Centre for Policy on Ageing



Burden and well-being among caregivers — examining the distinction
Author(s)	Neena L Chappell, R Colin Reid
Journal title	The Gerontologist, vol 42, no 6, December 2002
Pages	pp 772-780
Keywords	Informal care ; Stress ; Well being ; Quality of life ; Mathematical models ; Canada.
Annotation	The overall quality of life of 243 caregivers in British Columbia, Canada is assessed, using a path model in which burden was conceptualised as distinct from well-being. The model used was based on a previously proposed stress/appraisal path model, and used multiple regression path estimates. Well-being was found to be directly affected by four variables: perceived social support, burden, self-esteem, and hours of informal care. Burden was affected directly by behavioural problems, frequency of getting a break, self-esteem, and informal care, and was not affected by perceived social support. The finding that perceived social support is strongly related to well-being but unrelated to burden reinforces the conceptual distinctiveness of the latter two concepts. This suggests that quality of life of caregivers could be improved even with burden in their lives, and that the overwhelming focus in caregiving research on burden should be supplemented with an emphasis on quality of life. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-030305204 A
Classmark	P6: QNH: D:F:5HH: F:59: 3LM: 7S
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.