Correlates of Physical and Emotional Strain Among Older Adult Caregivers

ABSTRACT

Caregiving can be physically challenging and emotionally draining for older caregivers. The existing research on physical and emotional strain mainly focuses on the general caregiver population. Using the Stress Process Model, this study aims to expand on existing caregiving literature by identifying correlates of physical and emotional strain among older caregivers. Hierarchical OLS regressions were performed on data selected from the 2015 Caregiving in the U.S. Survey (N = 701). Several risk factors for physical strain and emotional strain were identified: Assistance with ADLs and IADLs, the number of health problems of the care recipient, and the receipt of formal support were positively associated with physical and emotional strain. Moreover, providing care to parents/parents-in-law was associated with higher levels of emotional strain than providing care to non-relatives. The number of care recipients was positively associated with emotional strain. Older African Americans experienced lower levels of physical strain than their white counterparts. The findings uncover the individual differences among older caregivers and provide insights into how these differences uniquely influence caregiving strain. Moreover, the study identifies a risk and protective profile of caregiving strain, which can help practitioners direct services and resources to older caregivers who are particularly at risk for caregiving strain.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiving in late adulthood
• socio-economic characteristics
• physical strain
• emotional strain
• social support

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to AWN under Grant [number 5R25HL105444-11] to AWN.