高齡父母知覺成年子女的同理對其生活適應之影響

The Influence of Perceived Adult Children's Empathy on Life Adaptations of Elderly Parents

徐世慧(Shih-Hui Hsu) ； 葉光輝(Kuang-Hui Yeh)

《老年學研究》 1期 (2022/01) Pp. 73-103

https://doi.org/10.29703/JGS.202201_(1).0003

摘要

研究目的：台灣人口急劇高齡化，老年照顧問題引發各界關注。同理心廣泛應用於許多領域，但以高齡父母為研究對象的同理心研究卻非常欠缺。本研究探討高齡父母知覺成年子女的情感和認知同理心二成份，對自身生活適應（包括：主觀幸福感受、憂鬱反應及親子關係融通程度）產生的差異效果。研究方法：根據高齡父母與成年子女互動情境微調既往同理心定義，並編製《知覺成年子女的同理量表》施測。參與者主要為65歲以上的健康、亞健康老年人，有效資料共122份。研究結果：排除人口變項效果後顯示，（1）知覺成年子女的情感與認知同理都能增進高齡父母自身幸福感受，且兩者具有累加作用效果；（2）知覺成年子女的情感同理雖能降低高齡父母憂鬱反應與增進親子關係融通程度，但知覺成年子女的認知同理則效果不顯著。研究結論：知覺成年子女的情感同理與認知同理對高齡父母的生活適應具有不同的功能與效果；本研究結果除能擴展同理心研究範圍到老年階段，也可提供台灣深受孝道觀念影響之成年子女與高齡父母互動參考。

關鍵字

知覺子女的同理 ； 生活適應 ； 主觀幸福感 ； 憂鬱反應 ； 親子關係融通

並列摘要

Purpose: Empathy plays an important role in counseling and in a care giving context. However, previous literature shows that empathy is applied mostly to the area of client-therapist relationships or general caregiver-patient relationships, but it is rarely applied to the relationship between elderly parents and their adult children. By differentiating empathy into affective and cognitive components, therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore their distinctive functions and interactions that effect the perceived adult children's two types of empathy on their elderly parents' life adaptations, including subjective wellbeing, depressive reactions, and the deepening of the elderly parent-adult child relationship. Methods: The scale of the 'perceived adult children's empathy' was developed according to Davis' theory of empathy. The 122 elderly Taiwanese, with a son or daughter as their main caregiver, were recruited and were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Results: Excluding the effects of the demographic variables, it was shown that (1) Perceived adult children's affective and cognitive empathy can increase the subjective well-being of the elderly parents, and both have a cumulative effect; (2) Perceived adult children's affective empathy can decrease the elderly parents' depressive reactions and increase the deepening of the elderly parent-adult child relationship, but the effect of perceiving the adult children's cognitive empathy is not significant. Conclusions: The perceived adult children's affective empathy and cognitive empathy have differentiating functions and effects on their elderly parents' life adaptations. The results of this study can not only extend the scope of empathy research to the stages of old age, but also provide a reference for Taiwanese adult children who are deeply influenced by the concept of filial piety when interacting with their elderly parents.

並列關鍵字

perceived adult children's empathy ； life adaptation ； subjective wellbeing ； depressive reactions ； the deepening of parent-child relationship