PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS OF CAREGIVERS - THE MEDIATOR EFFECT OF CAREGIVING APPRAISAL

This study concerns the role of caregiving appraisal, whether it expla ins why stressors in the caregiving situation affect caregivers' psych ological distress. This putative mediator effect of caregiving apprais al is separately tested for spouse and non-spouse caregivers of dement ed elderly persons. Caregiving appraisal is operationalized by a measu re of pressure from informal care as perceived by the caregiver. For s pouse caregivers, perceived pressure explained the association between their caregiving tasks and psychological distress. However, the stron g association found between behavioral problems and psychological dist ress was not explained by perceived pressure in spouse caregivers. Fur thermore, results showed clear mediator effects of perceived pressure for associations between stressors (both behavioral problems of the de mented elder and caregiving tasks) and non-spouse caregivers' psycholo gical distress. Thus, it is inadequate to focus interventions merely o n stressors in the caregiving situation, for non-spouse caregivers in particular. A reduction of perceived pressure from informal care is al so needed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.