“Modern Family”: Mexican American Sons Providing Personal Care for Their Aging Mothers

This report extends knowledge about the informal caregiving trajectory in Mexican American (MA) families, constituting the second known empirical study of the emerging phenomenon of personal care by (MA) sons for their aging mothers, previously reported by our research team. It uses life course perspective (LCP) to compare caregiving patterns over time through case-based comparative-historical methods. “Historical” within-case analysis searches for themes, while “comparative” cross-case analysis allows exploration of themes across multiple cases, enabling examination of eight cases of caregiving MA sons who were currently providing personal care or confronting the imminent need to do so. We used the comparative-historical technique of pattern matching to determine the worth of LCP for exploration of MA family caregiving, test data-derived theoretical propositions, and function as a template for combining multiple methods. Qualitative findings were buttressed in this sub-analysis of a parent study by results from a battery of variable-oriented scales.