Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Making visible the invisible: understanding the nuances of computer-supported cooperative work on informal elderly caregiving in Southern Cone families

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The design of computer-supported caregiving technology has generally not acknowledged the complexity and heterogeneity of the informal care provision to older adults. For instance, most Latin American older adults have not been capable to broadly embrace digital technology to interact with their family members. This attitude, complemented with a high commitment derived from a strong filial obligation, burdens those family members that are most engaged in caring for their older adults, indirectly producing tension within the family network. In order to better understand this scenario in Southern Cone families (i.e., a particular region within Latin America comprising Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay), we conducted a localized multi-method study involving shadowing, contextual inquiry, and semi-structured interviews with informal elderly caregivers. Our study results highlight design implications and structure the elderly caregiving ecosystem, providing means to support invisible work and its articulation in this highly collaborative scenario. In particular, (1) we define a set of roles that characterize the viewpoints and concerns of the different family members regarding informal elderly caregiving, and therefore sustain the articulation of the process; (2) we draft the main concerns of the involved stakeholders in the form of a caregiving matrix, which can be used for visualizing the current fulfillment of duties within the family network; and (3) we describe a set of typical caregiving scenarios aimed to inform the design of contextualized strategies for mediating the social interaction space of intergenerational families through computer-supported technology. By addressing the identified implications, HCI and CSCW researchers, designers, and practitioners would be able to better understand the complexity of informal elderly caregiving in the South of Latin America, and therefore identify plausible solutions that would improve user experience and the effectiveness of computer-supported mediation strategies this context.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Arnold-Cathalifaud M, Thumala D, Urquiza A, Ojeda A (2008) Young people’s images of old age in Chile: exploratory research. Educ Gerontol 34(2):105–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Barros C, Fernández MB, Herrera MS (2014) Notions that people over 45 years old have about family and the internal interactions between family members. Psicoperspectivas 13(1):121–130

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bradley E, Mark G (2002) Why distance matters: effects on cooperation, persuasion and deception. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW’02). ACM Press, New York, pp 226–235

  4. Brereton M, Soro A, Vaisutis K, Roe P (2015) The messaging kettle: prototyping connection over a distance between adult children and older parents. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’15). ACM Press, New York, pp 713–716

  5. Calasanti T, Bowen ME (2006) Spousal caregiving and crossing gender boundaries: maintaining gendered identities. J Aging Stud 20(3):253–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Carroll M, Campbell L (2008) Who now reads Parsons and Bales?: casting a critical eye on the “gendered styles of caregiving” literature. J Aging Stud 22(1):24–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chen Y, Ngo V, Park SY (2013) Caring for caregivers: designing for integrality. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW’13). ACM Press, New York, pp 91–102

  8. Chen Y, Cheng K, Tang C, Siek KA, Bardram JE (2014) The invisible work of health providers. Interactions 21(5):74–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Colombo F, Llena-Nozal A, Mercier J, Tjadens F (2011) Help wanted? Providing and paying for long-term care. OECD Health Policy Studies. OECD Publishing, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  10. Connidis IA, Rosenthal CJ, McMullin JA (1996) The impact of family composition on providing help to older parents. Res Aging 18(4):402–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Consolvo S, Roessler P, Shelton BE, Lamarca A, Schillt B, Bly S (2004) Technology for care networks of elders. IEEE Pervasive Comput 3(2):22–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Domenech MM, Donovic MR, Crowley SL (2009) Parenting styles in a cultural context: observations of “protective parenting” in first-generation Latinos. Fam Process 48(2):195–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dwyer JW, Coward RT (1991) A multivariate comparison of the involvement of adult sons versus daughters in the care of impaired parents. J Gerontol 46(5):S259–S269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gallagher SK, Gerstel N (2001) Connections and constrains: the effects of children on caregiving. J Marriage Fam 63(1):265–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Gutierrez FJ, Ochoa SF (2016) Mom, I do have a family!: attitudes, agreements, and expectations on the interaction with Chilean older adults. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW’16). ACM Press, New York, pp 1400–1409

  16. Gutierrez FJ, Ochoa SF (2017) It takes at least two to tango: understanding the cooperative nature of elderly caregiving in Latin America. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW’17). ACM Press, New York, pp 1618–1630

  17. Gutierrez FJ, Ochoa SF, Cornejo R, Vassileva J (2019) Designing computer-supported technology to mediate intergenerational social interaction: a cultural perspective. In: Sayago S (ed) Perspectives on human-interaction research with older people. Springer, Cham, pp 199–214

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Hawkley LC, Masi CM, Berry JD, Cacioppo JT (2006) Loneliness is a unique predictor of age-related differences in systolic blood pressure. Psychol Aging 21(1):152–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Himes CL, Reidy EB (2000) The role of friends in caregiving. Res Aging 22(4):315–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Horgas A, Abowd G (2003) The impact of technology on living environments for older adults. In: Pew RW, Van Hemel SB (eds) Technology for adaptive aging. National Research Council of the National Academies, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  21. Huber L, Shankar K, Connelly K, Caine KE, Camp LJ, Walker BA, Borrero L (2013) How in-home technologies mediate caregiving relationships in later life. Int J Hum Comput Interact 29(7):441–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Inoue T, Nawahdah M (2014) Influence of dining-progress synchrony in time-shifted tele-dining. Extended Abstracts of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’14). Toronto, ON, Canada. ACM Press, New York, pp 2089–2094

