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Abstract
Caregiving burden is a unique experience specific to caregivers. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of duty and affection on each of three types of caregiver burden (stress, objective and relationship) and the amount of time that caregivers commit to providing care. Additionally, the current study analyzes the effect of type of caregiver (spouse vs. adult-child) on duty and affection. Finally, this study tests whether the effect of duty and affection on caregiver burden and amount of caregiving will be stronger for spousal caregivers than for child caregivers.
The study consisted of 575 spousal and child caregivers of Alzheimer's patients, living in the Detroit metropolitan area. After listwise deletion, descriptive statistics are reported on 412 caregivers.
Ordinary least squared regression was utilized in data analysis. Findings were mixed for the impact of affection and duty on stress, objective or relationship burden. Affection was found to have a direct effect on the amount of time commitment for caregiving, as well as a direct negative effect for stress and relationship burden. Duty was found to have a positive direct effect on objective burden, the opposite of the hypothesized result. Results indicated no difference between the spousal caregiver and child caregivers when looking specifically at the impact of affection and duty on the three identified burdens.
Study implications indicate that the relationship of care receiver health does affect the amount of caregiving and the possible impact on self-rated health of the caregiver. However, perceived sense of duty and expressed level of affection have a negligible impact on the perceived levels of caregiving burden: stress, objective and relationship burden.
