The effects of caregiving factors and sense of control on elderly care recipients' depressive symptoms.

Research indicates that aid can affect a recipient's sense of control. Sense of control has been found to mediate as well as to moderate the relationship between environmental factors and psychological well-being. This study examined how sense of control affects the relationship between caregiving factors and depression in elderly people receiving care for instrumental activities of daily living impairments (IADLs) and activities of daily living impairments (ADLs). The current investigation examined, in the caregiving context, if the relationship of helpers to care recipients (spouse, adult child, other family member, non family member), frequency of how often they provided help (in hours), and whether care is paid or not paid, affected sense of control and contributed to depressive symptoms of elders. Two major hypotheses were tested to understand the relationship between caregiving factors and depressive symptoms. The first, the mediator model examined whether sense of control was the underlying cause of depressive symptoms related to the caregiving environment. The second, the moderator model examined whether there were different depressive symptoms for care recipients depending on their level of control. The sample consisted of elderly care recipients (mean age 78.7). There were 106 white and 21 minority male and female respondents (African Americans Hispanic, Asian or Native American). The analyses that tested the mediation hypotheses found that sense of control did not mediate the relationship between caregiving characteristics and depressive symptoms. Subsequent moderation interaction analyses revealed the complexity of the relationship between caregiver type, sense of control, and depression. The significant moderating effect indicated that the relationship between helper type and depressive symptoms depended on the level of control of the care recipient. Recipients with low levels of control, who had non-relative caregivers, reported significantly less depressive symptoms than those with spouses, children, or other relatives as caregivers. However, at high levels of control, recipients with non-relative helpers were significantly more depressed than those with family caregivers. The findings revealed that recipients' psychological health is an important factor to consider when examining the caregiving environment. The current findings suggest that although elderly with physical limitations are provided caregivers, they still have unmet psychological needs to be addressed.Ph.D.Clinical psychologyDevelopmental psychologyGerontologyPsychologySocial SciencesSocial workUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123135/2/3068832.pd