Abstract in English

Abstract in English
Doctoral dissertation entitled: Family facing the challenges of care for
a senior citizen – between support and rejection concerns the changing care functions
of
family.
The
research
study
demonstrates
how
family,
understood
in accordance with the system theory as dynamic structure that reacts to changes and
transitions that take place within it when one of the family members grows old.
Therefore, the main issue pursued in this thesis is the problems of family, which faces
the challenges of care for their senior. The theoretical framing included Talcott Parsons'
social system theory, interpreted by Bronisław Misztal1 and Bogdan de Barbaro2, the
theory of ecological systems by Urie Bronfenbrenner3 and the classification of family
resources4. The empirical research carried out for this thesis is situated within the
qualitative paradigm and has a biographical character.
The aim of the presented work is to redefine the care function of family ion the
situation of looking after a senior citizen in relation to the theory of social resources and
the model of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems.
Individual biography was treated as the subject of study. The method
of examination used during analysis of empirical data was content analysis. The
technique was in-depth interview and the tool was a script with the interview questions.
The main problems of this thesis, selected during the investigation process of the
care function of family towards a senior citizen, were as follows:
1. How the care function of family towards a senior changes and how the family
defines their care tasks, and also how these tasks are carried out and how their
influence all of the family members.
2. What resources can be found in a family, how they transform and develop and
how they become exhausted with the process of aging of other family members.
B. Misztal (1977). Zagadnienia społecznego uczestnictwa i współdziałania. Analiza w świetle teorii
i badań socjologicznych. Wrocław−Warszawa−Kraków−Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii
Nauk.
2
B. de Barbaro (red.) (1999). Wprowadzenie do systemowego rozumienia rodziny. Kraków:
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
3
U. Bronfenbrenner U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design.
Cambridge: Press Harvard University.
4
M. Kulesza (2009). Rodzinne zasoby. Nowe możliwości w diagnozie i terapii rodziny. Pedagogika
Społeczna, nr 3/4.
1
During the study 20 in-depth interviews took place with the carers of elderly, who
due to various illnesses needed help. The interviews took place between May and August
2014 in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. The interviewees were selected purposely.
The interviews were carried out with family carers, who were in charge
of care as a result of the lost of independence by a senior member of family due
to medical issues. One of the key aspects of interviewee's selection was care delivered
independently. The analysis of collected data was carried out with the use
of MAXQDA programme.
Thesis were focused around the issues of senior age, care, social support and care
function of family. It comprises of eight chapters, introduction and conclusions. Two
theoretical chapters were dedicated to issues of old age, care and social support. The third
chapter contained a description of research methodology. Following chapters consisted
of presentation of research study, the analysis of empirical data and their interpretation.
The final part of this thesis depicts a theoretical model of support trajectory and being a
subject of support with consideration for vectors of change.