Family caregivers of people with dementia in the context of the sociocultural stress and coping model: An examination of gender differences

Abstract

The study assessed gender differences in the associations between familism dimensions, dysfunctional thoughts, and resource and outcome variables in 190 Spanish dementia family caregivers. A theoretical model was tested through path analysis, obtaining an excellent fit of the model to the data. Higher scores in the familial obligations dimension were associated with lower self-efficacy for self-care and obtaining respite and leisure frequency, and higher anxious and depressive feelings, in female caregivers only. Significant between-gender differences were obtained, suggesting that female caregivers holding strong familistic values are more vulnerable to the negative consequences of caregiving compared to male caregivers.

Keywords:

• Caregivers
• dementia
• familism
• leisure
• sex
• self-efficacy 

Acknowledgments

We thank all the caregivers for their participation in the study and also the following centers for collaborating with us in the project: Fundación Cien, Fundación María Wolff, Centro Reina Sofía de Cruz Roja, and Centro de Psicología Aplicada de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The study materials, analytic methods, and data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [PSI2015-65152-C2-1-R] and the Ministry of Science and Innovation [PID2019-106714RB-C21]. María del Sequeros Pedroso-Chaparro was supported by a Pre-Doctoral Grant from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Lucía Jiménez-Gonzalo and José Adrián Fernandes-Pires were supported by a Pre-Doctoral Grant from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Cristina Huertas-Domingo was supported by an FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, and Samara Barrera-Caballero was supported by an FPU [grant FPU17/02548] from the Spanish Ministry of Education.