Concepts of burden in giving care to older relatives: A study of female caregivers in a Mexico City neighborhood

Throughout the world, unpaid care work has predominantly been seen as a woman's responsibility, including in Mexico. The Mexican literature on women's occupations in the private domain suggest that individuals are socialized into roles that define caregiving as a woman's responsibility. However, little is known about elder caregiving in Mexico and the role of women in this process. This study was undertaken as a small but important first step in filling this knowledge gap. One purpose of the study was to describe how women in a Mexico City neighborhood viewed the concept of burden as it related to caring for older family members. Data were collected on forty-one women through semi-structured interviews regarding their caregiving experiences with elderly relatives. Results showed that burden was a multi-dimensional construct that referred to specific situations that made caregivers feel emotionally or physical “heavy.” Burden also referred to “being a burden” by being in the way, making things difficult, or being a ‘weight' on caregivers' shoulders. However, caregivers also viewed burden as a positive sacrifice that involved goodwill and love. Our findings offer an additional dimension of caregiver burden to broaden our understanding and measurement of the construct. Development of culturally appropriate instruments to measure caregiver burden in Mexico is necessary to provide an empirical foundation for policy recommendations that address the growing need for institutional support of caregivers. Our findings suggest that researchers studying caregiving in Mexico should think about how burden is measured on existing instruments before adapting them for widespread use.