The contexts of experiencing emotional distress among family caregivers toelderly African Americans

Using a contextual approach, this study examined predictors of emotional di stress among 187 African American caregivers to dependent elders. The resul ts show that almost 20% of the caregivers were emotionally distressed which is indicated by having a t-score of 63 or more on two of the nine sub-scal es of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) or by having t-score of 63 or more on the Global Severity Index (a global measure of the BSI) (Derogatis & Spe ncer 1982). The results also show that caregivers who were distressed recei ved less social support, were in poor physical health, and experienced more caregiving role strain than caregivers who were not distressed.