Family Caregiving Burden in Romantic Relationships: A Relational Turbulence Theory Analysis

ABSTRACT

In addition to health and financial burdens, family caregivers can experience stress in their romantic relationships. Relational turbulence theory (RTT) is used to understand how family caregivers and caregivers’ romantic partners navigate relational transitions and caregiver burden when one partner is providing informal care to another aging family member. Three hundred and nineteen participants, who were either the romantic partner providing care or the romantic partner of a family caregiver, completed an online survey. Tests of RTT and caregiver burden revealed that relational uncertainty, partner facilitation, and relational turbulence were related to caregiver burden as predicted for family caregivers; relational uncertainty was unrelated to caregiver burden for romantic partners. Partner interference was unrelated to caregiver burden. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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© 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

KEYWORDS:

• Informal caregiving
• relational turbulence
• relational uncertainty
• partner facilitation
• partner interference
• caregiver burden

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant awarded to the third author by the Chapman University Office of Graduate Studies.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer L. Bevan

Jennifer L. Bevan is a Professor in the School of Communication at Chapman University.

Hannah Ball

Hannah Ball is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Chapman University.

Tessa Urbanovich

Tessa Urbanovich is an alumna of Chapman University and is a Research Scientist with the North Mountain Consulting Group.

Erin Craw

Erin Craw is a Ph.D. student in the School of Communication at Chapman University.