The effects of caregiver emotional stress on the depressive symptomatology of the care recipient

Abstract

Objectives: Depression is a leading mental health issue affecting elderly individuals worldwide. Previous research widely neglects caregiver emotional stress as a probable contributing factor of depression in the elderly. This study investigated caregiver emotional stress as a chronic life stressor of an elderly care recipient using the life stress paradigm as the theoretical foundation.

Methods: The relationships between caregiver emotional stress and care receiver depressive symptoms, as well as other social and psychological mediation factors, were investigated using the 2004 wave of the National Long-Term Care Study (NLTCS). The NLTCS is a nationally representative longitudinal study used to identify frail and disabled elderly Medicare recipients living in the United States. The analytic sample of this study included 1340 caregiver–care receiver dyads who were asked a series of questions concerning their mental health (i.e. emotional stress and depressive symptoms), as well as the availability of social and psychological resources.

Results: Overall, the results showed that high levels of emotional stress reported by the caregiver were associated with a higher likelihood of the disabled care receiver reporting depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: The findings of this investigation point to the importance of studying caregivers and care receivers as dyads as the stress associated with the caregiving role affects each member.

Keywords:

• life stress paradigm
• stressors
• resources
• caregiving
• National Long-Term Care Study

Notes

1. In the NTLCS, age was collected for all eligible caregivers (both part-time and primary) in one question which asked the respondent to provide the ages of all their caregivers. Thus, the age of the primary caregiver could not be determined and was not included in this analysis.