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The daily patterns of time use for parents of children with complex needs: a systematic review
Damhnat McCann1, Rosalind Bull, Tania Winzenberg
1School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Damhnat.Mccann@utas.edu.au
Insights
Parents of children with complex needs face significant, ongoing caregiving demands. This includes constant supervision and extensive healthcare tasks, impacting their daily time use.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Family Studies
- Healthcare Management
Background:
- Caring for children with complex needs presents unique challenges for families.
- Understanding parental time use is crucial for effective support.
- Existing research on the daily time allocation of these parents is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and synthesize research on the daily time use patterns of parents caring for children with complex needs.
- To identify key time-intensive activities and caregiving burdens.
- To inform healthcare professionals about the realities of parental time demands.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of four electronic databases.
- Inclusion of 32 studies (30 journal articles, 2 theses).
- Critical examination of research quantifying and describing parental time use.
Main Results:
- Parents of children with complex needs experience a substantial and persistent caregiving burden.
- Constant supervision ('vigilance') is a significant time commitment.
- Parents dedicate considerable time to healthcare-related tasks beyond typical parenting.
Conclusions:
- The time demands on parents are substantial and should be considered in treatment planning.
- Healthcare professionals need to acknowledge and integrate parental time constraints into care regimes.
- Further research is needed to explore the long-term impact of these time demands.
Abstract:
The aim of this systematic review was to critically examine the research that quantifies and describes the daily patterns of time use by parents of children with complex needs. Four electronic databases were searched. A total of 32 studies (30 peer-reviewed journal articles and two theses) met the inclusion criteria. Three key findings emerged from the review: (a) Parents of children with complex needs carry a significant caregiving burden that often does not reduce as the age of the child increases, (b) supervision or 'vigilance' is a category of childcare that carries a particular time requirement for these parents and (c) parents of children with complex needs spend (sometimes considerable) time undertaking health care-related tasks outside the 'normal' parenting role. The time demands placed on parents caring for a child or children with complex needs at home should be considered when health professionals are negotiating essential and/or additional therapies or treatments to be included in a child's home care regime.
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