Religiosity and the expansion of caregiver stress

Abstract

We present a stress process framework as a model for understanding how religiosity may influence the expansion of stress. Survey data from informal caregivers to a spouse with Alzheimer'sdisease or a related dementia (n = 200) were analyzed to observe the relationships among three variables: (1) care-related stress, (2) religiosity, and (3) depression. This sample, which has a mean age of 73 years, demonstrates high rates of self-described religiosity, church attendance and frequency of prayer. Using these criteria, women and racial/ethnic minority caregivers are the most religious. In a series of multivariate analyses, we found strong evidence to suggest that there is an expansion of care-related stressors leading to depression in this sample. Religiosity, as measured here, appears to be largely unrelated to stress and stress expansion. We found no evidence to suggest that it moderates stress expansion. However, these data do suggest that one stressor—feelings of role overload—is correlated with greater levels of self-perceived religiosity, which among caregivers who have health problems of their own is associated with greater depressive symptomatology. Thus, for a sub-sample of these caregivers, we find weak evidence of a mediation effect wherein one subjective, non-organizational dimension of religiosity is a conduit of the harmful effects of stress (rather than a suppressor). Results and data limitations are discussed in relation to better assessing the role of religiosity and spirituality in the experience of the stress process.

Acknowledgements

Early versions of this work were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 1998, and the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Philadelphia, PA, November 1998. This research was supported by a Merit Award MH 42122 to Leonard I. Pearlin.