PURPOSE: This study was to describe the burden of aged parents caring for adult children with disabilities and related factors. METHODS: The subjects were 123 caregivers aged over 65 who were caring for 18-year-old or older children with disabilities. The research tool of this study was a structured questionnaire on family burden. Data were collected from June 3 to 25, 2010, and analyzed by Cronbach's alpha, mean, standard deviation, t-test, and ANOVA using SAS 9.2 program. RESULTS: The major findings of this study were as follows. Elderly parents caring for adult children with disabilities perceived a moderate level of burden. The burden from concern over their children's future was highest, and economic and physical burdens were higher when the parents were younger. Burden was significantly different according to parents' characteristics such as gender, perceived health status, disease, the costs of caring for disabled children, and children's characteristics such as disability rating, health status, and ADL. CONCLUSION: In order to reduce the burden of elderly parents caring for adult children with disabilities, we need to improve their health status and assess comprehensive policies.
Activities of Daily Living ; Adolescent ; Adult Children* ; Adult* ; Aged ; Caregivers ; Disabled Children ; Humans ; Parents* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

In contrast to the idiopathic cause of intussusception in children, adult intussusception in most patients is associated with organic causes. The majority of these patients are brought to the operating room with the preoperative diagnosis of bowel obstruction, and the surgeon discovers an intussusception intraoperatively. But the increasing use of abdominal CT may improve the ability to diagnose intussusception. There is no universal agreement upon the correct treatment of adult intussusception, although most authors agree that surgical intervention is necessary. In the more recent reports, colonoscopic reduction of intussusception has been reported for selected patients. For patients in whom the involved ileum is extremely long, it is advisable to attempt an operative reduction or colonoscopic reduction selectively. Thus, we report here on two patients with benign and malignant lesion, respectively, that caused ileocolic intussusception; preoperative colonoscopic diagnosis and reduction were attempted for these patients, although the patients were not reduced by colonoscopic procedure.
Adult ; Adult Children ; Collodion ; Colonoscopy ; Humans ; Ileum ; Intussusception ; Operating Rooms

PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to explore and describe the process of nursing home placement decision making and adaptation among adult children caregivers of demented parents in Korea and to generate a substantive theory grounded in their experiences. METHODS: The participants were 16 adult children caregivers who had placed their demented elders into nursing homes. Data were collected by in-depth unstructured interviews with individual participants. Data were analyzed by Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory methodology. RESULTS: Analysis revealed that the core category of the process of nursing home placement decision making and adaptation among adult children caregivers was accepting the inevitable and reorienting to changes. It consisted of four phases: realizing a dead end, seeking a way out, accepting the inevitable decision, and reorienting to changes. Participants were driven to the corner of making the inevitable decision by the overwhelming care situation and confronted by various challenges in dealing with the decision. But they managed to accept the inevitableness of the decision and further learned to reorient themselves to the changed care situation utilizing various action/interaction strategies. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study provide the basic information for developing proactive strategies to support family caregivers better in the difficult period of nursing home placement.
Adult ; Adult Children ; Caregivers ; Decision Making ; Dementia ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing Homes ; Parents

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether offspring protect or jeopardize in parents. METHODS: We used data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging and performed a longitudinal analysis of 10,236 individuals at baseline (2006) to estimate the association between offspring-related factors and self-rated health among individuals ≥45 years of age. RESULTS: The estimate for self-rated health was 0.612 times lower (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.503–0.746; P < 0.0001) for those with zero offspring. The estimate for self-rated health was 0.736 (95% CI, 0.635–0.853; P < 0.0001) for those with five offspring or more. The estimate for self-rated health was 0.707 (95% CI, 0.528–0.947; P=0.020) for males with zero offspring. The estimate for self-rated health was 0.563 (95% CI, 0.422–0.751; P < 0.001) for females with no offspring and for females with five or more offspring. The estimate for self-rated health was 0.686 times lower (95% CI, 0.573–0.822; P < 0.0001) for those with five or more offspring compared to females with two offspring. CONCLUSION: Those with more offspring (≥5) and those with no offspring tended to have an increased probability of low self-rated health. Overall, our results suggest that offspring have a significant positive effect on self-rated health, which was evident graphically as an inverted U-shape.
Adult Children ; Adult* ; Aging* ; Female ; Humans ; Life Style ; Loneliness ; Longitudinal Studies* ; Male ; Parents ; Self Report

