An investigation into the conflicts between married couples in caring for an elderly parent

Objective (s):

 Family care is not a new phenomenon and family members have always served as the most important source of support for the elderly throughout human life. Caring for the elderly is a tedious task with varied consequences. This study aimed to determine the conflicts situation of elderly-caring couples.

This cross-sectional study was performed on a sample of women caring for an elderly in Larestan, Iran. The data were collected in person at participants’ home by using Strauss’s standard questionnaire of couple’s conflict and analyzed by SPSS 26 software

In all 377 women participated in the study. The majority of respondents’ age ranged from 30-50 years (67%), had secondary education (80%) and were housewives (87%). The analysis of the data showed that the four dimensions of verbal aggression, psychological conflict, physical conflict, and sexual coercion 70% total variance observed indicating the severity of the couples ‘conflicts. The inferential results revealed a significant difference between couples’ conflicts with religion, and place of living, but not employment and elderly gender.

Various factors seem to affect severity of couples’ conflicts. However, conflicts could be reduced by increasing couples’ skills.