研究目的：「老人的安養與照顧」議題在人口結構逐漸轉變的現代華人社會中越來越受到重視，本研究主要探討華人社會中，成年子女如何因應父母逐漸老去所需面對的照顧需求，並以「性別」、「婚姻」與「代間關係」為研究主要的關注焦點。研究方法：本研究採用具探索性且有助理論建構的質性訪談研究，並透過訪員認識、親友介紹與受訪者介紹等管道招募研究參與者，共邀請34位30∼55歲之間的成年子女接受訪談，研究參與者的性別男女各半，已婚與未婚者各占50%。研究結果：成年子女對年老父母的照顧經驗歸納為三個主題，首先是「代間照顧的方向性」，本研究發現，成年子女似乎是「陪伴」而非「照顧」老年父母，反而是老年父母提供他們各種協助。第二個主題為「家人關係的世代轉變」，研究結果顯示，成年子女照顧父母的經驗中，會出現親子權力反轉的現象，而過去親子關係的良好與否，似乎也左右著成年之後的代間照顧關係。最後是「性別與婚姻的劃界」，未婚女兒似乎較容易被視為理所當然的照顧者，而未婚兒子身上則背負著的家族與經濟期望。此外，女性也會擔心進入婚姻會承擔「媳婦」照顧公婆的角色而失去自我。研究結論：本研究發現代間照顧現象具有強烈的心理意涵與相互性，且照顧意願與方式受性別與婚姻牽引。此外，家庭權力移轉過程中兩代的協商亦考驗著成年子女的能力與智慧。

Purpose: In recent years, much attention has been paid to the issue of elderly care with the changing structure of the population in modern Chinese societies. The purpose of this research is to explore how Taiwanese adult children deal with the demands of caring for their parents as they move into old age. We focused on 3 aspects: gender, marriage, and intergenerational relationships. Methods: For the purpose of exploration and theory building, a qualitative method was used in this study. We invited 34 adults age 30 to 55 to participate in this study. They were recruited through 3 channels: personal acquaintances, contacts of friends/relatives, and participant recommendations. Half of the participants were male and the other half female. Half were unmarried and the other half married. Results: Three themes in these adult children's experiences of caring for their parents were identified. The first was the direction of intergenerational care. Adult children seemed to "accompany" their parents rather than "care for" them. Aging parents instead provided assistance to their adult children in many ways. The second theme related to the change in family relations; there was a power-shift phenomenon in adult intergenerational caring experiences. The power and the capacity of adult children rose in the process of caring for their parents. Further, the parent-child relationship in childhood seemed to affect the adult children's caring relationship with their parents. The third and final theme generated was the boundary marking of gender and marriage. Our findings suggest that unmarried daughters seemed to be automatically considered a primary caregiver. On the other hand, unmarried sons were expected to continue the family legacy and provide financial support for their parents. In addition, unmarried daughters worried that the daughter-in-law role accompanying marriage would add the responsibility to care for their parents-in-law and cause them to lose their self-identity. Conclusions: This study revealed that the intergenerational care-giving relationship has a strong psychological implication and follows the reciprocity rule. A child's willingness and method of caring for elderly parents is affected by that child's gender and marital status. In addition, the power-shifting process of the evolving intergenerational relationship brings a lot of challenges to adult children.