綜觀老人家庭照護與孝道

Family Care for the Elderly and the Importance of Filial Piety

少子化與婦女就業人口上升，就業者工作壓力增加，親子互動關係不良，以及孝道觀念減弱，這些社會變遷的影響，使得傳統家庭照護老人的功能變差。子女的孝道觀念會影響日後照護老人的意願，而孝道意涵從過去重視權威性孝道，轉變為偏重於親子互動的互惠性孝道；親子的互動關係，更可能影響子女照護年邁父母的意願。當子女孝道的表現與老人的期望產生落差時，可能引發老人的不安或害怕被家人遺棄之感受，甚至導致老人被家庭照顧者虐待。因此，照護老人時，應將家庭成員與老人互動關係列入評估項目，以提供最適切的照護資源，進而達到老人的整體性護理。建議未來可在社區抽取不同家庭作比較，以便深入了解子女孝道與家庭照護中間的關係及影響因素，做為未來教育的依據。

A decreasing birthrate, rising numbers of women pursuing careers, work pressures, tensions between parents and children, and a weakening in traditional filial piety mores have changed Taiwanese society in recent years. Such changes may result in poorer levels of family care. The personal ideas of children regarding filial piety determine their future willingness to take care of elderly parents. Recently, concepts associated with filial piety have shifted from a focus on authoritative filial piety to one on reciprocal filial piety. Thus, good or poor interactions between parents and children will impact on the willingness of children to take care of their parents. When children show a reduced level of filial piety than expected, they lower their parents' hopes, which may cause uncertainty and a fear of abandonment among elderly family members. Moreover, such may also give rise to abuse from family caregivers. Therefore, those involved in the care of the elderly should evaluate the relationship between a family and its elderly members and, if the family needs more care support, resources should be provided. The result will be better overall, more holistic care of the elderly. In the future, a study in the community that examines the relationship between children's concepts of filial piety and family care of the elderly is suggested. The results of such may be used in education.