Racial and ethnic differences in the relationship of caregiving stressors, resources, and sociodemographic variables to caregiver depression and perceived physical health

Abstract

Racial and ethnic differences in the association of stressors, resources, and sociodemographic characteristics with depressive symptoms and perceived physical health were investigated. Data from 653 White non-Hispanic caregivers, 278 African American, and 218 Hispanic Alzheimer's caregivers (209 males, 940 females) who were assessed at the baseline data collection of the REACH study, a multisite trial of caregiver interventions, was obtained. Multiple sample analysis, which allows testing whether a pattern of relationships is invariant across different samples, was used. Results support the hypothesis that, despite significant differences in resources and stressors, the predictors of depression and health are relatively uniform across groups. Ethnic differences were found for the effect of age, income, gender, and care receiver's self-care impairments on caregiver depression. For perceived physical health, there were ethnic differences for the effect of income, gender, and type of caregiver relationships.

Notes

 The authors use “ethnic minority caregivers” and are using “caregivers of color” interchangeably to denote non-White caregivers. The specific ethnic minority groups involved in the current analyses are African Americans and Hispanics. However, several of the references also include Asian Americans and Native Americans.