Social Support, Caregiver Burden, and Life Satisfaction in a Sample of Rural African American and White Caregivers of Older Persons With Dementia

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a study of African American and White dementia caregivers (n = 141) living in rural areas of Alabama that examined the relations between the participants' receipt of informal social support, and their levels of caregiver burden and life satisfaction. The sample, as a whole, reported high levels of social support with no reported differences in social support by race. Female caregivers reported higher mean scores on 3 of the 4 dimensions of social support than their male counterparts. Two of the 4 dimensions of social support accounted for 32% of the variance of the caregivers' reported level of life satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregivers
• dementia
• rural
• social support
• caregiver burden
• life satisfaction

The study on which this article is based was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Grant Number 5RO3 HS013189, to Jordan I. Kosberg, PhD, Principal Investigator.