Poster #85 - US Early Adolescents’ Conceptualization of Care within the Family

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Care, as a practice, is essential to human development, relationships, and the maintenance of society. Care is “the relationships and activities involved in maintaining people on a daily basis and intergenerationally” (Glenn, 2010, p.5). The capacity to practice care is often considered as innate, despite its contributions to the developmental, physical, and emotional capabilities of the recipient (England, 2005). There is however, more to be learned when we think about care as something that can be taught like any other core subject (Noddings, 1995). Theoretically at least, family is one of the first contexts in which children learn about care (Noddings, 2002). However, little is known about how individuals develop from care-receivers to caregivers. By early adolescence, many children have also begun to engage in caregiving within the family (Armstrong-Carter, et al., 2019; Tsai, et al., 2013). In the present study we aim to contribute to the literature by providing insight into how early adolescents conceptualize care within the family context. In the present study, we investigated how twenty US 9-14-old’s (11 girls, 9 boys, Mage= 11.6, SD = 1.67, 80% White, 10% African American, 5% Asian, 5% Latinx) conceptualized care within the family. Each child participated in a 20-30 minute semi-structured interview where they were asked to define what care is, what care looks like in the familial context, and their experiences of giving and receiving care. This study had two main research questions: how do early adolescents conceptualize care-receiving? And 2) how do early adolescents conceptualize caregiving? Interviews were transcribed verbatim and transcripts were inductively coded by using a codebook following Boyatzis (1998) framework. We created themes based on the prevalence, frequency, and application of codes in relation to the study’s overall research questions. Preliminary analysis revealed that early adolescents conceptualized caregiving as family assistance (e.g., helping a sibling with a chore) and care-receiving as having more than basic needs met (i.e parents asking about their feelings, parents offering advice). One main theme was the belief that being present, both physically and emotionally, was important in defining care. A second theme was the idea that care is simply the act of helping another person complete a task that was not originally their responsibility such as cooking. Finally, participants expressed the importance of providing more than the bare necessities to show that they care for another person such as showing interest in their emotional and mental health (See Table 1). The results suggest that those in early adolescence conceptualized their own caregiving as involving providing instrumental help, whereas their experiences of receiving care involved higher levels of care, such as addressing emotional needs. This study’s findings suggest that by early adolescence, children recognize care as involving maintenance of not just basic physical needs, but also emotional well-being, although they differentiate between the care they give and receive. Future research should investigate whether conceptualization of care within the family undergoes developmental changes earlier and later in development, and how this may differ by family roles.

Group Authors

Marla Sarmiento, MacKenzie Logan, Juana Zorrilla, and Allegra Midgette, PhD

Authors

• Marla Sarmiento, Texas A&M University - College Station
  Presenting Author

• MacKenzie Logan, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Juana Zorrilla

• Allegra Midgette, Texas A&M University - College Station