Shared responsibility and network collaboration in caregiving.

Communal coping may benefit caregivers, but most communal coping research focuses on dyads. Using an egocentric network design, we examine caregivers' we-talk—a linguistic marker of shared responsibility—and caregiver reports of 1) network member involvement in collaborative care roles and 2) met/unmet expectations across typically developing and rare disease contexts. We-talk was linked to involvement in direct care and support, but links of we-talk to decision-making varied based on network member closeness; we-talk was linked to meeting expectations for decision-making only. There were no differences across context, suggesting shared responsibility is linked to collaborative roles across caregiving contexts. • Caregiver communal language is related to social network involvement in caregiving. • Communal language (we-talk) was linked to involvement in direct care and support. • Links of we-talk to decision-making varied by network member closeness. • Only expectations for decision-making were met when caregivers used we-talk. • Findings generalized across rare disease and typically developing caregiving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]