Caregiving Daughters

About Caregiving Daughters

An increasing number of older adults are living longer in their own homes, while many of them, for health-related reasons, need support to manage everyday life. This leads to an increased reliance on informal caregivers, such as partners or adult children. Few studies have focused on the experiences, unmet needs, and preferences regarding interventions among adult daughters who provide care (daughter caregivers) to older parents, even though they may be at an increased risk of depression and lack of tailored support compared to partner caregivers.

We have previously conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions for depression among informal caregivers of an older person, which revealed a lack of evidence about daughter caregivers’ situation.

The overall aim of the Caregiving Daughters project is to improve access to psychological support for daughter caregivers of an older parent.

Ongoing work and next steps

We are currently conducting a series of qualitative studies to explore, from the perspective of daughter caregivers:

1. Positive aspects of providing informal care to an older parent
   
2. How informal caregiving of older adults is affected by societal crises, using the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden as an example
   
3. How challenges in providing informal care and experiences of accessing and receiving formal and informal support in Sweden vary according to the presence or absence of depressive symptoms among daughter caregivers
   

If we identify a need for psychological support, findings will inform the development of a psychological intervention for daughter caregivers of an older parent.