Chapters Eight and Nine take the form of two manuscripts, yet to be submitted, which relate to Study Two. Chapter Eight describes the method and shares the methodological insights gained from using a mixed-method approach in qualitative research. Chapter Nine describes the narrative analysis of the Study Two data and presents the results from the study.
At the completion of Study One, a Summary of Results was sent to all of the organisations that had helped with recruitment of participants. The summary included information about a second study and provided contact details inviting caregivers to contact me if they wished to participate. At this stage six caregivers were recruited, however two withdrew very soon afterwards because their caregiving responsibilities increased and they felt unable to commit to the study. Two more participants joined the study after it began, having heard about it through community contacts, making the final total of six. The context for care was varied, as the following biographical details, which use pseudonyms, illustrate:
Pollyanna, aged 66, was caring for her spouse Bob, who was morbidly obese and suffers from co-morbidities such as heart disease and diabetes. Pollyanna took early retirement to become a fulltime caregiver, although she said her health was deteriorating anyway, so retirement was a decision that benefited both.
Ciara, aged 63, was caring for her father Errol, who had a heart condition and had suffered a series of strokes. Ciara moved into her father’s house to care for him and continued to work as a self-employed consultant from home, although her job involved some travel and time away from home, which she had to manage.
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residential care at the time of the study, having gone there while Emily was in hospital and then refused to come home on a permanent basis. Emily was working towards bring him home as she could not afford to pay for his care and complicated family finances meant he was not eligible for a government subsidy. Emily had continued to work while providing care for her spouse, until her retirement.
Allan, aged 63, was caring for his spouse Anne, who had a rare terminal illness. Allan sold his business in order to provide fulltime care.
Ian did not provide his age. He was caring for his mother who had Alzheimer’s Disease. He was not employed, although his wife was working.
Doug, aged 66, was caring for his mother, who had multiple co-morbidities. Doug was retired and the only participant not residing with the person being cared for.
The participants’ situations are diverse, although there are some similarities, such as finding it difficult to maintain employment while caregiving. No other demographic data was collected as it was not my intention to analyse the data according to ethnicity, education, or socio-economic status.
The first study had highlighted that caregiving is a social relationship and that caregivers’ emotions influence their decision making and the sacrifices they make. The second study aimed to expand on these findings by undertaking a focused exploration of the role of emotions in informal caregivers’ everyday lives. Two main criticisms of caregiver research are the extensive use of cross-sectional and retrospective designs. To address this, the present study used a prospective design, aiming to involve each participant for a six-week period. Additionally, a prospective design provided the opportunity to explore the day-to-day minutiae and travails of caregiving, which I hoped would fruitfully portray their everyday
interactions and decision-making.
The decision to run the study for six weeks was somewhat arbitrary; however, I felt that this would provide sufficient time to gain insight into the caregivers’ lives without being overly intrusive or onerous. Confining the data collection to six participants was also
somewhat arbitrary. I did not aim to recruit a prescribed number of participants into the study, but after collecting information from the six participants I felt that there was sufficient breadth and depth in the data to warrant stopping the data collection at that point.
The participatory principles that informed Study One were carried over into Study Two, in that the participants were able to choose how they wished to contribute to the study, albeit from options suggested by me. The following manuscript describes the use of a solicited diary/interview method for data collection, which was chosen by four of the participants. Of the remaining two participants, one chose to be interviewed by telephone over a period of several months, and the sixth participant asked if he could take part in the study, but was only prepared to commit to one interview. Although this method of data collection was not what I had planned, I chose to go ahead with the interview and have included the data in the results as it resonates with the findings of the other five participants.