J. Bookwala et R. Schulz, THE ROLE OF NEUROTICISM AND MASTERY IN SPOUSE CAREGIVERS ASSESSMENT OF AND RESPONSE TO A CONTEXTUAL STRESSOR, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 53(3), 1998, pp. 155-164
Data from more than 300 spousal caregivers and their care recipients w
ere analyzed to demonstrate the effects of caregivers' personality att
ributes-neuroticism and mastery-on their assessment of a contextual st
ressor (the care recipient's behavioral and functional impairment) and
on their experience of distress associated with that stressor. Caregi
vers who were high in neuroticism and/or low in mastery reported highe
r levels of behavioral and functional impairment in their disabled spo
use and experienced more strain and depressive symptoms associated wit
h caregiving relative to caregivers with lower neuroticism or higher m
astery scores. We further showed that the widely reported association
between caregiver-assessed impairment of the care recipient and caregi
ver outcomes cart in part be explained by caregivers' personality attr
ibutes, such as neuroticism and mastery. Our findings that caregivers'
personality variables are related to their assessment of a given obje
ctive stressor and their response to a given level of stress have impl
ications for interventions targeting caregivers and for the use of car
egivers as proxy informants.