Finding meaning through caregiving: Development of an instrument for family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease

Systematic assessment of the positive aspects of caregiving has been limite d by the lack of comprehensive, theoretically based. and psychometrically s ound measures. This study developed and tested a measure primarily designed to assess positive aspects and ways that caregivers find meaning through t heir experience of caring for a person with dementia. The measure has three subscales: Loss/Powerlessness. which identifies difficult aspects of careg iving: Provisional Meaning, which identifies how caregivers find day-to-day meaning; and Ultimate Meaning, which identifies philosophical/religious/sp iritual attributions associated with the experience of caregiving. The meas ure is useful for understanding the close relationship between both the dif ficult and positive aspects of caregiving and also may be used to identify a caregiver's strengths in clinical and research settings. (C) 1999 John Wi ley & Sons. Inc.