[Family care and caregiver careers. Development of a research paradigm on the burden on caregivers by chronically ill, elderly humans].

Caring for chronically ill older persons in need of nursing care in the family depends very much on the internal structure of the family, the capabilities of those providing the care and the family's decision to opt for nursing care facilities. In this context the family and not (just) the patient becomes the crucial point of reference for dealing with illness and nursing care requirements on a day-to-day basis. The family thus also becomes the object of analysis from the point of view of research strategy. An approach to caring for chronically ill older persons oriented towards the biographical context/living environment utilizing (retrospective or prospective) "longitudinal" analyses is preferred to the traditional rather "linear" cross-section surveys of in situ stress aspects. A research paradigm can be developed related to day-to-day concerns that systematically analyzes as a process the individual stress situations of persons nursing a relative on a day-to-day basis. A future research paradigm would have to focus on relatives, not those just reacting to the current situation, but those active over a period of time--pursuing "careers" as relatives, as active subjects involved in nursing chronically ill older persons.