It's not all doom and gloom: Exemplary caregiving as a positive outcome in the stress and coping model

Stress and coping models, such as those developed by Pearlin and by Folkman and Lazarus, have been used frequently in dementia caregiving research to examine the relationships between caregiver contextual variables, stressor variables and outcome variables. Initially these models focused on the relationship between negative aspects of caregiving (e.g. behavioral bother) and negative outcome variables (e.g. depression). Recently, researchers have expanded the stress and coping models to include positive aspects of caregiving as potential mediators of negative caregiving outcomes. Using the Pearlin model, this study seeks to further expand the stress and coping model by examining Exemplary Caregiving (EC), a measure of caregiver affectionate and considerate behavior, as a potential positive outcome. Data from 670 caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease were drawn from the NIH Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II study. Using a three-step stepwise multiple regression approach, we examined the relationships between caregiver contextual variables and stressor variables suggested by the Pearlin model and EC. In the final stage, burden, daily care bother, care recipient cognitive impairment, and perceived income adequacy were found to be negatively related to EC and positive aspects of caregiving and dementia education were found to be positively related to EC. Contrary to expectations, both the frequency of behavior problems and vigilance were positively related to EC. The final stage explained 20.3°/o of the variance. These results suggest that stress and coping models used in dementia caregiving research can be expanded to include positive outcomes such as Exemplary Caregiving.Presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of The Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco California, November 16-20, 2007Poster supported by the Center for Mental health and AgingPoster Presentatio