenda that looks more closely at how negotiations between caregivers and sick family members are mediated by their gender and status within the family.
Bauman, Z. (1992). Mortality, immortality, and other life strategies. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
Becker, G. (1976). The economic approach to human behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
3.
Bellah, R. et al. (1985). Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
4.
Berry, W. (1995). Health is membership. Utne Reader, September–October, 60–65.
5.
Bettelheim, B. (1979). Surviving and other essays. New York: Knopf.
6.
Blau, P. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
7.
Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interaction: Perspective and method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
8.
Boynkin, A. and Winland-Brown, J. (1995). The dark side of caring: Challenges of caregiving. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 21, 13–18.
9.
Clark, C. (1997). Misery and company: Sympathy in everyday life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Cohen, M. (1996). Dirty details: The days and nights of a well spouse. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
11.
Collins, R. (1981). On the microfoundations of macrosociology. American Journal of Sociology, 86, 984–1014.
12.
Degler, C. (1991). In search of human nature. New York: Oxford University Press.
13.
Denzin, N. (1984). Emotions as lived experience. Symbolic Interaction, 8, 223–240.
14.
Denzin, N. (1989). Interpretive biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
15.
Denzin, N. (1990). On understanding emotion. In T. Kemper (Ed.), Research agendas in the sociology of emotions.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
16.
Derber, C. (1996). The wilding of America: How greed and violence are eroding our national character. New York: St Martin’s Press.
17.
Duff, K. (1993). The alchemy of illness. New York: Bell Tower.
18.
Finch, J. (1989). Family obligations and social change. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
19.
Frank, A. (1991). At the will of the body. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
20.
Frankl, V. (1988). Man’s search for meaning. New York: Pocket Books.
21.
Franks, D. (Ed.) (1995). Social perspectives on emotion. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
22.
Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
23.
Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public places. New York: Free Press.
24.
Gottschalk, S. (1993). Uncomfortably numb: Countercultural impulses in the postmodern era. Symbolic Interaction, 16, 351–378.
25.
Harré, R. and Parrott, W. (Eds.) (1996). The emotions: Social, cultural, and biological dimensions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26.
Hewitt, J. (1996). Self and society. Boston, MA: Alynn and Bacon.
27.
Hochschild, A. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85, 551–575.
28.
Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
29.
Hoffman, M.L. (1989). Empathic emotions of justice in society. Social Justice Research, 3(4), 283–311.
30.
Homans, G. (1961). Human behavior: Its elementary forms. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
31.
Karp, D. (1996). Speaking of sadness: Depression, disconnection, and the meanings of illness. New York: Oxford University Press.
32.
Karp, D. and Yoels, W. (1993). Sociology in everyday life. Itasca, IL: Peacock Publishing Co.
33.
Keitner, G. (Ed.) (1990). Depression and families: Impact and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
34.
Kemper, T. (1981). Social constructionist and positivist approaches to the sociology of emotions. American Journal of Sociology, 87, 336–362.
35.
Kemper, T. (Ed.) (1990). Research agendas in the sociology of emotions. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
36.
Krach, P. and Brooks, J. (1995). Identifying the responsibilities and needs of working adults who are primary caregivers. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 21, 41–50.
37.
Lerner, M. (1975). The justice motive in social behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 31(3) 1–20.
38.
Lyman, K. (1993). Day in, day out with Alzheimer’s: Stress in caregiving relationships. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
39.
Nippert-Eng, C. (1996). Home and work. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
40.
Nisbet, R. (1966). The sociological tradition. New York: Basic Books.
41.
Parsons, T. (1954). Essays in sociological theory. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
42.
Pfohl, S. (1992). Death at the parasite cafe. New York: St Martin’s Press.
43.
Piven, F. (1993). Regulating the poor. New York: Vintage Books.
44.
Prus, R. (1996). Symbolic interaction and ethnographic research: Intersubjectivity and the study of human lived experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
45.
Reynolds, L. (1990). Interactionism: Exposition and critique. Dix Hills, NY: General Hall.
46.
Schott, S. (1979). Emotion and social life: A symbolic interactionist analysis. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 1317–1334.
47.
Simmel, G. (1950). Faithfulness and gratitude. In K. Wolff (Ed.), The sociology of Georg Simmel, pp. 379–395. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
48.
Slater, L. (1996). Welcome to my country. New York: Random House.
49.
Smith, A. (1976). Theory of moral sentiments. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Classics.
50.
Stommen, M. , Given, C. and Given, B. (1990). Depression as an overriding variable explaining caregiver burden. Journal of Aging and Health, 2, 81–102.
51.
Strauss, A. (1978). Negotiations: Varieties, contexts, processes, and social order. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
52.
Strauss, A. (1992). Turning points in identity. In C. Clark and H. Robboy (Eds.), Social interaction. New York: St Martin’s Press.
53.
Wilson, W. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
54.
Wolfe, A. (1989). Whose keeper: Social science and moral obligation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
55.
Young, R. and Kahana, E. (1989). Specifying caregiver outcomes: Gender and relationship aspects of caregiver strain. The Gerontologist, 29, 660–666.
56.
Zarit, S. , Todd, P. and Zarit, J. (1986). The subjective burden of husbands and wives as caregivers: A longitudinal study. The Gerontologist, 26, 260–266.
