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The Nature and Scope of Stressful Spousal Caregiving Relationships

The Nature and Scope of Stressful Spousal Caregiving Relationships The caregiving literature provides compelling evidence that caregiving burden and depressive symptoms are linked with stressful care relationships, however, relational difficulties around caregiving are seldom described in the literature. This article presents findings from content analysis of baseline interviews with 40 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) spousal caregivers enrolled in a home care skill-training trial who identified their care relationship as a source of care burden. Disappointment and sadness about the loss of the relationship; tension within the relationship; and care decision conflicts within the relationship were recurrent themes of relational stress in caregiving. These spousal caregivers had relationship quality scores below the mean and burden and depressive symptom scores above the means of other caregivers in the study. These findings provide support for developing dyadic interventions that help spouses manage relational losses, care-related tensions, and care decision-making conflicts. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Family Nursing SAGE

The Nature and Scope of Stressful Spousal Caregiving Relationships

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References (40)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2011
ISSN
1074-8407
eISSN
1552-549X
DOI
10.1177/1074840711405666
pmid
21531858
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The caregiving literature provides compelling evidence that caregiving burden and depressive symptoms are linked with stressful care relationships, however, relational difficulties around caregiving are seldom described in the literature. This article presents findings from content analysis of baseline interviews with 40 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) spousal caregivers enrolled in a home care skill-training trial who identified their care relationship as a source of care burden. Disappointment and sadness about the loss of the relationship; tension within the relationship; and care decision conflicts within the relationship were recurrent themes of relational stress in caregiving. These spousal caregivers had relationship quality scores below the mean and burden and depressive symptom scores above the means of other caregivers in the study. These findings provide support for developing dyadic interventions that help spouses manage relational losses, care-related tensions, and care decision-making conflicts.

Journal

Journal of Family NursingSAGE

Published: May 1, 2011

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