Learning to care on one's own: Chinese children's caregivers' reflections on family care

Abstract

Background: The past few decades have witnessed drastic changes in family structures and the provision of care within the family in China. Objective: The current study investigated how familial caregivers of children (N = 30, Mage = 41.67, SD = 11.32) living in one of the largest urban centers in China learned and taught how to care within the family. Method: Nine focus groups were conducted to collect data, and thematic analysis was adopted to analyze the data. Results: Two main themes were found: (a) learning to care on one's own and (b) the importance of encouraging one to want to care. The findings indicate that Chinese caregivers received limited direct instruction in learning how to care and were often faced with the challenge of having to self-teach care. Meanwhile, when teaching care, caregivers focused on the motivation to care (e.g., filial piety) as an important element for learning to practice care. Conclusion: These findings highlight considerations of motivation of care often not mentioned in the Western literature while also indicating the need of society to support teaching and learning the practice of care within the family. Implications: This study highlights the importance of cultural considerations when designing intervention programs to help individuals to develop the ability to care and provides insights exploring how school-family partnership promotes children's ability to be caring.