痴呆老人の家族介護に関する研究—娘および嫁介護者の人生における介護経験の意味 2．価値と困難のパラドックス

The Experience of Japanese Women Caring for an Elderly Parent (or Parent-in-law) with Dementia (2) : Essential Paradox between Values and Difficulties of Care

　本稿は家族介護（娘および嫁）の経験を理論的に説明する研究の一部であり，介護経験の基本的文脈に焦点をあてた。儒教的な敬老の精神や女性の家庭内役割などの社会規範や被介護者への愛着から介護には高い価値が付与され，さらにこの価値は社会的な賞賛などを通して構造的に維持されている。このために介護は介護者の生きがいの源泉にもなりうるほどである。一方で，対人関係や生活上の制限などさまざまな側面で介護には多様な困難が伴い，その困難は時として介護者を「もうこれ以上介護できない」という限界状況に至らせ，逆に介護者の生きがい感を阻害するほどにもなりうる。このように介護は，価値と菌難との本質的なパラドックスを基本的文脈として行なわれている。価値と困難の内容分析から，介護経験の基本的文脈は嫁による介護・未婚の娘による介護・既婚の娘による介護にタイブ分けでき，それぞれのタイプの特徴が介護経験を大きく左右している。

　This paper reports a part of research on the experience of Japanese women caring for an elderly parent (or parent-in-law) with dementia, and it focuses on the basic context of the experience of caregiving. The basic context of care captured here is the essential paradox made of values and difficulties of care. In Japan, caregiving for elderly parents is assigned a high societal value in light of the Confucian belief of respect for the aged, women's role in the family, and the institution of lineal family. Caregiving is also valued because of the caregiver's attachment to the care recipient. Due to these major factors, caregiving is valued to a levelin which the caregivers can, if they desire, identify caregiving as the source of their ikigai (psychological well-being). Their reality is that they must take care, not only because of the societal pressure, but also in order to maintain their sense of ikigai.

　On the other hand, the caregiving experience brings difficulties in various aspects of the caregiver's life. The difficulties often accumulate to disturb their sense of ikigai. Thus, there is an essentially paradoxical juxtaposition of values and difficulties that leaves the caregivers and other family members in a constant dilemma. In this paper, the sources of the high value of caregiving and itssustenance, as well as various difficulties encountered, were discussed. There are three types of caregiving contexts that are distinct from one another on the issues of values and difficulties of caregiving : caregiving contexts of daughters-in-law, unmarried daughters, and married daughters.