Positive aspects of caregiving in incident and long-term caregivers: Role of social engagement and distress

Abstract

Objectives

Positive caregiver adaptation over time may be associated with reports of positive aspects of caregiving (PAC). We examined differences in PAC by caregiving duration and social engagement, controlling for measures of distress.

Methods

Participants included 283 African American or White caregivers from the Caregiving Transitions Study with a wide range of caregiving durations. PAC are defined as positive appraisals that caregivers report about their role, such as feeling appreciated or confident. We fit multivariable linear models with the total PAC score as the outcome to assess its association with years of caregiving and social engagement (social network, monthly social contact). Models were adjusted for age, sex, race, marital status, relationship to care recipient, care recipient’s dementia status, perceived stress and caregiving strain.

Results

Caregivers with higher social engagement reported significantly higher PAC. A non-significant trend was found in most analytic models for caregivers with longer duration of care to report higher PAC. African American caregivers reported higher PAC compared to White caregivers. Dementia caregivers reported lower PAC than non-dementia caregivers in models adjusting for demographics and social network size, but the association was attenuated with the addition of caregiving strain.

Discussion

Higher social engagement and longer duration of care tend to be associated with higher PAC after adjusting for demographics and measures of distress. Future studies should aim to leverage longitudinal data to understand whether caregivers shift appraisal to positive aspects of their role and explore implementation of caregiving interventions targeting PAC in order to improve the caregiving experience.

Keywords:

• Family caregiving
• long-term caregiving
• positive aspects of caregiving
• social network
• social contact
• adaptation

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

In cooperation with the Institutional Review Board of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke project facilitates data sharing through formal data use agreements. Investigators who wish to access the data should send their requests to [email protected].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services under cooperative agreement [U01 NS041588]; and by the NIA under investigator-initiated grant [RF1 AG050609]. This content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NINDS or NIA. Representatives of the NINDS were involved in the review of the manuscript but were not directly involved in the collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data. The authors thank the other investigators, the staff, and the participants of the REGARDS study for their valuable contributions. A full list of participating REGARDS investigators and institutions can be found at: https://www.uab.edu/soph/regardsstudy/