Does wisdom moderate the relationship between burden and depressive symptoms among family caregivers of disabled older adults in China? A multiple-group path analysis

Abstract

Objectives:

The present study investigated the moderator role of multidimensional wisdom (i.e. individuals’ positive personality traits) on the association between caregiver burden and depressive symptoms among family caregivers of disabled older adults in China.

Method:

A quota sampling was used to recruit 789 pairs of disabled older adults and their primary family caregivers in Shanghai, China, in 2013. Multiple-group path analysis was used to test the proposed model.

Results:

Cognitive, reflective, and affective wisdom were found to moderate the association between burden and depressive symptoms. The association was statistically significant among those with relatively low levels of cognitive, reflective, and affective wisdom. These associations, however, were found to be statistically nonsignificant among those with relatively high levels of cognitive, reflective, and affective wisdom.

Conclusion:

The findings highlight the important role of multidimensional wisdom in the underlying mechanisms of family caregiving from the perspective of the stress process model. Policy and intervention implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Wisdom
• caregiver burden
• depressive symptoms
• family caregivers

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Shixun Gui from East China Normal University, and Professor Vivian W. Q. Lou from Sau Po Centre on Ageing, University of Hong Kong for their leadership in research design and data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the “Longitudinal study on family caregivers for frail older adults aged 75 or above in Shanghai.”