Academic talk about dementia caregiving: a critical comment on language

A language that characterizes the work of informal caregivers as burdensome dominates the academic literature on dementia caregiving. Informal caregiving is a socially important activity of significant economic benefit that is both gendered female and primarily carried out by women. Words collocated with caregiving and caregivers were extracted from a sub-set of recent professional journal articles on dementia caregiving. Collocations were numerically described and grouped into three categories: (1) recipient (or what caregivers receive as a result of caregiving), (2) generative (what caregivers do or generate as a result of caregiving), and (3) demographic (the general context of caregivers and caregiving). Collocations in the recipient category were most numerous followed by demographic and generative collocations. Overall collocations suggested dementia caregiver/caregiving passivity in the context of an unrewarding, burdensome experience. Questions raised in relation to findings focus on whether the view of caregiving revealed may further inscribe oppressive practices related to disabilities, age, and gender roles.