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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Religiosity and the expansion of caregiver stress | | Author(s) | A J LeBlanc, A K Driscoll, L I Pearlin |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 8, no 5, September 2004 |
| Pages | pp 410-421 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Spouses as carers ; Spiritual characteristics [elderly] ; Stress ; Depression ; Correlation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | A stress process framework is proposed as a model for understanding how religiosity may influence the expansion of stress. Survey data from informal caregivers to a spouse with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or related dementia were analysed to observe the relationships between three variables: care-related stress, religiosity, and depression. This sample of 200 (mean age 73) demonstrates high rates of self-described religiosity, church attendance and frequency of prayer. Using these criteria, women and ethnic minority caregivers are the most religious. In a series of multivariate analyses, strong evidence was found to suggest that there is an expansion of care-related stressors leading to depression in this sample. Religiosity, as measured here, appears to be largely unrelated to stress and stress expansion, nor was there evidence to suggest that it moderates stress expansion. However, the data suggest one stressor - feelings of role overload - is correlated with greater levels of self-perceived religiosity, which in caregivers who have health problems, is associated with greater depressive symptomatology. Results and data limitations are discussed in relation to better assessing the role of religiosity and spirituality in the experience of the stress process. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-041130246 A |
| Classmark | EA: P6:SN: EX: QNH: ENR: 49: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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