Taiwanese middle-aged and older caregivers’ need for life safety instruction and its association with attitudes toward aging and proactive coping

ABSTRACT

Long-term stress experienced by caregivers is often overlooked, as is their pre-planning for senior life, but helping middle-aged and older caregivers to prepare for senior life is the foundation for active aging. The purpose of this study is to elucidate middle-aged and older caregivers’ attitudes toward aging, proactive coping, and the need to learn life safety and to identify the factors influencing their need for life safety instruction. In this study, a questionnaire survey was administered to middle-aged and older caregivers with 1 year of experience or more in caring for older adults. In total, 500 questionnaires were distributed using a snowball sampling method, of which 415 valid questionnaires were recovered. The research tools included a personal information questionnaire, attitude toward aging scale, proactive coping scale, and need for life safety instruction scale. The results of this study were that: 1. Middle-aged and older caregivers had a low psychological evaluation of aging and a weak response to aging. 2. Respondents demonstrated a strong need to learn life safety. 3. Average monthly salary, aging awareness, aging behavior, attitude toward proactive coping, and proactive coping ability were strong predictors of the need to learn life safety. The principal conclusion was that the need for life safety instruction increased concurrently with unemployment, a decrease in aging awareness and behavior, an improvement in attitude toward proactive coping, and a decrease in proactive coping ability. Therefore, life safety education can be provided to the aforementioned group to satisfy their learning needs adequately.

Acknowledgments

Thanks for the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences supported this study.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences [under Grant 108ntunhs-NT-02].