| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Relationship quality and potentially harmful behaviors by spousal caregivers
— how we were then, how we are now | | Author(s) | Gail M Williamson, David R Shaffer |
| Corporate Author | Family Relationships in Late Life Project, University of Georgia |
| Journal title | Psychology and Aging, vol 16, no 2, June 2001 |
| Pages | pp 217-226 |
| Keywords | Spouses as carers ; Depression ; Personal relationships ; Quality ; Elder abuse ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Structured interview data from the Family Relationships in Late Life Project for 142 American caregivers (98 wives, 44 husbands) indicate that more depressed caregivers are more likely to treat their spouses in potentially harmful ways. However, consistent with hypotheses derived from communal relationships theory, when the pre-illness relationship between caregiver and care recipient was characterised by mutual responsiveness to each other's needs, caregivers were less depressed and less frequently engaged in potentially harmful behaviours. These effects were not attributable to demographic factors, the amount of care provided, whether the care recipient had dementia, or length of time in the caregiving role. Rather, multivariate analyses suggest that the extent to which pre-illness relationships were communal in nature (mutually responsive) determines whether caregivers perceive their current relationships as rewarding, which, in turn, predicts caregiver depression and potentially harmful behaviours. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020111216 A |
| Classmark | P6:SN: ENR: DS: 59: QNT: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|