Identity development in adulthood has two aspects, that is, personal identity and care-based-identity. however, a lot of the previous researches on identity development have paid attention only on the aspect of personal identity. The present study was designed to consider identity development by care-giving empirically. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feelings of growth and development by care-giving to elders and the related factors to promote them.
Data was obtained on the basis of questionnaire distributed to 125 men and women belonging to the following 3 groups: [Group I] 79 caregivers to elders at their home [Group II] 23 caregiving staffs in old aged homes, and [Group III] 23 men and women who did not have caregiving experiences to elders.
The results were summarized as follows:
1) No significant difference was found in the scores of the feelings of growth and development by caregiving among the three groups above. However, the scores of Group I were widely distributed, and it was suggested that there was a large individual variations of the caregiving experience.
2) The following factors were suggested as the promoting factors of the caregiver's feelings of growth and development by caregiving : (1) positive feeling and attitude for caregiving, (2) positive relationship with care-receivers, (3) positive acceptance to the care-receiver's life, and (4) high level of identity.