“I Am a Caregiver”: Sense-making and Identity Construction through Online Caregiving Narratives
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'I am a Caregiver'_Final.pdf
Embargo:
2022-08-13
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238.9Kb
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Final Accepted Manuscript
Author
Cooper, R. AmandaAffiliation
Department of Communication, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2021-02-13
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RoutledgeCitation
Cooper, R. A. (2021). “I Am a Caregiver”: Sense-making and Identity Construction through Online Caregiving Narratives. Journal of Family Communication, 1-13.Journal
Journal of Family CommunicationRights
© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
The all-consuming role and responsibilities of providing care to an aging parent or spouse create identity disruption and stress. However, this stress may be resolved as family caregivers integrate the role of caregiver into their identity and construct an aspect of their identity around providing care (i.e., caregiver identity). Rooted in the retrospective heuristic of communicated narrative sense-making theory (CNSM), this paper investigates the identities family caregivers construct through online narratives about their caregiving experiences. Using thematic narrative analysis to analyze a corpus of 40 online narratives, this study yielded four distinct caregiver identities: the prisoner, which is defined by a sense of being trapped by the responsibility of caregiving; the crumbling caregiver, which focuses on extreme exhaustion in providing care; the companionate caregiver, which focuses on the relational aspects of providing care; and the redeemed caregiver, which is defined by growth through difficulty. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Note
18 month embargo; first published online 13 February 2021ISSN
1526-7431EISSN
1532-7698Version
Final accepted manuscriptae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/15267431.2021.1889554