Positive aspects of caregiving: rounding out the caregiver experience
Title
Positive aspects of caregiving: rounding out the caregiver experience
Creator
Cohen CA; Colantonio A; Vernich L
Identifier
Publisher
International Journal Of Geriatric Psychiatry
Date
2002
Subject
Female; Humans; Male; Adult; Canada; Aged; Middle Aged; Cost of Illness; Motivation; Personality Inventory; 80 and over; Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support; Caregivers/psychology; Alzheimer Disease/psychology; Activities of Daily Living/psychology; Depressive Disorder/diagnosis/psychology
Description
OBJECTIVES: To identify positive aspects of caregiving and examine how they are associated with caregiver outcomes. METHOD: This study used a national sample of caregivers derived from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (part 2). Two hundred and eighty-nine caregivers caring for seniors living in the community were questioned about their experience of caregiving. Caregivers were asked whether they could identify any positive aspects related to their role, the type of positive aspects and to rate their feelings about caring. Using a conceptual model developed by Noonan and Tennstedt (1997), a staged stepwise multiple regression approach was used factoring the background/contextual variables, stressor variables (3 MS score, ADL limitations), mediator variables (positive aspects of caregiving, number of services used) and outcome variables (depression, burden and self-assessed health measures) into the model. RESULTS: Two hundred and eleven caregivers (73%) could identify at least one specific positive aspect of caregiving. An additional 20 (6.9%) could identify more than one positive aspect. Positive feelings about caring were associated with lower CES-D scores ( p<0.001), lower burden scores ( p<0.001) and better self assessed health ( p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Clinicians should inquire about the positive aspects of caregiving if they are to fully comprehend the caregiver experience and identify risk factors for negative caregiver outcomes.
2002
Rights
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Type
Journal Article
Citation List Month
Backlog
URL Address
Citation
Cohen CA; Colantonio A; Vernich L, “Positive aspects of caregiving: rounding out the caregiver experience,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed April 28, 2025, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/13094.