An intergroup communication approach to understanding the function of compliance, outgroup typicality, and honest explanations in distant caregiving relationships : validation of a health-care communication scale

This study examines distant caregiving relationships to achieve a better understanding of the function of compliance, outgroup typicality, and honest explanations from an intergroup communication perspective. With more families living at a distance due to our increasingly mobile society, long-distance caregiving (LDC) is a unique and growing caregiving situation that caregivers must face. LDC differs for caregivers and patients in close geographic proximity due to lack of availability, lack of intimate understanding of the caregiving needs at hand, and unknown financial burdens. As family residential distance increases, additional and unknown stressors are placed on individuals who provide distant care to an aging adult; however, little is known about different accommodation types used in situations of close-proximity as compared with distance caregiving situations. A sample of 130 self-identified distant family caregivers completed an online survey about their communication with their care recipient. This study is one of the first known to examine communication in the distant family caregiving context, and it offers possibilities for future research on communication barriers and health issues that impact this growing population.