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to explore operational definitions and moderators of the resilience of adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) and its associated variables. METHODS: This integrative review was conducted based on a literature review method suggested by Whittemore and Knafl. Databases including PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and RISS were searched using the combinations of search terms such as; ‘adult children of alcoholics,’ ‘parental alcoholism,’ ‘resilience,’ and ‘children of alcoholics.’ RESULTS: Seventeen studies were selected for this review. Findings of integrative reviews reported operational definitions for the resilience of ACOA and moderators. The operational definition of ACOA's resilience is: (1) having no behavioral and emotional problem, (2) meeting social and developmental expectancies, (3) having the ability to cope with adversity, (4) having high self-concept, and (5) having a meaningful relationship. In addition, the varying environmental moderators include family communication, qualities of caring environment, parental communication, parentification, and social support. Several moderators were identified as positive effect, self-esteem, alcohol-specific coping style, locus of control, spirituality, the image of God, and dyadic cohesion in marital communication. CONCLUSION: Our study findings emphasize comprehensive understanding of diverse definition of resilience and moderators in developing nursing interventions to promote resilience in ACOA.
Adult Children ; Adult ; Alcoholics ; Alcoholism ; Child ; Humans ; Internal-External Control ; Methods ; Nursing ; Parents ; Resilience, Psychological ; Spirituality

PURPOSE: The study was to compare the factors of life satisfaction between grandmothers parenting and not parenting their grandchildren. METHODS: A descriptive design with a convenience sampling was used for this study. From communities in S and U city, 85 parenting grandmothers (PG) and 103 non-parenting grandmothers (NPG) were recruited. The PG were those grandmothers who cared for preschooler grandchildren for their daughter or daughter-in-law who was employed. RESULTS: The demographics of the two groups were similar, however the value of grandparenting was significantly higher in the PG than the NPG (t=4.56, p<.001). In the PG, strong and significant correlations were found among the value of grandparenting, health status, quality of relations with adult children, and life satisfaction. However, demographics were more related to health status and life satisfaction in the NPG. The value of grandparenting, health status, and quality of grandmother-adult children relations were found to be significant factors of life satisfaction (F=20.75, p<.001) explaining 42% of the variances. In the NPG, only health status was a significant factor (F=50.66, p<.001) explaining 33% of the variances. CONCLUSION: This study shows that grandmothers' perceptions of grandparenting and family relationships need to be incorporated into the lifestyle in order to support parenting grandmothers' life satisfaction while grandmothers' health is the common concern of elderly women's life satisfaction.
Adult Children ; Aged ; Child ; Demography ; Family Relations ; Humans ; Life Style ; Nuclear Family ; Parenting ; Parents

PURPOSE: This study describes the ecological variables effect on child abuse potential and the results from a prevention program for parents with disabled children aiming at decreasing child abuse potential. METHOD: Data was collected from 30 parents with disabled preschoolers attending an early education center in a community. The program consisted of handouts, small group lectures, support group meetings on understanding the disabled child-parents relationship, communication skill improvement, non-punitive discipline techniques, and influences of child abuse. A non equivalent pre-post test design was employed. RESULT: Ecological variables, and parenting self-efficacy, had a significant effect on child abuse potential in parents with a disabled child. By regression parenting self-efficacy showed(27.1%) child abuse potential. Both parenting self-efficacy and beliefs in corporal punishment directly related to (52.0%) child abuse potential in parents. The program was effective inbringing some positive changes on pareting self-efficacy beliefs in corporal punishment, and child abuse potential toward disabled children. However, marital discord was not significantly effected. CONCLUSION: Child abuse prevention programs should decrease thechild abuse potential in parents. Thus I recommend a child abuse prevention program development; for parents with disabled adolescents, and teachers in disabled child education.
Adult ; Child ; Child Abuse/*prevention & control ; Child, Preschool ; *Disabled Children ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; *Parenting ; Parents/*education

