Publication Type
PhD Dissertation
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
3-2026
Abstract
Population ageing and growing complexity of chronic conditions have increased the need for a family members to coordinate for eldercare arrangements that combine informal and formal resources. In Asia, employed adult children frequently function as the primary care coordinators who must balance the work demands, cultural expectations of filial apects, and care management responsibilities. Grounded in Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study conceptualises the extent of caregiving delegation as a resource management coping strategy and examines how family values (authoritarian filial piety vs reciprocal filial piety) relate to care decisions and well-being.
A two-wave time-lagged online survey of employed adult children in Singapore (N=402) was conducted with an average of two-week interval. Wave 1 measured antecedent (i.e., family values), and moderators (i.e., caregiving intensity, family communication patterns and perceived organizational support). Wave 2 measured the focal mediator (i.e., extent of caregiving delegation) and the outcome (i.e., well-being). Using structural equation modelling, we found that authoritarian filial piety is negatively correlated with well-being while reciprocal filial piety is positively correlated with well-being. Further, conformity-oriented family communication patterns moderated the filial piety-well-being relationship, buffering the negative effect of authoritarian filial piety while attenuating the positive effect of reciprocal filial piety. Conversation-orientation family communication and perceived organizational support emerged as direct positive predictors of well-being, independently of caregiving delegation.
In sum, the findings show that antecedents (family values) and contextual supports (caregiving intensity, family communication patterns and perceived organizational support) directly influence the well-being of employed adult children. While caregiving delegation is strongly activated by caregiving intensity, it does not explain the relationship between family values and well-being. This demonstrated that delegation functions as a resource trade-off rather than a straightforward adaptive strategy, as the coordination burden and moral accountability following outsourcing, offsetting the time, and energy conserved.
Keywords
Caregiving delegation, Filial piety, Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, Work-family interface, Caregiving intensity, Well-being
Degree Awarded
PhD in Business (General Management)
Discipline
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Supervisor(s)
TAN, Hwee Hoon
First Page
1
Last Page
215
Publisher
Singapore Management University
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
LEE, Sing Yong.
When work and family collide: The dynamics of caregiving delegation decisions among employed adult children. (2026). 1-215.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/856
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.