Variables associated with feelings of subjective burden in caregivers of persons with a severe and persistent mental illness.
Creators: name: Baronet, Anne-Marie.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2001
Subjects: subject: Psychology, Clinical.

description: This study examined the factors associated with subjective burden in family members or friends caring for an adult with a severe and persistent mental illness. Caregivers (N = 128) were recruited through support groups for family members or friends of a person with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. It was hypothesized that subjective burden (Burden Assessment scale; Reinhard, Gubman, Horwitz, &amp; Kinsky, 1994) would be predicted by coresidence status between the caregiver and the care recipient, symptomatic behaviours of the person with mental illness (Social Behavioural Assessment Schedule; Platt, Weyman, Hirsch, &amp; Hewett, 1980), adverse effects on the caregiver's life (Burden Assessment scale; Reinhard, Gubman, Horwitz, &amp; Kinsky, 1994), quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the person with mental illness (McMaster Family Assessment Device - General Functioning subscale; Epstein, Baldwin, &amp; Bishop, 1983), family support (Perceived Social Support from Family scale; Procidano &amp; Heller, I983), sense of mastery in caregiving (Mastery scale; Pearlin &amp; Schooler, 1978) and satisfaction received from caregiving activities (Care Work Satisfaction scale; Orbell, Hopkins, &amp; Dillies, 1993). It was also hypothesized that subjective burden would, in turn, predict caregivers' depressive symptoms (Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale; Radloff, 1977) and caregivers' satisfaction with life (Satisfaction with Life scale; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, &amp; Griffin, 1983). Research hypotheses were tested using standard and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Findings showed that symptomatic behaviours of the person with mental illness and sense of mastery in caregiving activities explained 25% of the variance in subjective burden. Sense of mastery and subjective burden explained 28% of the variance in caregivers' depressive symptoms. Subjective burden explained 15% of the variance in caregivers' satisfaction with life. Additional analyses suggested that coresidence status between the caregiver and the person with mental illness moderated the relationship between sense of mastery in caregiving and subjective burden. For caregivers maintaining separate living arrangements with the care recipient, sense of mastery had a stronger negative association with subjective burden than for caregivers residing with the care recipients. Additional analyses also suggested that sense of mastery in caregiving mediated the association between subjective burden and the following variables: quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the person with mental illness and satisfaction received from caregiving activities. In other words, the quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the person with mental illness and satisfaction received from caregiving activities predicted sense of mastery, which in turn predicted subjective burden.