El. Crispi et al., THE CONTRIBUTION OF ATTACHMENT TO BURDEN IN ADULT CHILDREN OF INSTITUTIONALIZED PARENTS WITH DEMENTIA, The Gerontologist, 37(1), 1997, pp. 52-60
The impact of adult attachment to parents, perceived disease severity,
and caregiving behaviors, moderated by perceived caregiving adequacy,
were investigated in 108 adult children of patients with dementia. Mu
ltiple regression analyses indicated that attachment style, the trait
aspect of attachment, predicted both aspects of caregiver burden: care
giving difficulty and psychological symptomatology. Attachment preoccu
pation, the state aspect of attachment, predicted psychological sympto
matology. No other variables, including demographics, were significant
predictors. This suggests that a secure attachment style appears to p
rotect caregivers from some of the strain of caregiving. Preoccupation
with the attachment relationship contributed to burden in this popula
tion.