Psychological distress of caregivers: moderator effects of caregiver resources?

Abstract

Personal psychological, social and health resources of informal caregivers are often assumed to attenuate or increase caregiving stress. This hypothesis was tested by investigating the effect of caregivers' resources on the relationship between their appraisal of the caregiving situation and psychological distress. Caregiver resources measured were: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, neuroticism, received emotional and instrumental support and physical functioning. Results show that none of these caregiver resources has moderator effects, neither for all caregivers together (n = 166), nor for subgroups of caregivers. These subgroups were: spouses, non-spouses, males, females, caregivers of minimally and mildly demented people and of moderately and severely demented people, respectively. The absence of moderator effects on caregiving stress suggests that caregivers of demented elderly people may need attention and support when they perceive pressure, regardless of their personal resources.