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Start date: 2020Subject: search.filters.subject.441009 Sociology of family and relationships

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    Balancing acts : reconciling paid work and caregiving among older New Zealanders : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Turitea, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024) Koreshi, Shanika Yoshini
    Population ageing and the rising number of older workers balancing paid work and caregiving responsibilities present significant challenges to social and economic systems. This thesis aims to explore how older New Zealanders, specifically those aged 55 and above, reconcile paid work with caregiving duties and to identify the implications for workforce participation and retirement decisions. Longitudinal data from the New Zealand Health, Work, and Retirement study were used throughout the thesis. The theoretical framework of this thesis is grounded in role theory and the demands-resources approach (Voyandoff, 2005), inspired by Karasek's model (Karasek, 1979). Role theory helps explain how individuals manage multiple roles, such as worker and caregiver, and the demands-resources approach provides a lens to examine how job demands and resources influence the ability to balance these roles. The research is structured around four empirical studies, each addressing distinct aspects of this issue. The first study investigates the predictors of becoming an informal caregiver, focusing on work status preferences and the role of work status incongruence. The findings suggest that older workers in involuntary part-time positions (who prefer more work hours) are more likely to take up caregiving roles compared to those in voluntary part-time or full-time roles. This highlights the importance of aligning work conditions with worker preferences to prevent undue pressure on older adults to assume caregiving roles out of necessity rather than choice. The second study examines the use of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) among older caregivers. It finds that older caregivers utilise more FWAs than their non-caregiving counterparts, particularly in terms of flexible hours, schedules, and time-off arrangements. Self-employed caregivers show a higher likelihood of using these arrangements, indicating the critical role of job autonomy in managing dual responsibilities. The third study explores the impact of work status preferences and FWAs on work-family conflict among older caregivers. The results indicate that certain FWAs, like flexible time-off, can significantly reduce work interference with family for those in involuntary part-time roles, whereas other FWAs do not show the same effect. The fourth study addresses the influence of caregiving and work-related factors on retirement decisions. It reveals that higher caregiving frequency and job stress are significant predictors of retirement among older workers. Additionally, those in involuntary part-time or full-time positions are more likely to retire early compared to those in voluntary full-time roles. Overall, this thesis provides a comprehensive examination of the intersection between paid work and caregiving among older adults in New Zealand. It underscores the critical role that work-related factors play in reconciling paid work and caregiving responsibilities. The findings highlight the importance of aligning work conditions with individual preferences and the need for tailored flexible work arrangements to support older caregivers. These insights will have implications for future research and provide guidance for policymakers and employers aiming to enhance the participation and well-being of older working caregivers in the labour force.
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    I am (M)other-wise : decolonising Family Court systems in Aotearoa New Zealand through nomadic processes of re-membering and becoming : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 2nd May 2026
    (Massey University, 2025) Tweedie, Shannon Renee
    This project flows from my own experience of silence and suffering within the Family Court of Aotearoa New Zealand as I attempted to move my life, and those of my children, to safety following the end of my marriage. It seeks to disrupt the demonisation of separated (m)others within the Family Court system that results in unsafe outcomes for women and children and is perpetuated by the privileging of majoritarian/masculinist, colonial and patriarchal knowledge. I move through this project alone, but not alone, my own knowing linking deeply and inextricably with that of others in a process of collective becoming-with (Haraway, 2019). Informed by a feminist politics of location that privileges situated knowledge as the route to strong objectivity, albeit always partial and incomplete (Haraway, 1988), and a relational process ontology, I engage in a nomadic process of re-membering (Braidotti, 2011), listening hard to hear the unsaid in order to map a cartographic figuration of the conditions of the present from within my embodied and embedded location. Creative, nomadic re-membering opens space for the ethical affirmation of difference and dis-identification from dominant, singular representations, enabling me to resist the figuration of vindictive, hostile, obstructive, selfish, uncaring and in-credible (m)other produced through the gendered norms of Western heteronormativity that form the bars of my epistemological cage. As I push against the bars of my cage, I seek to move away from pathologisation and suffering by re-telling myself differently, transforming my own knowing and repositioning my song as legitimate. Through acknowledgement that the personal is political, my resistance to the figuration of Vindictive (M)other also seeks to decolonise knowledge systems that perpetuate the suffering of women who have left coercively controlling relationships. My creative, interdisciplinary process of affective re-membering enables re-imagining of new possibilities for my own future and the collective futures of other (m)others engaged in Family Court processes within Aotearoa New Zealand, opening space for the (m)other-wise knowledge of women to be heard and legitimised. I re-imagine a future in which (m)others who leave coercively controlling relationships might be permitted the right to freedom and flourishing.
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    Resistance, healing and empowerment through autobiographical therapeutic performance–– 愛，媽媽 (Love, Mum) : a solo matrilineal memoir and autoethnographic inquiry on Chinese womanhood and ‘The good woman’ ideal : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing at Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 30 July 2027.
    (Massey University, 2024) Lam, Cynthia Hiu Ying
    My research is an autoethnographic inquiry that employs creative and critical methodologies to examine the question: How does the process of writing and performing one’s life experiences and trauma act as a form of resistance to the dominant ‘good woman’ narrative, leading to personal healing, empowerment and transformation? Through the creation of my one-woman show, 愛，媽媽 (Love, Mum), a matrilineal memoir about three generations of Chinese women, I investigate how the creative process involving the writing, rehearsing and performance of my play can become a form of resistance and counter-storying against the dominant ‘good woman’ narrative, leading to personal healing and empowerment. I begin by discussing the historical context of the virtuous Chinese woman, and present research by scholars who demonstrate that depression in women contains a gendered lens, resulting from the socio-cultural pressures of living up to the ‘good woman’ ideal. My analysis uses the methodological framework of autobiographical/autoethnographic therapeutic performance (ATP). This is a method that focuses on the working through of personal traumatic material through writing and performance. My research utilises a transdisciplinary praxis, combining both arts-based and psychoanalytic theories and practice related to trauma recovery and the healing processes of ATP. My investigation is autoethnographic and deeply personal as my own life experience and creative process is used to answer my research question, as well as shining a light on the socio-cultural structures we live in. Employing a mixture of creative practice, personal reflection, theoretical examination, and a close reading of my play script and performance, I demonstrate how the creative process I went through has led to a form of personal healing and transformation, with the potential to impact and engage with the wider community.
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    Multigenerational caregiving for older people in Bali : combining macro and micro perspectives to understand ageing, family, and caregiving : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Lestari, Made Diah
    Most of the existing research on family caregiving focuses on the nuclear family, consisting only of parents and children as the research population and women as the primary caregivers. Research on family caregiving needs to take into account demographic and social-cultural contexts. Thus, I sought to explore caregiving and ageing in multigenerational households. As populations continue to age, older people’s needs for special care has become a critical issue that affects families as the primary support of older people and sometimes presents a burden for families in terms of caregiving. While we are witnessing the development of public provisions to support our ageing population, at the same time, the cultural obligation to care for older generations may be reinforced by policies, effectively shifting state responsibilities to the private sphere. The study was framed by a critical gerontology approach to ageing issues from two perspectives: political-moral economy and humanistic gerontology. Critical gerontology provides space for a dialogue between macro and micro perspectives in understanding ageing and family caregiving. The research was conducted in Bali, where most older people live in multigenerational households. At the macro level of caregiving, this study aimed to critically review the regional ageing policies in Indonesia. Using critical discourse analysis, this study explored constructions of older people’s identities in regional ageing policies and found two identity constructions, namely “material ageing” and “cultural ageing”. Such positioning has macro and micro effects on ageing and caregiving practices. At the intersection between macro and micro levels of caregiving, individual narrative interviews were conducted from January until May 2020 with 49 members of 11 multigenerational households to explore the social construction of ageing and family caregiving specific to Balinese culture. Thematic analysis, narrative analysis, and discursive positioning analysis were used to analyse the interview data, exploring: (a) important aspects of local knowledge about multigenerational caregiving reported by participants; (b) the role played by the local narratives in shaping family members’ stories of multigenerational caregiving; and (c) how two dominant ageing discourses in regional ageing policies, “decline” and “successful ageing”, were taken up by older people and their family members in constructing their stories on ageing and family caregiving. I discussed the collective implications of these findings for the micro experiences of ageing and policy and developed a theoretical model of multigenerational caregiving, including its opportunities and challenges by synthesising the findings into a socioecological model. This model provided the basis for an analysis of the intersection between private and public domains of multigenerational caregiving and suggestions for initiatives at the family, community, society, and cultural levels to ensure the sustainability of family caregiving in Bali as well as providing support for the family caregivers.
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    Negotiating grandmothering, paid employment and regular childcare in urban Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Day, Caroline
    Grandmothers are increasingly called upon to provide regular childcare to enable parents to engage in paid employment. Many of these grandmothers are in paid employment themselves. Combining paid employment and regular childcare is managed in the context of their lives, which includes family relationships and broader societal expectations for older women. This thesis examined the experience of grandmothers living in Auckland City, who were in paid employment at least twenty hours a week and who provided regular weekly childcare of at least ten hours a week to their grandchildren. This research was based on feminist poststructuralism. Poststructuralism focusses on multiplicity and subjectivity, attending to the wider contexts in which language is located. Feminist poststructuralism focusses on gender and how gendered norms describe and establish the ‘right’ ways of behaving. These expectations contribute to assumptions that the accommodation of childcare and paid work is normal and natural for women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen grandmothers and their accounts were analysed using narrative analysis. Narrative analysis focusses on the importance of stories as the primary way in which people make sense of their lives. These stories draw on wider social, cultural, political and gendered narratives. The analysis found that paid employment was particularly important in the participants’ lives, allowing for the construction of an identity which was different to a grandmother-focussed identity. This importance of paid employment also shaped participants’ understandings of the importance of paid employment in the lives of mothers; maternal paid employment was constructed as important for wellbeing and for enabling an identity different to that of ‘mother’. Two clear intentions for providing childcare were storied: supporting maternal paid employment, and childcare as a response to concerns about grandchildren’s wellbeing. Finally, holding multiple roles and balancing paid employment and childcare were storied as the juggling of identities rather than the juggling of the tasks involved in combining paid work and childcare. The research findings have contributed to how grandmothering is understood; it has contextualised participants’ experiences in wider societal expectations for how women can and should combine their paid employment and family lives in later life.