Health-Related Stress, Affect, and Depressive Symptoms Experienced by Caregiving Mothers of Adults With a Developmental Disability.

The interrelationships among health-related stress, positive and negative affect, and depressive symptoms patterned in the dynamic model of affect (J. Reich, A. Zautra, & M. Davis, 2003) were examined using data from 932 women having an adult child with a developmental disability. Results indicate that women experience a moderate inverse correlation between positive and negative affect under conditions of low levels of health-related stress, whereas at high levels of stress, positive and negative affect become more strongly inversely correlated. Under high-stress conditions, both negative affect and positive affect have a stronger relationship to depressive symptoms than they do under low-stress conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Service use and mental impairment among the elderly: Arguments for consultation and education.

Compared the service use patterns of older adults with varying levels of mental impairment, and assessed the effects of services received on their mental health status over a 1-yr period. Data were obtained from a US General Accounting Office (1977, 1979) study of 531 elderly persons (mean age 76.1 yrs), which included administration of a modified version of the Older Americans Resources and Services Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire. Ss were interviewed twice, 1 yr apart. 174 Ss were classified as having a mild psychiatric impairment, and 118 Ss had a severe psychiatric impairment. The existence of mental impairment was related to marital status, race, and level of education. Usage of mental health services was low, although mentally impaired Ss were more likely than unimpaired Ss to use social and medical services. Results also suggest that such services can have an important effect on the mental health of older persons. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caring for an institutionalized parent: The role of coping strategies.

Extends knowledge about the stresses of caregiving by considering relationships between adult children and their institutionalized parents. Although previous studies have indicated that emotional strains experienced by adult children with institutionalized parents are of similar magnitude to those experienced by caregivers in the community, little attention has been paid to effects that may mediate the stressor–mental health relationship. Coping strategies were hypothesized as mediators of the stressor–mental health relationship. Data from 424 adult children with a parent living in a nursing home revealed that emotion-focused coping strategies mediate the relationship between stressors and mental health, whereas problem-focused coping strategies do not mediate this relationship. Findings emphasize the importance of examining coping strategies as multidimensional entities having differential effects on mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enmeshed Lives: Adult Children With Developmental Disabilities and Their Aging Mothers.

This article uses equity theory to examine the ways in which aging mothers and their adult children with developmental disabilities support each other and the effects that this exchange has on the caregiving satisfaction and burden of the mothers. Data from 305 mothers revealed that exchange flows both from mother to child and from child to mother. Results indicate that caregiving satisfaction increased when affection from child to mother was greater. Caregiving burden was not affected by either functional support or affection from child to mother. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of caregiver burden and satisfaction on affect of older end-stage renal disease patients and their spouses.

We examined the extent to which a 2-factor model of affect explains how the burdens and satisfactions experienced by caregivers influence their own well-being and that of the spouses for whom they provide care. Using data from 315 older patients with end-stage renal disease and their spouses, we extended tests of Lawton et al.’s (1991) 2-factor model both longitudinally and dyadically. Multilevel modeling analyses partially support the 2-factor model. Consistent with the model, mean caregiver burden has a stronger effect on both caregiver and patient negative affect than does mean caregiver satisfaction. Contrary to the model, mean caregiver satisfaction has an effect on caregiver positive affect that is similar to that of mean caregiver burden, and it has no effect on patient positive affect. Time-varying effects of caregiver burden are consistent with the 2-factor model for caregiver but not patient negative affect. Time-varying effects of caregiver satisfaction are not consistent with the 2-factor model for either patients or caregivers. Results highlight the powerful role of caregiver burden for both caregivers and patients and suggest important new directions for conducting health-related research with late-life marital dyads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction in the context of chronic disease: A longitudinal dyadic analysis.

These analyses examined the longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction over a 2-year period as experienced by 315 patients with end-stage renal disease and their spouses. Using multilevel modeling, the authors examined both individual and cross-partner effects of depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction on patients and spouses, testing bidirectional causality. Results indicate that mean and time-varying depressive symptoms of both patients and spouses were associated with their own marital satisfaction. Although mean marital satisfaction was associated with own depressive symptoms for both patients and spouses, time-varying marital satisfaction did not affect depressive symptoms for either patients or spouses. Significant cross-partner effects reveal that both mean enduring and time-varying depressive symptoms of the spouse affected marital satisfaction of the patient. Findings highlight the complex nature of the relationship between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction in late-life couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping strategies of people living in multigenerational households: Effects on well-being.

Analyses examined whether information about the coping strategies used by family members adds to an understanding about the psychological well-being of individuals. Data from 140 women and their husbands and children who were living in multigenerational households that included a disabled older relative indicated that for the women and children, the best predictors of depression, positive affect, and mastery were their own coping strategies; the coping strategies used by other family members did not add significantly to the predictive equation. For husbands, however, depression was predicted by both their own coping strategies and the coping strategies of their wives. Husbands' positive affect was predicted only by the coping strategies of their wives and children, and their mastery was predicted by their own coping strategies and those of their wives and children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental health of caregiving spouses: Coping as mediator, moderator, or main effect?

Coping strategies used by 315 persons providing care to a spouse diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were characterized as either emotion-focused (wishfulness, acceptance, intrapsychic) or problem-focused (instrumental). Models in which coping strategies were postulated as having mediator, moderator, and independent main effects were tested using multiple indexes of mental health. Wishfulness and intrapsychic strategies mediated the relationship between degree of stress and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale scores, anxiety, and depression. Wishfulness had a direct effect on Obsessive–Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; intrapsychic strategies had a direct effect on Obsessive–Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; and instrumental strategies had a direct effect on Positive Affect. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that stressors and coping strategies explained between 12% and 40% of the variance on mental health indexes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)