BACKGROUND
An aging population is a worldwide phenomenon mainly caused by declining birth rates and longer life expectancy. A considerable shift in the composition of Hong Kong’s population will occur over the next three decades; the number of older people will surge to 2.6 million by 2040, with one in three people aged 65 or older.
An increasing need for care, coupled with rapid increases in the number of dual-earner families in which one or both partners work long hours for pay may lead to a redistribution or the substitution of men’s care work for women’s. Statistics offered by Census and Statistics Department can support this assumption: analysed by sex, 637,500 (97.4%) were females and 16,900 (2.6%) were males. By contrast, according to a report in 2003, the statistics and information of male home-makers cannot be identified owing to the very small number (Thematic Household Survey Report No. 14, p. 110). Meanwhile, an increasing number of men had quit a job due to the need of taking care of members with disabilities.
1. To examine factors that predispose sons to take on a caregiving role and how sons manage their caregiving role in their late adult life.
2. To investigate the lived experiences of caregiving sons in Hong Kong, mainly from three aspects: how they define caregiving; pains and gains in caring their parents; how caregiving role impacts other aspects of their individual life.
3. To explore the practical implications of conceptualizing sonhood for social issues
TEAM MEMBERS
Principle Investigator:
Dr. Vivian Wei Qun, Lou
| Associate Professor, DirectorDepartment of Social Work and Social Administration, Sau Po Centre on Ageing, The University of Hong Kong
Co-Investigator:
Dr. Frances Lu Yang
| Post-doctoral Fellow, Sau Po Centre on Ageing , The University of Hong Kong
Prof. Daniel Wing Leung, Lai
| Chair Professor & Head, Social Work and Gerontology, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr. Mario Chan Ching, Liong
| Associate Professor, College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University
Men, not traditionally recognized as caregivers in families, are rising to the challenge. Traditionally, men as family caregivers are experiencing another, alternative form of gender inequality. At the value level, women have been the assumed as nurturers and primary caregivers in the family, while men have been internalized as roles for breadwinning because they focus on the external world. Hence, a novel method shall be used when considering male caregivers’ experiences to understand them in-depth and to foster active listening of their voices, followed by translation into service implications.
​
There are no official statistics specializing in male family caregivers in Hong Kong. And in academic area, there are no solid and systematic studies on understanding how men perceive their roles and caregiving behaviors when age and family relationship intrude in different combinations. Attention has to some extent been drawn to caregivers’ roles as fathers and husbands in the past decade. So, this study is going to fill a research gap in studying caregiving sons’ in their late adulthood. The project aims to examine how caregiving sons manage their caregiving role in late adulthood, and to explore their pains and gains in caring for their parents.
Exploratory Study
This study is an exploratory one in which researchers attempt to conceptualize a new framework on solid field study into community and deep investigation of caregiving sons’ lived experiences.
Photo voice
​To gain insights into the issues and concerns of caregiving sons, Photovoice will be applied. In total, 60 participants will be invited to Photovoice; finally, 20 participants are selected for in-depth interviews.