Family cohesion: A study on caregiving daughters of parents with Alzheimer’s disease

In this regard, investigating these aspects might facilitate the evaluation of family relations and the development of interventions that create, keep, restore, or enhance the skills families need to better deal with the disease. Based on this information, the objective of this chapter is to present and discuss investigative research on family cohesion and hierarchy from the perspective of caregiver daughters of elderly with Alzheimer’s in four situations: before the disease, currently, in conflict, and ideally. 32 women caretakers and their respective parents (6 fathers and 26 mothers) diagnosed with possible or probable AD participated in the survey. The instruments used were the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in an Open Interview with a Semi-Structured Script, and the Family System Test (FAST). We observed that before onset of the disease, the caregivers generally perceived themselves to have more hierarchy than their siblings, χ2(2) = 4.92, p < .10. The current situation showed a greater number of caregivers in higher hierarchical positions than their siblings (72%), and a lesser number of siblings than expected in higher hierarchical positions than the caregivers, χ2(2) = 18.32, p < .001. The ideal representation showed that most caregivers did not want themselves or any of their siblings to have more power than the other (66.7%), χ2(2) = 14.89, p < .001. Comparing conflict representations to ideal representations showed that family members demonstrated lower cohesion in conflict situations than in ideal situations, z = -2.86, p < .01.