CAREGIVER BURDEN - DIFFERENTIATING THE CONTENT AND CONSEQUENCES OF FAMILY CAREGIVING

This study, tests a conceptualization of burden that disentangles the content of activities of caregivers of mentally ill relatives from the potentially negative consequences of these activities. It also examin es the extent to which factors like role relationships and coresidence affect burden. Data stem from interviews with 163 parents and sibling s of seriously mentally ill adults. The findings substantiate the conc eption of burden as the consequence of dealing with disruptive behavio rs and providing instrumental and emotional assistance, Because caregi ving activities are more nonnormative for siblings than for parents, s iblings provide less help but their caregiving precipitates stronger p erceptions of burden. Furthermore, burden is more related to caregivin g responsibilities than to whether or not the caregiver lives in the s ame household with the ill relative.