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to know whether Korean healthy elderly and family with dementia patients were wishing to disclose the diagnosis of dementia, to identify reasons of their wishing and unwishing to disclose, and to analyze influencing factors on the disclosing of dementia. METHODS: We obtained data from 78 healthy elderly with age over 60 and 73 family with dementia patients by interviewing with questionnaire about attitudes toward disclosing dementia. RESULTS: 1) 51.3% of healthy elderly and 58.9% of family with dementia patients were wishing to disclose dementia. Other relatives whom they wanted to tell were spouse or adult children. Most family with dementia patients wanted to have predictive tests in preparation for their future. 2) The main reasons for wishing to disclose were to make advance planning in healthy elderly, and to be careful and cooperate well to treat if they aware their illness in family with dementia patients (p<0.005, respectively). The main reasons for unwishing to disclose were whether they might be frightened or upset in healthy elderly (p<0.025), and to worry about being depressed in family with dementia patients (p<0.005). The main reasons why family wanted to be told were family's right to know and to explore treatment options. 3) The influencing factors on disclosing dementia seemed to be sex (p<0.01) and marital status (p<0.005) in healthy elderly, and education (p<0.005), marital status (p<0.005), religion (p<0.025) and socioeconomic status (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The attitude toward disclosing diagnosis of dementia in Korean healthy elderly and family with dementia patients seemed to be more active. Therefore, doctors should prepare in mental attitude and knowledge to satisfy their need by active provision of information and education.
Adult Children ; Aged* ; Dementia* ; Diagnosis* ; Education ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Social Class ; Spouses

OBJECTIVE: We examined the effect of anpakkori, a traditional living arrangement, on depression among elderly people on Jeju Island in Korea. METHODS: A total of 593 subjects were assessed using a sociodemographic questionnaire developed by the authors, the Korean version of Geriatric Depression Scale (KGDS), the Social Support Scale, and the Activities of Daily Living/Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scales (ADL/IADL). Subjects were classified into three groups: those residing with their adult children, those living individually, and those living in the traditional Jeju anpakkori living arrangement. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression in this study was 53.1%, and the traditional Jeju living arrangement, anpakkori, was significantly correlated with the presence of depressive symptoms (p=0.005)[odds ratio (OR)=1.88, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.16-3.06]. CONCLUSION: Living in the traditional Jeju way may not be as good for establishing family solidarity as is living with adult children. Moreover, elderly individuals prone to depression tended to live in this anpakkori living arrangement. Careful psychological and social support systems that might prevent the development of depressive symptoms should be provided for those who live in anpakkori living arrangements.
Activities of Daily Living ; Adult Children ; Aged ; Depression ; Humans ; Korea ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Residence Characteristics ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: This study was to examine the effects of intergenerational social support exchange (providing social support, receiving social support) and self-efficacy on the level of depression among elderly women. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was used. The participants were 247 elderly women, over 60, living in Seoul. Data were collected by convenience sampling using self-reported questionnaires that consisted of items on general characteristics, depression, intergenerational social support exchange and self-efficacy. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and multiple regression. RESULTS: Self-efficacy had the greatest impact on the level of depression among elderly women, followed by perceived health status and providing social support toward adult children. The model explained 39% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Results of the study suggest that as a way to prevent depression, the health administration needs to develop programs to enhance self-efficacy and to promote the supportive role of elderly women within the family.
Adult Children ; Aged* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression* ; Female ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul