Intergenerational caregiving: adult caregivers and their aging parents.

Theory-generating methodologies can be used to add to our knowledge in areas that are already well researched in addition to areas that have not been extensively studied. The study presented here demonstrates how the grounded-theory method was used to generate a new theory of intergenerational caregiving. Analysis revealed five conceptually distinct, overlapping categories of caregiving. Only one of these includes what is generally considered to be caregiving, that is, hands-on caregiving behaviors or tasks. The other four types are not observable behaviors but are processes crucial to intergenerational caregiving and to an understanding of the experience of intergenerational caregiving.