  23. Miller AD, Mishra SR, Kendall L, Haldar S, Pollack AH, Pratt W (2016) Partners in care: design considerations for caregivers and patients during a hospital stay. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW’16). ACM Press, New York, pp 756–769

  24. Montero-Odasso M, Pryzgoda P, Redondo N, Adamson J, Kaplan R (2004) Health care for older persons in Argentina: a country profile. J Am Geriatr Soc 52(10):1761–1765

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Mynatt ED, Melenhorst AS, Frisk AD, Rogers WA (2004) Aware technologies for aging in place: understanding user needs and attitudes. IEEE Pervasive Comput 3(2):36–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Neustaedter C, Harrison S, Sellen A (2013) Connecting families: the impact of new communication technologies on domestic life. Springer-Verlag, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  27. Osorio-Parraguez P (2013) Health and widowhood: meanings and experience of elderly women in Chile. Health 5(8):1272–1276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Osorio-Parraguez P, Seguel AG (2014) Social construction of dependence in elderly men in Chile. Health 6:998–1003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Papastavrou E, Kalokerinou A, Papacostas SS, Tsangari H, Sourtzi P (2007) Caring for a relative with dementia: family caregiver burden. J Adv Nurs 58(5):446–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Population Reference Bureau (2014) Life expectancy gains and public programs for the elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Today’s Res Aging 30:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  31. Procter R, Greenhalgh T, Wherton J, Sugarhood P, Rouncefields M, Hinder S (2014) The day-to-day co-production of aging in place. Comput Supported Coop Work 23(3):245–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Robles Silva L, Rosas García MD (2014) Inheritance and caring: transitions in filial obligation. Desacatos 45:99–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Rodríguez MD, García-Vásquez JP, Andrade AG (2011) Design dimensions of ambient information systems to facilitate the development of AAL environments. Proceedings of the International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA’11). ACM Press, New York, article 4

  34. Schinkinger S, Tellioğlu H (2014) Design implications to systems supporting informal caregivers’ daily life. Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI’14). Springer, Berlin, pp. 341–350

  35. Schmidt K (1991) Riding a tiger, or computer supported cooperative work. Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW’91). Kulwer Academic Publishers, Amsterdam, pp. 1–16

  36. Schmidt K, Bannon L (1992) Taking CSCW seriously: supporting articulation work. Comput Supported Coop Work 1(1):7–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Schmidt K, Simone C (1996) Coordination mechanisms: towards a conceptual foundation of CSCW systems design. Comput Supported Coop Work 5(2):155–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Schorch M, Wan L, Randall D, Wulf V (2016) Designing for those who are overlooked – insider perspectives on care practices and cooperative work of elderly informal caregivers. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW’16). ACM Press, New York, pp 787–799

  39. Souza de Oliveira AM, Chaves Pedreira L (2012) Being elderly with functional dependence and their family caregivers. Acta Paulista de Enfermagem 25(1):143–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Star SL, Strauss A (1999) Layers of silence, arenas of voice: the ecology of visible and invisible work. Comput Supported Coop Work 8(1):9–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Stawarz K, Cox AL, Blandford A (2014) Don’t forget your pill! Designing effective medication reminder apps that support users’ daily routines. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’14). ACM Press, New York, pp 2269–2278

  42. Stuifbergen MC, Dykstra PA, Lanting KN, Van Delden JJM (2010) Autonomy in an ascribed relationship: the case of adult children and elderly parents. J Aging Stud 24(4):257–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Tao H, McRoy S (2015) Caring for and keeping the elderly in their homes. Chin Nurs Res 2:31–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Vines J, Lindsay S, Pritchard GW, Lie M, Greathead D, Olivier P, Brittain K (2013) Making family care work: dependence, privacy and remote home monitoring telecare systems. Proceedings of the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp’13). ACM Press, New York, pp 607–616

  45. Vines J, Pritchard GW, Wright PC, Olivier P, Brittain K (2015) An age-old problem: examining the discourses of ageing in HCI and strategies for future research. ACM Trans Comput Hum Interact 22(1):27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Zárate-Bravo E, García-Vásquez JP, Rodríguez MD (2015) An ambient medication display to heighten the peace of mind of family caregivers of older adults: a study of feasibility. Proceedings of the EAI International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (MindCare’15). Springer, Berlin, pp 274–283

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work has been partially funded by FONDECYT Regular (CONICYT Chile) under grant #1191516.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Chile, Beauchef 851, West Building, 2nd Floor, Santiago, Chile

    Francisco J. Gutierrez & Sergio F. Ochoa

Authors
  1. Francisco J. Gutierrez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sergio F. Ochoa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco J. Gutierrez.

Ethics declarations

The study design has been approved on ethical grounds by the Research Ethics Board of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This manuscript corresponds to a significant extension of the article “It takes at least two to tango: Understanding the cooperative nature of elderly caregiving in Latin America,” published by the same authors in: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW’17). ACM Press, pp. 1618–1630. https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998314. Regarding the new material presented in this extension, we now present new empirical findings in subsection: 4.5 Structuring the informal elderly caregiving process. As such, this serves as ground for extending section 5 (Discussion) and framing new material in section 6 (Insights into Technology Design), in the form of new layers of analysis and reusable design artifacts.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gutierrez, F.J., Ochoa, S.F. Making visible the invisible: understanding the nuances of computer-supported cooperative work on informal elderly caregiving in Southern Cone families. Pers Ubiquit Comput 25, 437–456 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01404-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01404-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation